It all started the Moment when Laila and I met. It was a very casual meeting of people, and soon became a beautiful meeting of hearts and souls.

I was in California for a month during the summer, taking some courses in Poetry Therapy and also visiting family. I met Laila by chance at my niece’s home, the usual conversations until I asked her what she did, this is odd because recently I have not really been asking what people do, since it seems kind of like a fake question at times. At any rate, Laila said that she is a painter, but even more importantly and specifically she said ” I paint in the moment”.

My nephew who was sitting close by said, “oh that is interesting, my aunt ( meaning me) writes in the moment.” This is indeed very true, I write about what I see and feel in the moment on a regular basis.

I told Laila it would be wonderful to do something with her, like me reading and her painting or something, she agreed. We were in San Francisco at the time and Laila lives in Los Angeles. I was going to LA the following week, and so we agreed to meet and do something. It started out as me coming to her studio which at the time was in her garage. As one thing let to another and we thought of inviting a few people and getting it on video we ended up on the rooftop of 1010 Willshire Blvd.

It was truly a most magical night. We were joined by Homayoun Khosravi on Cello and Hamid Saeidi on Santour and Emma Stansfield on violin. Incredibly Emma who lives in Abu Dhabi had seen the invite page on Face Book and contacted me, magically she appeared with her friendly violin whom I know well and she and Homayoun and Hamid started speaking the language that their instruments speak so well. I am sure their notes and strings knew each other from years past.

That night, as they were practicing, Laila Salartash was setting up her Canvi and getting ready for flight. The fire in the back ground, the wonderful music, the colors starting to speak and the magic begun. We had set out some colors and notepads for those who felt the call to write or draw in the Moment.

We started the evening with a poem I had written a while back called The Moment:
The Moment
At any given moment
my life
can change
look at the people around me
each of them know one other person
and that person
another
who knows who
on the other side of the world is having the most affect
on my life
it can be me
my soul
you
the pope
the queen
or the sweeper
sweeping away the
moments of life

The wonderful moments of the evening were captured by very talented Abbas Hojatpanah… Please watch the wonderful Video of the magical IN THE MOMENT.

This evening was covered by the wonderful Arash Rad with Voice of America in Farsi. You can watch that video here:

شعر و نقاشی ، تجربه مشترک دو هنرمند ایرانی در لس آنجلس