December 20th will mark my debut as a ghazal singer. So, so honored to be sharing the stage with Ustad Salamat Ali, Saboor Aziz, and Malvika Jolly. Here is the link to RSVP, and the full event description is below:
Join us for an evening of ghazal recitation and musical performance featuring renowned ghazal singer Ustad Salamat Ali and his disciple Adeeba Shahid Talukder, in her debut performance, performing some of the age’s most celebrated ghazals—from 14th century Amir Khusro to modern poets Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Qateel Shifai, and Parveen Shakir. They are accompanied by poet translator Malvika Jolly and tabla virtuoso Saboor Aziz.
Talukder interweaves musical performance in Urdu with original poetic translations into English, Jolly guides us through various interpretations of the ghazal across time, borders, and language, offering a space of context for the traditional practice of the Urdu ghazal as we imagine a future for the form carrying forward a literary and musical tradition.
This event is presented in partnership with City Lore and funded in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Performance: 7-8:30pm, Kray Hall
Refreshments: 8:30-9pm
About the performers:
Adeeba Shahid Talukder is a Pakistani and Bengali-American poet, vocalist, and translator of Urdu and Persian poetry. She is the author of Shahr-e-jaanaan: The City of the Beloved (Tupelo Press, 2020), winner of the 2017 Kundiman Poetry Prize, and the chapbook What Is Not Beautiful (Glass Poetry Press, 2018). Her work has appeared in Washington Square Review, Gulf Coast, World Literature Today, and various other publications. Adeeba holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan and has received fellowships from Kundiman and Poets House.
Ustad Salamat Ali was born in Lahore, Pakistan, to a family of renowned musicians. He commenced his formal training under his father Ustad Sharif Khan’s tutelage. He went on to study with the late ghazal maestro, Mehdi Hasan, developing a particular interest in the genres of thumri and ghazal. In 1971, he made his debut with Radio Pakistan, Karachi. In the coming decades, Ustad Salamat Ali performed frequently on Karachi Radio and Pakistani television, releasing 13 albums and touring internationally alongside his wife Azra Riaz.
Malvika Jolly is a South Asian poet, translator, and author of the chaplet Ardeshir Godrej Dreams of Wild Dogs, forthcoming from Belladonna*. She has been featured in programs for Barbès, Brooklyn Rail, Governors Island, Invisible Dog Art Center, Method Bandra, New York Foundation for the Arts, The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, The Poetry Society of New York, Queens College, the South Street Seaport Museum, and more. She runs The New Third World, a poetry reading series inspired by the Non-Aligned Movement, and is Assistant Managing Editor of Washington Square Review.
Saboor Aziz is a young Pakistani-American musician based in Brooklyn, New York. He began playing tabla at the age of 4, and acquired training from his father Aziz Peerzada, a professional singer. Over time, he has mastered a range of styles, from semi classical music to Punjabi folk. With extraordinary skill and a deep passion for music, Saboor has accompanied well-known artists across India and Pakistan and performed prolifically across the United States.
Adeeba Shahid Talukder 