Presented by the Goethe-Institut Toronto
with ilb & JayU
The Goethe-Institut Toronto is joining the call of the international literature festival berlin, together with international authors, for a »Worldwide Reading« of Iranian literature in solidarity with the protests in Iran.
The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody on September 16, 2022 has sparked a broad protest movement within the Iranian population. The Iranian regime has responded with threats and open violence.
With the »Worldwide Reading« the participants stand against this brutal violence. The project aims to shine a light on the struggle of Iranian women for equal rights and the quest of the Iranian people for democracy.
Among the first signatories of the appeal are Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood, Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz and German Peace Prize winners Navid Kermani and Liao Yiwu.
At the Goethe-Institut Toronto, Iranian-German-Canadian theatre creator Sama Mousavi will read texts about resistance, revolution, exile and art in Farsi, German, English in a performance-style exhibition with performers Oyan Salahshoor, Maryam Mahdavi and dramaturg Payam Saeedi.
Sama Mousavi
Sama Mousavi is an independent creator specializing in documentary theatre. She started her performing arts career as an actress at the age of sixteen in Iran, then studied theatre at Tehran University. In 2014, she moved to Germany to for a master’s degree in “Theatre in Social Context.” Since 2022, she has been living in Canada while remotely pursuing her PhD on Autobiographical Theatre at Hamburg University, Germany. She continues to take advanced German literature classes at the Goethe-Institut Toronto.
Mousavi has been working as an actress, director, puppeteer, artistic advisor and researcher in several independent theatre projects at festivals in Iran and Germany, such as Fadjr Theatre Festival, Iran International University Theatre Festival, Experimental Theatre Festival Tehran, Soore Theatre Festival Tehran, MonoLeev Theater FestivalTehran, and Auswärtsspiel Festival Bremen. She has been awarded among others Best Director at the 13th Experimental Theatre Festival Tehran, Best Young Director at the Theatre Director Forum of Iran and Best Actress at the international Fadjr Theatre Festival Tehran.
The ilb call has been signed by Canadian authors Margaret Atwood and Nazanine Hozer, by Ariel Dorfman, Josef Haslinger, Nicholas Shakespeare, Nasrin Siege, Oksana Zabuzhko, Zhang Yu and many others.
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