Exiled Iraqi Writer Haifa Zangana to Speak at Tisch’s 10th Annual ‘Days of Community’

By Richard Pierce

Remembering History/ Activating Ourselves—Artists and Civic Agency will be the topic of the 10th annual Days of Community Symposium sponsored by the Center for Art and Public Policy at the Tisch School of the Arts. Hosted by Tisch Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell, the conference will explore the ways by which artists and citizens make their voices heard. It will take place over five days—Nov. 1, 5, 8, 10 and 13—and includes a photo exhibition, panel discussion, documentary screening, and staged reading of a play. The featured event will be a keynote address by Haifa Zangana, an Iraqi exile, artist, journalist, and author of the new book City of Widows: An Iraqi Woman’s Account of War and Resistance (Seven Stories Press). This is the first visit to the United States for Zangana who, after the fall of the Hussein government, returned to Baghdad to experience the effects of the war. The keynote will be delivered Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.