30 people filled classroom Q112 at LBCC to eagerly listen to Annahita Mahdavi West read her new poetry book about her connections to her homeland through the art of poetry.
West is known for her political activism on current events but is also a professor of Human Services and Addiction Studies at LBCC.
West held her poetry reading and book signing event which centered around healing and easing on May 4 at the PCC campus with her husband, well-known philosopher Cornel West right alongside her.
Inside the dimly lit classroom, which had tables stacked with copies of West’s Poetry book “Dusty Relics”, she read four of her poems aloud.
The poems were titled ‘The Ones that Won’t be Back’, ‘City of War’, ‘Daughter Child’ and ‘Dancing Hair’ to the audience members.
When asked about the inspiration behind the title of her poetry book, West was quick to answer.
“I think I did that because it is something that has really stayed with me. It’s connected to my history. Even though relics can be dusty and still there and never gone, I feel like the events and memories and history can get to a form of an antic,” said West.
In these poems, West discussed her struggles as not only a refugee but an Iranian immigrant who has overcome challenges posed by living through the Iranian and Iraq war in 1980.
She also spoke on motherhood and her recollection of memories that involved the war and tragedy in her homeland and the people she had lost along the way.
Her husband, public intellectual and well-known philosopher Cornel West was sitting proudly by her side and had words of love and support for his partner. Passionately, he spoke to the crowd of attendees.
“Annahita is a human being who uses language by means of imagination and empathy to get inside others and try to get us to be vulnerable enough to get inside of others no matter what color, gender, sexual orientation, or nation. The deeper human level. In that sense, I am deeply uplifted. I’ve always wondered what it is about the Persians that they would produce such towering poets in the history of the species. It’s a mystery in some ways. My beloved Annahita is a poetic genius.”
When West read her rather intimate works aloud, many people in the audience seemed touched by the words.
LBCC board of trustee Robyn Gordon Peterson was entranced and inspired by West. Peterson recalls a time when she learned to heal her inner child from studying under West.
“I studied under Dr. Mahdavi and that was when I was able to recognize my childhood trauma. I had always kept it buried, and through her coursework and talking to us about trauma, and how to nurture and how to take care of that child I returned to therapy to start working on it,” said Peterson.
“When I had got the flier that she had written a book of poetry, I had to come because I knew that there would be more ways for me to recognize what occurred and know that I am okay,” added Peterson.