Sunday, April 23rd at 1:30pm! 898 St Nicholas Ave, New York, NY 10032

Filmmaker, actor, and educator Assal Ghawami will be leading a storytime at the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling on April 23rd. Assal will be reading from In the Meadow of Fantasies, written by By Hadi Mohammadi, illustrated by Nooshin Safakhoo, and translated from the Persian by Sara Khalili. In the Meadow of Fantasies, which received a 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder Honor, is one girl’s luminous escapade into a land of seven mysterious horses. A story about dreaming and caring for others, In the Meadow of Fantasies, will remind young readers of their own reveries and conjure new fantasies of friendly creatures in far-off lands. After the reading, Assal will lead attendees through an art activity. Learn more about the event at the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling website here!

Assal Ghawami is a multi hyphenated storyteller,  who uses a variety of media to capture a multicultural perspective.  Born in Iran, raised in Germany, Ghawami is finally a full fleshed permanent resident of Brooklyn, New York. She is a recipient of Maurice Kanbar, Peter D Gould and Tisch School of the Art Fellowships and she finished her MFA in Screenwriting and Directing at NYU Grad Film School. Ghawami has directed and produced numerous corporate videos for New York’s first all female owned film studio GUM Studios where she started an internship program mentoring budding filmmakers from New York City public high schools. Since 2017 Ghawami has been a teaching artist at Naked Angels and she has co-founded Every Woman Biennial Film Festival with Finley. Through her work Ghawami has continuously advocated for Elder Rights, Women’s Rights and Cultural Diversity.

Hadi Mohammadi is a celebrated Iranian children’s book writer, researcher, and critic who has published more than forty novels and picture books for children and young adults. He was nominated for a Hans Christian Anderson Award in 2006 and in 2021, In the Meadow of Fantasies was selected for IBBY’s Collection for Young People with Disabilities.

Beloved Iranian illustrator Nooshin Safakhoo was born in Tehran in 1980. After teaching, she began a long career of painting precise, lyrical images for children’s books, including The Owl & the Jaybird and Shahname. In the Meadow of Fantasies has earned her numerous awards, including a NAMI Concours Prize. Nooshin has been selected three times to show her work at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Sara Khalili is an editor and translator of contemporary Iranian literature. Her translations include Moon Brow and Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour, The Pomegranate Lady and Her Sons by Goli Taraghi, The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee, Kissing the Sword by Shahrnush Parsipur, and Rituals of Restlessness by Yaghoub Yadali.