THE COLLEGE OF NEW ROCHELLE
TO HOST AUTHOR BUSHRA REHMAN AT CNR CAFE

NEW ROCHELLE, NY, March 29, 2007 – On Tuesday, April 17, the College of New Rochelle (CNR) will host author Bushra Rehman at CNR Café, an informal reading, workshop and book signing sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) Women’s Studies Department. The event will take place on CNR’s main campus in New Rochelle, in the Student Campus Center, Room C, from 4 – 6 pm.  Ms. Rehman, a 1998 graduate of the School of Arts and Sciences, will read from Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism, an anthology she co-edited, as well as from her own work. Rebecca Walker, author of Black, White and Jewish, has called Colonize This! “A must for young women of color searching for themselves within contemporary feminist/womanist discourse.” A book-signing will follow the Café event.

The Women’s Studies Program at CNR provides students the opportunity to enrich their studies with an understanding of the impact of gender on social and cultural beliefs, societal institutions, and historical events. The Department hosts several events throughout the year, including the annual Elvira M. Dowell Lecture, film screenings and a celebration of women’s achievement, designed to heighten awareness of women’s issues and the accomplishments of women in diverse fields, including the arts, music and theater, natural and social sciences, language and literature, and philosophy. Students at CNR can choose to major or minor in Women’s Studies.

Poet, performer and activist, Ms. Rehman was born and raised in New York City, but has also lived in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. She performs her poetry regularly around the country and has traveled with the Asian American Literary Caravan, a group of artists whose goal is to bring Asian American literature to all parts of the world. Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism has been adopted as essential reading material in women’s studies and ethnic studies classes around the United States. Ms. Rehman’s poetry has been collected in the chapbook Marianna’s Beauty Salon, and she has been featured in The New York Times and NY Newsday and on the BBC. Her work has appeared in ColorLines, Mizna, Curve, SAMAR, Bottomfish and Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith and Sexuality.  Ms. Rehman is currently working on her contribution to Writing the Lines of Our Hands: An Anthology of South Asian American Poetry and Stories of Illness and Healing: Women Write Their Bodies.

For information, contact Dr. Roblyn Rawlins, Chair, Women's Studies Program, 914-654-5386. This event is free and open to the public.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .