Launching Priyo @ Parlay!

New poetry and music open mic and showcase series in Sunset Park

You are cordially invited to join us for the first showcase in a new monthly open mic and performance series, Priyo @ Parlay, hosted by Sunset Park’s cafe and restaurant, Parlay, on March 10th, 2024, 4:00pm-7:00pm. Eventbrite link here. 

Throughout the Asian continent, communities of artists often gather in small, intimate settings to share work, connect, eat, make merry, and make kin of one another. Folks would remove all the furniture in their homes, create a makeshift stage, and perform poetry, music, dance, and monologues. Families are made and remade within this intimacy against a hostile world. There are many words for this across cultures, but our communities often default to the Persian and Urdu term, “Mefhil.” It was with this vision in mind that Ashna Ali and Sean Devare partnered with Parlay Brooklyn to create Priyo @ Parlay, a reading and music open mic and showcase hosted by Parlay.

In Bengali, priyo means dear or beloved, favorite, or precious. We decided to to create a series committed to supporting and uplifting local artistic community and immigrant-run businesses that feels precious, by beloveds for beloveds to celebrate the genius and love of poetry and performance. 

We have a keyboard available for open mics, and food, beer, wine, and non-alcoholic options available for purchase. The space is wheelchair accessible. Open mic sign-up in-person right before the event begins! 

OUR HOSTS:

Ashna Ali is a queer, diasporic, and disabled Bangladeshi poet, writer, and arts organizer raised in Italy and based in Brooklyn, NY. Their work explores the intersections of identity and liberation struggle as we live them day-to-day in the rich chaos of our beloved communities. 

Sean Devare is a Brooklyn-based performer and designer who bridges ancient and contemporary practices in theater, visual art, and music as communal events. His dual Indian and Chinese heritage often inspires his personal work, but he seeks to learn from and find kinship in as many cultures as he can. 

OUR LINE-UP:

Theo LeGro is a queer Vietnamese-American poet and Kundiman fellow whose work has earned two nominations for the Pushcart Prize. They have performed extensively throughout New York City, with features at SupaDupaFresh, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the Brooklyn Slam, and elsewhere. Their work appears or will appear in Brooklyn Poets, diode, Frontier, Plume, and Raleigh Review, among other journals. They live in Brooklyn with a cat named Vinny.

Ashni is a New York City-based singer, songwriter, and pianist. Her relationship with the stage began with classical North Indian dance, Kathak, and western classical piano. A first-generation Indian American, she grew up absorbing the voices of both Hindustani classical, Indian folk, and jazz music. From these roots, she incorporates her love for pop, folk, and R&B, and envelops listeners in a reflective, cathartic dimension. Her work meditates on the relationships we build with the self, others, and community.

Lara Atallah is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. Her practice explores the political dimensions of landscape, probing both the futility and fluidity of borders as manmade constructs. Her work has been exhibited in the US and internationally, and is in the collections of the NYU Langone Art Program and the Met Museum, among others. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, Camera Austria, Flash Art Italia, Split This Rock, the Koukash Review, 128 Lit and elsewhere. She is the author of Edge of Elysium, Vol. 1 (Open Projects Press, 2019) and Exit signs on a seaside highway (Everybody Press, 2023)

Tuânminh A Đỗ (he/em) is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York. His artistic mission revolves around creating original, informed work, and innovating ancient practices to celebrate, heal and further the understanding of our innate humanity.

See you there!