A free two-day international conference offering insight into crucial aspects of literary and political life in the modern Middle East is being hosted by Eugene Lang College and the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University. Using Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet, revered as the voice of Palestine, and Nazim Hikmet, Turkey’s most acclaimed modern poet, playwright, novelist and memoirist as a foundation, the conference will provide an American audience with different viewpoints to understand internal perspectives on the struggle for democracy in the Arab world and the Middle East while at the same time investigating the role of literature in such struggles.

The Poetry of Politics: A National Poet, A Poet’s Nation, held on Friday March 5, from 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., at NYU’s Kevorkian Center, 255 Sullivan Street, and will feature: Najat Rahman (poet, University of Montreal); Nedim Gursel (poet, Sorbonne University); Elias Khoury (New York University); Sibel Irzik (Sabanci University); Hassan Khader (independent writer and critic); Ozen Nergis Dolcerocca (New York University); Sinan Antoon (New York University); Hala Nassar (Yale University); and Simone Bitton (film director).

Modernism and Translation: Beyond The National Poet, held on Saturday, March 6 from 10:30 to 6:00 p.m., at Eugene Lang College in Wollman Hall, 66 West 12th Street, 5th floor will feature: Ghazzan Zaqtan (independent writer and critic); Nergis Erturk, (Penn State University); Noha Radwan (New York University); Robyn Creswell (New York University); Talat Sait Halman (Bilkent University); Ibrahim Muhawi (University of Oregon); Sami Shalom Chetrit (Queens College, CUNY); Mutlu Blasing (Brown University); Hala Halim (New York University); Yilmaz Odabasi (poet and critic); Elias Khoury (New York University); Sibel Erol (New York University); and Nargis Virani (The New School).

For a full conference schedule visit The New School event calendar.