Description:

Hamdi Attia is an Artist-In-Residence with the MENA Program and the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. Born and raised in Egypt, he lives and works in Cairo and Chicago. His work engages an experimental vocabulary, using video, mapping as well as drawings and sculpture. His work has been featured in private and group exhibitions in Cairo, New York, Paris, Rome, Sao Paulo, Detroit, Copenhagen, Zanzibar and Philadelphia. Attia has been commissioned for a number of public works in the Middle East , Europe, and the U.S. He represented Egypt at the Venice Biennial in 1995, taking the top pavilion prize with Akram Al-Magdoub.

Chris Abani is Board of Trustees Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Northwestern. Raised in Nigeria and London, he is an acclaimed novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. His fiction includes The Secret History of Las Vegas (2014), Song For Night (2007), The Virgin of Flames (2007), Becoming Abigail (2006), and Masters of the Board (1985). His poetry collections include Sanctificum (2010), There Are No Names for Red (2010), Feed Me The Sun: Collected Long Poems (2010), Hands Washing Water (2006), and Kalakuta Republic (2001).

This event is co-sponsored by the MENA Program, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities and Northwestern University Arts Circle