Anis Mojgani
Anis Mojgani (Persian: انیس مژگانی) (born June 13, 1977) is a spoken word poet, visual artist and musician based in Portland, Oregon. Mojgani has been characterized as a "geek genius" with "fiercely hopeful word arias".[1]
Mojgani was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, moved to Georgia and graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sequential Art and an Master of Fine Arts in Performing Arts.[2] Mojgani is a member of the Bahá'í Faith.[3][4] As of 2007[update] Mojgani has been earning an income as a touring poet.[5]
Contents
Work
Over the course of his career, Mojgani has been a member of several poetry slam teams, including New Orleans, NYC-Urbana and Seattle. He was also a member of 2007's Solomon Sparrow's Electric Whale Revival and 2008's Junkyard Ghost Revival, both of which featured poets Buddy Wakefield and Derrick C. Brown as actively touring members.
Mojgani won back-to-back titles in the National Individual Poetry Slam in 2005 and 2006,[6] was interviewed in 2006 on KUOW-FM's The Beat,[1] and was in the documentary Slam Planet: War of the Words.[7] In 2007 Mojgani was on HBO's Def Poetry Jam[8] and placed 2nd in Poetry Slam, Inc.'s 2007 Individual World Poetry Slam[9] and won first place at 2007 World Cup Poetry Slam held in Bobigny, France as part of the French National Slam Championships among 16 National Poetry Slam Champions.[10] and published and cover in the Summer 2007 edition of RATTLE.[11]
Mojgani cites several influences: "Jeffrey McDaniel, Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, Gregory Corso, Kerouac, MF DOOM, Aesop Rock, Robert Rauschenberg, Basquiat, Chris Ware, Frank Miller, Saul Williams, Walt Whitman, Savannah, GA, New York, New Orleans, being broke, being a hermit, Shoot the Piano Player, the Bahá'í writings and history."[6] Mojgani was named in the book Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam as one of the poets who "saw success" after leaving New York City's notoriously competitive Poetry Slam community. Author Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, herself a poet, wrote,
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Anis Mojgani slammed in New York City for a couple of years and made the 2004 NYC-Urbana team. And everyone liked Anis a lot. He was a great poet, and just a great guy... Anis moved out of New York City to Portland, Oregon and has since won two Individual National Poetry Slam championships. Two! Oh, and his first victory was made legendary by a technical problem. In the middle of his poem, the lights in the theater turned off. Just boom—blackness. In the middle of his poem. Can you imagine? But Anis just kept going, and the crowd loved it. And they all started taking pictures, and the flashes lit the stage as he was performing, and it was . . . it was just magical, really... I mean, that's the power of the poetry slam. To have moments like that...[12]
His book The Feather Room was a 2011 National Book Award nominee.[13]
Other
Mojgani is featured performing a live poem in "Heartbreak Dreamer," the first song on Oregonian Mat Kearney's 2015 album Just Kids.
See also
References
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- ↑ Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. Soft Skull Press. Page 359. ISBN 1-933368-82-9.
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