Tag Archives: Word Up Recirculation

Word Up Recirculation: Semiha Cemâl – A Portrait of a Turkish Sufi Philosopher

Word Up  and The Kenan Center for Turkish Cultural Studies presents a book talk with Dr. Arzu Eylül Yalçınkaya for”Semiha Cemal: A Portrait of a Turkish Sufi Philosopher”, accompanied by a Sufi music performance by Istanbul Meşk Ensemble.

Music based on the book’s central motif: ‘Let Us Love and Be Loved.’

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket. Please register in advance.

ABOUT THE BOOK  Semiha Cemāl: A Portrait of a Turkish Sufi Philosopher restores to memory a pioneering figure whose voice was nearly lost to history. A philosopher, educator, and mystic, Semiha Cemāl lived at the threshold of empire and republic, bringing together Sufi metaphysics and classical philosophy in a way that quietly challenged the binaries of her time. This book presents both a critical portrait of her life and the inaugural English edition of her 1927 novel Aşk Peygamberi (The Prophet of Love). Written in Ottoman Turkish during the early Republican reforms, the novel stands as a bold work of metaphysical fiction. It stages love as a force of ethical transformation, blending Platonic allegory with Sufi cosmology to explore the soul’s journey toward truth.

Through biography, interpretation, and translation, the volume situates Semiha Cemāl within a broader genealogy of Turkish thought, one that highlights the contributions of women, mystics, and overlooked intellectuals. At once scholarly and accessible, it invites readers to rediscover a voice that speaks with clarity, courage, and contemplative depth across a century of silence.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  Dr. Arzu Eylül Yalçınkaya is a historian of Ottoman cultural and social thought, with a focus on intellectual history, ethical traditions, and the transmission of Turkish literary and musical heritage. Her work explores the role of late Ottoman intellectuals—particularly those shaped by Sufi traditions—in processes of modernization and cultural continuity. She has contributed to the field through academic publications, curated concerts, interdisciplinary conferences, and musical performances in Istanbul, New York, Boston, and Cambridge—often exploring classical Turkish music and the symbolic world of the makam tradition. As the founder of The Kenan Center for Turkish Cultural Studies, Dr. Yalçınkaya has envisioned the Center as a platform where rigorous scholarship, creative production, and cultural renewal converge—grounded in Turkish intellectual legacies yet open to the imaginative possibilities of the present

Word Up Recirculation: Booked & Unbothered – A Space to Read, Reflect, & Connect

Welcome to Booked & Unbothered
A Space to Read, Reflect, & Connect
A Sunday afternoon dedicated to slowing down, turning the page, and finding community through stories.

The Experience

Bring the book you’re currently obsessed with (or the one you’ve been trying to finish), find a cozy spot, and settle in for an afternoon of reading, reflection, and connection.

Read quietly at your own pace, browse Word Up’s expansive collection of books, and engage in conversations with fellow book lovers throughout the afternoon. Whether you’re discovering a new author, sharing a favorite recommendation, or simply enjoying uninterrupted reading time, the experience is designed to help you slow down and be present.

A soulful instrumental soundtrack will gently fill the room, creating the perfect backdrop for getting lost in a story, exploring new ideas, and embracing the simple joy of reading in community.

Whether you’re an avid reader, trying to build a reading habit, or simply looking for a slower way to spend your Sunday, you’ll find a welcoming community waiting for you.

Admission: Free to attend;. Donations are welcome and help support Culture Lime’s community-driven cultural and wellness experiences.

Book today to reserve your spot.

Word Up Recirculation: Antonio Roman-Alcalá‘s NORTH STARS OF EMANCIPATION

Word Up Recirculation welcomes sustainable food systems researcher Antonio Roman-Alcalá to discuss his new book, NORTH STARS OF EMANCIPATION: California’s Diverse Food and Farming Movements in Times of Racial Reckoning, on how greater racial inclusion can propel movements forward and help realize sustainable change, from a longtime political organizer and researcher.

“North Stars of Emancipation is a profound treatment of the complex barriers to transforming an exploitative industrial food system in clear need of it. Read for the data, the collective wisdom, but also to learn about, perhaps feel a part of, a burgeoning of creative thinking and searching action.”~Ricardo Salvador, Director and Senior Scientist of the Food and Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket. Please register in advance.

In compliance with Word Up Community

Recirculation Word Up: Dixa Ashariel Ramírez’s MIST with Alejandro Heredia

Word Up welcomes Dixa Ashariel Ramírez to celebrate her debut novel “Mist”, about two overachieving professors who join forces to investigate why generations of Black women have been disappearing into a terrifying realm of eternal ice. In conversation with Ramírez will be Alejandro Heredia, author of “Loca”.

ABOUT THE BOOK: It is 2019 and Josefina Pujols, an overachieving professor going up for tenure at Tanner University (“The Ninth Ivy”), watches in dismay as social media popularity threatens to take over the academic standards she had been rigorously trained to uphold. Online shopping, group chat, and an alcohol problem palliate her encounters with an inbox full of increasingly ludicrous requests from her colleagues.  When Doralis Montero, who had mysteriously quit her prestigious professorship two years earlier, reaches out and explains the sinister reasons behind her disappearance, Jo leaps into a research rabbit hole teeming with South American Nazi villages, racial impostors, and ancient AI. Despite the life-threatening risks inherent to this research project, Jo glows with newfound purpose.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  Dixa Ashariel Ramirez was born in Santo Domingo and raised in the Bronx. She teaches literature at Brown University and has published many works of scholarship. She now also writes about spiritual transformation, consciousness, and the nature of reality. Some of her work is available on her website, open_in_newdixaramirez.com.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER  Alejandro Heredia is a writer from the Bronx. He has received fellowships from LAMBDA Literary, Dominican Studies Institute, UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute, and elsewhere. He received an MFA in fiction from Hunter College.

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 50 max attendees. All attendees must register in advance.

 

 

Word Up: Creative Stillness: A Collective Reading on Memory, Voice, and Creative Renewal

Join us at Word Up for a celebratory reading and panel conversation for Creative Stillness Anthology, a collective work of poetry and essays honoring the spaces where creativity is shaped, restored, and reclaimed, curated by Dhayana Alejandrina.

Organized into four sections—The Weaving, The Centering, The Offering, and The Surrendering—the anthology moves through the rhythms of the creative life, exploring cultural memory, identity, grief and joy, mental health, and artistic devotion. Rooted in the belief that creative stillness is not the absence of movement but intentional presence, the collection reframes “writer’s block” as a necessary balance between output and nourishment.

Featured contributors will be joined by Dhayana Alejandrina, poet and curator of Creative Stillness, founder of The Creative Writing Hour, for a collective conversation reflecting on language, community-rooted storytelling, and how rest and lived experience shape artistic expression.

The evening includes brief readings, moderated dialogue with Angela Abreu, and audience Q&A.

Panelists include

  • Sabrina Scanlan
  • Goldn.Light
  • Ms. Jenn
  • Mars Santi
  • SheaSpeaks
  • Eunice Louis-Jacques
  • Veronica Polanco

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 30 max attendees. Please register in advance.

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees for this event are encouraged to wear a mask.

Word Up Community Bookshop is located at 2113 Amsterdam Ave. (& 165th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 168th St and the A/C train to 163rd or 168th  St.

This event is also sponsored by Dominican Writers Association, The Creative Writing Hour, Gatekeeper Press, Silk & Sugar, and Ocao.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Creative Stillness is a collective anthology of poetry and short stories that honors the spaces where creativity is shaped, restored, and reclaimed. Organized into four sections—The Weaving, The Centering, The Offering, and The Surrendering—the collection moves through the natural rhythms of the creative life, exploring cultural memory, identity, grief and joy, mental health, healing, and artistic devotion. Interwoven journaling prompts that invite readers to pause, reflect, and reconnect with their own creative voice. Intimate yet expansive, this anthology serves as both a literary offering and a companion, reminding readers that rest can be generative, stillness can be transformative, and meaning can take root when we slow down enough to listen.