TEHRAN — Iran’s annual “Rendan-e Teshneh Lab” (Thirsty Rakes) Ashura poetry gathering will be held on July 20, bringing together poets and satirists for an evening of elegiac verse dedicated to Imam Hussein and, this year, to what organizers describe as the country’s “martyred, literature-loving leader.”
Organized by the Office of Satire at the Art Bureau of the Islamic Revolution, the event is the Ashura edition of the long-running Dar Halgheh-ye Rendan (“Among the Rakes”) poetry series, which has been held for more than two decades.
According to organizers, this year’s program will feature traditional Ashura elegies alongside poems paying tribute to the late leader.
The event will be hosted by poet and satirist Saeed Biyabanki and will feature readings by a number of prominent contemporary Iranian poets and writers, including Nasser Feyz, Omid Mahdinejad, Abbas Ahmadi, Milad Erfanpour, Muhammad Salami, Ali Akbar Modarreszadeh, Hassan Malekan, Haj Ali Ensani, Muhammadreza Tahmasbi, Maliheh Rajaei, Fatemeh Fahimi, and Seyed Muhammad Sadat Akhavi.
The gathering is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. local time on Monday, July 20, at Sooreh Hall in the Art Bureau’s headquarters in central Tehran.
Admission is free and open to the public, organizers said.