Etel Adnan: In the Rhythms of the World is a three-day symposium to mark the centenary of Etel Adnan's birth.

Adnan’s oeuvre did not follow a masterplan; it expanded and shape-shifted ceaselessly. Each book invented its own genre. And yet her tone is unmistakable, combining sharp observation with the associative logic of dreams. “I followed lines I never saw, went on unchartered roads, didn’t emerge from any confusion. The present was forever blowing.” Throughout her existence, she was committed to being “in the rhythms of the world.” In the face of a life “woven with war,” she chose to look the apocalypse in the eye, always seeking appropriate forms for bearing witness.
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Born in Beirut in 1925, Adnan lived on three continents and in multiple languages, working as a writer, a painter, a journalist, a professor, a filmmaker, among other pursuits. Though she taught philosophy and read voraciously, she valued nothing more than careful attention to material phenomena: “I know that seeking political and philosophical notions in the street is like trying to construct a barrier to hold back the ocean, but I won't look elsewhere.” Solidarity and radical equality were her guiding principles, as was her ever-renewed wonder at the beauty of the world and her enduring belief in the oneness of being. To her, landscapes revealed haunted histories of place. Trees were constant interlocutors. A mountain was her best friend.

Organized by Omar Berrada and Simone Fattal on the centenary of Etel Adnan's birth, this symposium gathers together old friends, confirmed specialists, and younger disciples of Adnan's. They offer talks, poetry readings, and musical performances in response to multiple aspects of her literary and visual work.

Friday, February 28 (Afternoon)
Giorno Poetry Systems
222 Bowery

2-6pm (Doors open at 1:30)
Free, rsvp required

2pm
Welcome & introduction by Simone Fattal & Omar Berrada

Ammiel Alcalay: “…tenderness for the world as it is”: Journeying into the present with Etel Adnan

Saretta Morgan & Ica Sadagat: Guerrilla Nature: Tactics of the Ethereal

4pm
Coffee break

4:30pm
Brandon Shimoda: Burn the walls of your own apparitions: on Etel Adnan’s Hiroshimas

Huda Fakhreddine: Poetry Begins at STOP: Etel Adnan and the Arabic Poetic Tradition