The Elements of Story: Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini, Samra Habib, Kamal Al-Solaylee, Mozhdah Jamalzadah and Nahlah Ayed

The Elements of Story: Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini, Samra Habib, Kamal Al-Solaylee, Mozhdah Jamalzadah and Nahlah Ayed

7:00pm

Tuesday, October 6

90 mins

The Elements of Story series, spearheaded by Canadian Stage, delves into the work and ideas of internationally celebrated authors and cultural thinkers. This fall, participants will embark on a six-week exploration into Khaled Hosseini’s captivating bestselling novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosted by the winner of the 2020 Canada Reads competition, Samra Habib (We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir), this one-of-a-kind series of interactive discussions and lectures will allow readers to deepen their experience and understanding of the novel and its author through a look into Afghanistan’s complex intersection of politics, religion and gender. In addition, participants will have exclusive access to a series of short films by Afghan filmmakers, inspired by Afghan-German poet Aria Aber, commissioned especially for this unique event. Co-produced by the Toronto International Festival of Authors and Canadian Stage, in association with Diaspora Dialogues.

We extend our deepest gratitude for the exceptional generosity of Marilyn and Charles Baillie.

In Their Elements Lectures
Mozhdah Jamalzadah – Tuesday, October 06 at 7pm ET
Kamal Al-Solaylee – Tuesday, October 20 at 7pm ET
Nahlah Ayed – Tuesday, November 03 at 7pm ET

Book Club
Thursday, October 15 at 7pm ET 

Khaled Hosseini In Conversation
Friday, November 13 at 7pm ET 

Cost: $20 – Khaled Hosseini In Conversation / $30 – Full Series (includes Khaled Hosseini In Conversation, all In Their Element lectures, and Book Club access (as space permits). Proceed to Canada Stage website to book your tickets.

 

You may also enjoy Blink and You’ll Miss Us: an original series of micro-film poems by Afghan and Canadian filmmakers featuring bursts of exquisite poetry. Blink and You’ll Miss Us premieres on October 27 at 8:30pm (ET). Click here for details.

 

Canadian Stage logo

The Elements of Story series, spearheaded by Canadian Stage, delves into the work and ideas of internationally celebrated authors and cultural thinkers. This fall, participants will embark on a six-week exploration into Khaled Hosseini’s captivating bestselling novel A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosted by the winner of the 2020 Canada Reads competition, Samra Habib (We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir), this one-of-a-kind series of interactive discussions and lectures will allow readers to deepen their experience and understanding of the novel and its author through a look into Afghanistan’s complex intersection of politics, religion and gender. In addition, participants will have exclusive access to a series of short films by Afghan filmmakers, inspired by Afghan-German poet Aria Aber, commissioned especially for this unique event. Co-produced by the Toronto International Festival of Authors and Canadian Stage, in association with Diaspora Dialogues.

We extend our deepest gratitude for the exceptional generosity of Marilyn and Charles Baillie.

In Their Elements Lectures
Mozhdah Jamalzadah – Tuesday, October 06 at 7pm ET
Kamal Al-Solaylee – Tuesday, October 20 at 7pm ET
Nahlah Ayed – Tuesday, November 03 at 7pm ET

Book Club
Thursday, October 15 at 7pm ET 

Khaled Hosseini In Conversation
Friday, November 13 at 7pm ET 

Cost: $20 – Khaled Hosseini In Conversation / $30 – Full Series (includes Khaled Hosseini In Conversation, all In Their Element lectures, and Book Club access (as space permits). Proceed to Canada Stage website to book your tickets.

 

You may also enjoy Blink and You’ll Miss Us: an original series of micro-film poems by Afghan and Canadian filmmakers featuring bursts of exquisite poetry. Blink and You’ll Miss Us premieres on October 27 at 8:30pm (ET). Click here for details.

 

Canadian Stage logo

Featured Authors

Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and moved to the United States in 1980. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed. Hosseini is also a U.S. Goodwill Envoy to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the founder of The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

Read more about Khaled Hosseini

Samra Habib
Samra Habib is a writer, photographer, and activist. As a journalist she's covered topics ranging from fashion trends and Muslim dating apps to the rise of Islamophobia in the US. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Advocate, and her photo project, "Just Me and Allah," has been featured in Nylon, i-D, Vanity Fair Italia, Vice, and The Washington Post. She works with LGBTQ organizations internationally, raising awareness of issues that impact queer Muslims around the world. We Have Always Been Here is her first book.

Read more about Samra Habib

Kamal Al-Solaylee
Kamal Al-Solaylee is the author of the national bestselling memoir Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, which won the 2013 Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the CBC’s Canada Reads, as well as the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. A finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction as well as the Trillium Book Award, Brown won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. He holds a PhD in English and is a professor of journalism and literary non-fiction at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario.

Read more about Kamal Al-Solaylee

Mozhdah Jamalzadah
Mozhdah Jamalzadah is a Kabul-born, Vancouver-based singer-songwriter, media personality and women’s rights activist. She’s been called the Oprah of Afghanistan for having had a talk show debating taboo subjects like child marriage, violence against women and divorce in post-Taliban Afghanistan; and the first Afghan to perform at the Obama Whitehouse. She has guested on the Oprah Winfrey Show and won several “Best Artist of the Year” awards in more than one country. Her biography, The Voice of Rebellion, written by Roberta Staley, just released October 2019, and she made her acting debut in the movie Red Snow, written and directed by award winning Canadian director Marie Clements.

Read more about Mozhdah Jamalzadah

Nahlah Ayed
Nahlah Ayed, the host of CBC Radio’s Ideas, is an award-winning veteran foreign news reporter who spent nearly a decade in the Middle East covering the region's many conflicts, and later in London where she covered major stories from Russia's annexation of Crimea, Europe's refugee crisis; and the Brexit vote and its fallout. In 2012, her memoir, A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter's Journey From Refugee Camp to the Arab Spring, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award. Nahlah was born and raised (mostly) in Winnipeg, Canada.

Read more about Nahlah Ayed

7:00pm

Tuesday, October 6

90 mins

What to read

Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) by , A Thousand Splendid Suns by , We Have Always Been Here by , Thousand Farewells: A Reporter’s Journey From Refugee Camp To The Arab Spring by ,
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