Novelist Porochista Khakpour's family moved to Los Angeles after fleeing the Iranian Revolution, giving up their successes only to be greeted by an alienating culture. Growing up as an immigrant in America means that one has to make one's way through a confusing tangle of conflicting cultures and expectations. And Porochista is pulled between the glitzy culture of Tehrangeles, an enclave of wealthy Iranians and Persians in LA, her own family's modest life and culture, and becoming an assimilated American. Porochista rebels--she bleaches her hair and flees to the East Coast, where she finds her community: other people writing and thinking at the fringes. But, 9/11 happens and with horror, Porochista watches from her apartment window as the towers fall. Extremism and fear of the Middle East rises in the aftermath and then again with the election of Donald Trump. Porochista is forced to finally grapple with what it means to be Middle-Eastern and Iranian, an immigrant, and a refugee in our country today.
Brown Album is a stirring collection of essays, at times humorous and at times profound, drawn from more than a decade of Porochista's work and with new material included. Altogether, it reveals the tolls that immigrant life in this country can take on a person and the joys that life can give.
Khakpour is in conversation with Myriam Gurba, a writer, spoken-word artist, and visual artist.
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Produced by Maddie Gobbo & Michael Kowaleski
Theme: "I Love All My Friends," a new, unreleased demo by Fragile Gang.
SKYLIT: Jessica P. Pryde, ”BLACK LOVE MATTERS”
SKYLIT: Scott Meslow, ”FROM HOLLYWOOD WITH LOVE”
SKYLIT: Kai Harris, ”WHAT THE FIREFLIES KNEW”
SKYLIT: Sasha Fletcher, ”BE HERE TO LOVE ME AT THE END OF THE WORLD”
LIVE ON CROWDCAST: Jami Attenberg, ”I CAME ALL THIS WAY TO MEET YOU” w/ Patricia Lockwood
THE HANDSELL: Harriet’s Bookshop w/ Jeannine Cook
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Akwaeke Emezi
SKYLIT: Cara Blue Adams, ”YOU NEVER GET IT BACK”
SKYLIT: Tim James, ”ASTRONOMICAL”
SKYLIT: Wajahat Ali, ”GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM”
SKYLIT: Duncan Birmingham, ”THE CULT IN MY GARAGE”
SKYLIT: Melissa Anderson, ”INLAND EMPIRE” & Erika Balsom, ”TEN SKIES”
SKYLIT: Ellinor Richey, ”JUNKWRAITH”
SKYLIT: Darieck Scott, ”KEEPING IT UNREAL” w/ Ramzi Fawaz
SKYLIT: Tabitha Lasley, ”SEA STATE”
SKYLIT: PEN Emerging Voices w/ Joanna Hong & Jenise Miller
SKYLIT: Brooks Hefner, ”BLACK PULP”
HANDSELL: Christine Bollow, ABA
SKYLIT: Mahogany L. Browne, ”VINYL MOON”
SKYLIT: George Saunders w/ Alena Saunders
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