Returning to Belonging

RETURNING to BELONGING

An Evening of Poetry and Music—A Calling

Saturday, May 2 at 7:30pm

By Suggested Donation 

Poets & Musicians

Dorothy Friedman August
Leah Kogen-Elimeliah
Adeena Karasick
Jane LeCroy
Ari Mack
Uche Nduka
Mehrnam Rastegari, musician
Bryan Roessel
Roshni Samlal, musician

Dorothy Friedman August 

Dorothy is an award-winning poet who has published two books of poetry, with two more forthcoming books to be published by Poets Wear Prada and Autonomedia: The L Shaped Room and Drinking Alaska. She has received two New York Foundation of the Arts fellowships and most recently an Acker award. Her work has been published in numerous journals and anthologies, most recently in Bright Hill Press 25th Anniversary Anthology, WORD: An Anthology by A Gathering of the Tribes, Sensitive Skin, Many Mountains Moving, The Long Islander, Poetry Bay, Home Planet News and Brownstone Poets. She has also published poems in The Partisan Review, Hanging Loose, The California Quarterly, and The Centennial Review, among others. She received an MFA from Brooklyn College where she studied with John Ashbery, and teaches writing at Fordham University, CSI, and Empire State College. She also writes art and books reviews, edits a zine WHITE RABBIT, and is working on a memoir.

Leah Kogen-Elimeliah

Leah is a poet, writer, educator, & curator originally from Moscow, based in New York. An Adjunct Assistant Professor of literature and creative writing at The City College of New York & John Jay College, Prison to College Pipeline Program, is also the founder & director of WordShedNYC Reading Series and an Editorial Associate for Fiction literary magazine. Her work moves between literature, visual art, and performance. She has collaborated on various poetry/visual/dance projects with independent artists, experimenting with cross genres, multimedia & poetry, and has performed at Howl! Arts, La Mama Experimental Theatre, The Red Stage by Creative Time, The NYC Poetry Festival, The Higher Ground Arts Festival, LatchKey Gallery, The Trops, ROCA, & more. She is currently crafting her debut poetry collection, curating a group art exhibition "Notes from Daughters," & finishing up her first experimental/documentary feature film. Her work focuses on identity, language, immigration, intergenerational trauma, sexuality and culture.

Adeena Karasick, Ph.D

A New-York based Canadian, poet, performer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, and media artist, as well as the author of 18 books of poetry and poetics. Her Kabbalistically-inflected, urban, Jewish feminist mashups have been described as “electricity in language” (Nicole Brossard), “proto-ecstatic jet-propulsive word torsion” (George Quasha), noted for their “cross-fertilization of punning and knowing, theatre and theory” (Charles Bernstein), “a twined virtuosity of mind and ear which leaves the reader deliciously lost in Karasick’s signature ‘syllabic labyrinth’” (Craig Dworkin); “demonstrating how desire flows through language, an unstoppable flood of allusion (both literary and pop-cultural), word-play, and extravagant and outrageous sound-work” (Mark Scroggins). Most recent books include, Ouvert: Oeuvre: Openings, visualized by Warren Lehrer, Ærotomania: The Book of Lumenations (both published Lavender Ink Press, 2023); Eicha: The Book of Lumenations film (NuJu Films, NY, 2023); Massaging the Medium: 7 Pechakuchas, (The Institute of General Semantics Press, 2022); Checking In (Talonbooks, 2018); and Salomé: Woman of Valor (University of Padova Press, Italy, 2017), the libretto for her Spoken Word opera; Salomé: Woman of Valor CD, (NuJu Records, 2020); and Salomé Birangona, translation into Bengali (Boibhashik Prokashoni Press, Kolkata, 2020). Honors include: 2023 Susanne K. Langer Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Symbolic Form (MEA), 2023 Inaugural League of Canadian Poets Spoken Word Award, three-time recipient of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Award, Voce Donna Italia Award for contributions to feminist thinking, shortlisted for Outstanding Book of the Year Award (ICA, 2023). Karasick teaches Literature and Critical Theory for the Humanities and Media Studies Dept. at Pratt Institute, is Poetry Editor for Explorations in Media Ecology, Associate International Editor of New Explorations: Studies in Culture and Communication, and is Poet Laureate of the Institute of General Semantics. The “Adeena Karasick Archive” is established at Special Collections, Simon Fraser University.

Jane LeCroy

Jane LeCroy serves the Poetry Gods as a featured character in the Poetry Brothel NYC. She is a teaching-artist bringing love of poetry to students, and publishing their work through various programs like Uptown Stories. She sets her poetry to music in her bands: Ω▽(Ohmslice), an experimental modular synth project, and The Icebergs, an avant-pop band consisting of cello and drums. Her records are streaming everywhere. Three Rooms Press published her multimedia book of lyrical poems, Signature Play. Pink Trees Press published her newest collection of poetry, Spellbook of Ordinary Mistakes. Follow her on Instagram:@janelecroy ; @ohmslice.nyc; @the_icebergs_nyc.

Ari Mack

Ari Mack is an actor, choreographer, and writer. He is the former choreographer for the Ramapo High School Players of Spring Valley, NY (2014–2021), for which he had been affiliated for 16 years. He is the current choreographer for the Cultural Arts Theatre at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY as well as the Rockland Shakespeare Company. Ari is also an advanced actor combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. He devotes himself to many different forms of writing, including poetry which can be found on his YouTube page, “Arium X.”

Uche Nduka 

A poet-pilgrim, collagist, and essayist who presently lives in New York City. He is the author of 15 volumes of poetry of which the latest are Bainbridge lsland Notebook (Roof Books, 2023) and To Umber (The Bodily Press, 2025). A NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Poetry, his writing has been translated into Italian, Finnish, Turkish, Arabic, Dutch, German, Romanian, Serbian, and Croatian. He teaches at the New School’s Eugene Lang College and Queens College-CUNY.

Mehrnam Rastegari

NYC-based Persian musician Mehrnam Rastegari is a master Kamancheh player, singer, violinist, and award-winning composer whose sound pushes Persian music into bold, modern directions. Her work threads Persian microtonal tradition through rock, psych, and contemporary styles, creating performances that feel deeply expressive. Her international stage credits include the Bill Gates Goalkeepers 2024 event with Jon Batiste, WOMEX, GlobalFest, Pitchfork Music Festival, Le Guess Who?, United Nations Headquarters, Into the Great Wide Open, Secret Planet/APAP, Ragas Live Festival, Montana Folk Festival, Crossing Border, Mutations, and many more. She is featured on Jon Batiste’s Grammy-nominated album, World Music Radio, and appears on Livaneli’s album, Rumi Suite. Rastegari completed a year-long residency at Joe’s Pub for their Working Group program. She has composed scores for more than 10 films, earning “Best Original Score” at the Melbourne City Independent Film Awards and nominations at the Kadoma Festival in Japan. She has collaborated with the World Music Institute across performances, interviews, and podcasts; was invited as a guest speaker for TEDx, Oasis: Existence in Nothingness; and has recorded for the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD); and contributed violin for the soundtrack of the videogame, Assassin’s Creed. Mehrnam is also a selected instructor for Carnegie Hall and their Musical Explorers program, reflecting her commitment to cultural exchange and music education. Mehrnam mentors young musicians across Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and the United States, helping them navigate tradition, innovation, and the possibilities within microtonal and contemporary music. Recognized by leading Kamancheh masters internationally, she is also a GMW (Global Musicians Workshop) alumna, a member of the New York Arabic Orchestra. Through her performances and compositions, Rastegari is bringing the Kamancheh to places and in new directions. With new musical settings, she continues to show how her Persian musical heritage can speak in unexpected ways—alive, rhythmic, and full of possibility.

In 2025, Mehrnam released Dislocated Pulse, her full-length psych rock, Middle-Eastern inflected album built around electrified Kamancheh, heavy grooves, and restless, shifting microtonal motifs. Mehrnam leads several projects and live ensembles including The Mehrnam Rastegari Traditional Persian Band, featuring some of the finest traditional Persians musicians based in the USA as her accompaniment; Senavazi, a Balkan–Persian trio performing arrangements of pieces from Persian, Kurdish, Balkan Turkish musical traditions. Featuring Kamancheh on clarinet, ney, saxophone, davul, and traditional percussion; Chogan, her Middle Eastern psych-rock outfit known for its high-energy shows and original sound. She is currently touring in support of her full-length album.

Bryan Roessel

Bryan Roessel is a poet/event organizer/science teacher in New York's Lower Hudson Valley. Bryan is one of the founders and organizers of Rockland Poets, which has held poetry open mics, slams, and workshops in and around Rockland County NY since March 2011. Bryan's been featured at a variety of poetry events, including at the Utah Arts Festival. Bryan also has exactly one poem on Button Poetry. Their poetry is mostly about science, mental health, relationships, existentialism, and gender.

Roshni Samlal

Roshni Samlal is a tabla player, DJ, producer & curator. As a tabla artist, Roshni performs traditional tabla solos, classical accompaniment and also uses electronic music production and poetry to contextualize and to reframe the tabla solo within an experimental narrative lens. Roshni is the lead curator/ producer of the Ragini Festival which spotlights the work of artists engaged in traditional folk and innovative arts within the further reaches of the South Asian diaspora, focusing on her Indo-Caribbean heritage. Her DJ sets are rooted in her diasporic heritage as a Trinidadian immigrant during the 90’s, global club, Bollywood, chutney, soca, electronics, dancehall and dub.