Chris Cummings/The Ithacan MARIA HNARAKI and Gail Holst-Warhaft perform a piece by Theodorakis banned in Greece at the “Voices of Freedom” concert in the Unitarian Church of Ithaca Sunday.

During “Voices of Freedom,” new Ithaca resident Reza Daneshvar showcased his artistic talent as a part of a celebration of freedom of expression.

Daneshvar’s one-act comedy, “Sandwich Deluxe,” was performed for a small crowd in the Unitarian Church of Ithaca. Although audience members laughed at the sex jokes, the play served as a salient reminder of artists’ ongoing struggle for intellectual freedom in the face of censorship.

This Sunday, the play was the centerpiece of Ithaca City of Asylum’s third annual celebration, “Voices of Freedom.” ICOA puts on the event to acknowledge Banned Books Week, which runs from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2, and to provide an opportunity for local artists to present their work.

Banned Books Week has been observed since 1982 to allow librarians and book lovers to encourage people to read books that have been censored in the past.

Barbara Adams, assistant professor in the writing department, assisted Grace An and Catherine Porter in the translation of Daneshvar's play. Greg Bostwick, a professor in the Ithaca College Theatre Department, and Cornell University professor Craig MacDonald gave an animated reading of the play.

The event’s sponsor, ICOA is the Ithaca branch of an international network that supports repressed and persecuted artists. ICOA intends to create an environment where authors will be able to write.

This spring, Daneshvar became the second exiled writer to be invited for a two-year residency in Ithaca. He was provided with a part-time job with benefits at Cornell University. Chinese poet and prose writer, Yi Ping, became ICOA’s first resident writer two years ago. His family still lives here.

Daneshvar is the author of seven plays, four novels and three short stories. He was born in 1948 in Machrad, Iran. After studying Persian Literature at Tehran University, Daneshvar taught theater in his native province. Iranian fundamentalist revolutionaries rose to power in the early ’80s. He suffered censorship, arrest and imprisonment under the post-shah, Iranian government.

Fearing imminent arrest, Daneshvar escaped across the Pakistani border and fled to Paris in 1982. He supported himself there by driving a cab six days a week for 10 years. During this time he was unable to complete any writing projects. However, in January 2004, he came to the United States and began his two-year residency in Ithaca sponsored by ICOA.

Another writer who found asylum in Ithaca began the event. Sasha Skenderija approached the podium and read from his latest collection of poetry, “Why The Dwarf Had To Be Shot.” Skenderija read three poems in a thick Balkan accent. His poems are personal and discuss a range of issues from conflicts in Bosnia to the American dream.

“Horrified starving old women/sobbed beyond consolation, while confused passersby and children/hurried toward international television cameras, behaving,/like pandas in a zoo,” Skenderija read.

Skenderija is a native Bosnian writer who survived the siege of Sarajevo. In 1992 he fled Bosnia, and in 1999 he relocated his family to Ithaca. His latest original work has been translated into English and will be published by a local press. He is currently working at the Cornell law library as a research technology coordinator.

Local writer Gail Holst-Warhaft, author of “The Cue For Passion: Grief and Its Political Uses,” then read selected poetry by Mikos Theodorakis, whom she called “Greece’s greatest living composer and poet.”

Theodorakis was labeled a political dissident because he channeled liberal politics through his work. This led to multiple arrests and imprisonments during the ’40s and ’60s and exile from Greece on three separate occasions. Holst-Warhaft read Theordorakis’ poem “Slaughterhouse,” about his experiences in jail, listening to his friend and compatriot being tortured. She also played one of Theodorakis’ songs on the piano, as Maria Hnaraki, a lecturer at Cornell, sang the song “Hostage.”

Hnaraki said that learning about the Greek artist Theodorakis is especially relevant in the United States, because so many different cultures need to coexist peacefully.

“His songs were about fighting for freedom,” Hnaraki said.

Six members of The Cornell Middle Eastern Ensemble also took the stage with traditional Persian instruments. They played spirited selections of Persian music in honor of Daneshvar.

Adams, an ICOA board member, said the event hopes to inform the Ithaca community about censorship around the world.

“We are in a country that enjoys freedom of speech, a liberty that is not experienced everywhere around the world,” Adams said.