Authors Jayne Cortez and Zohra Saed Traverse Cultural Lines
In Readings At Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus

Brooklyn, N.Y. –Two writers from across the globe — African-American poet Jayne Cortez and anthology editor Zohra Saed of Afghanistan — will read from their works at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus in March, as part of the English Department’s "Voices of the Rainbow" reading series.

The series brings authors of varying racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds to the Campus to offer a range of artistic expressions to students and the community.

Cortez and Saed will speak on Monday, March 29 at 10 a.m. in Library Learning Center Room 124. The event is free and open to the public.

A poet and performance artist, Cortez is the author of several books of poems, including "Jazz Fan Looks Back" and "Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere." Her recordings include her latest, "Find Your Own Voice," and "Taking the Blues Back Home." Internationally acclaimed, she has lectured and performed in the United States, Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Among her honors are a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in creative writing, an American Book Award and a Fannie Lou Hammer Award.

Saed came to the United States from Afghanistan in 1980 with her family. She is the co-editor of "Drop by Drop, We Make a River: Afghan Writings of War, Exile and Return," a ground breaking Afghan literary anthology written in English, spanning the years between 1978 and 2002. She teaches in the Asian-American Studies Program at Hunter College and serves on the Board of Directors for Afghan American Peace Corp.

The "Voices of the Rainbow" series is funded by the office of Provost Gale Stevens Haynes. For more information, call (718) 488-1109.

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Some 30,000 students currently are enrolled at the university’s three residential and three regional campuses, including more than 11,000 at the Brooklyn Campus. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.