NEW YORK – The Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), one of South Asia’s premier cultural events, will come to the Asia Society in New York on May 7-8, making it the first time that a literary festival from Pakistan takes place abroad.
The literary festival in New York will explore contemporary Pakistan, and feature artists, writers, and cultural commentators, the Asia Society said. In keeping with society’s mission of promoting mutual understanding between Asia and the US, the festival will present American audience with a more nuanced view of Pakistan, with discussions on fiction and nonfiction writing, music, arts, popular culture, and politics.
The festival’s participants include philanthropist, businessman, educators, former foreign affairs minister Hina Rabbani Khar, former finance minister Syed Babar Ali; singer/songwriter Zeb Bangash; New York Times columnist Roger Cohen; artist Salima Hashmi; physicist and author Tasneem Zehra Husain; actor, director and screenwriter Sarmad Khoosat; journalist and foreign policy author Ahmed Rashid; and author and filmmaker Sadia Shepard.
It will also feature a musical performance by the eight-member qawwal ensemble the Saami Brothers. The literary festival, founded by Razi Ahmed in 2012, aims to reclaim and employ Lahore’s cultural significance and influence.
