Haleh Liza Gafori is a vocalist, composer, poet, and translator born in NYC of Iranian descent. She first heard Molana Rumi’s poems as a child and over the last two decades has forged a deep connection with the work through singing the lyrics in Persian as well as translating the poems into English. In 2022, her book of translations entitled GOLD was published by New York Review Books. With a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, she has developed a performance piece also titled GOLD, weaving music and poems, sung and recited in both Persian and English. In April 2024, she will return from a 6 week residency at MacDowell where she is completing the second volume of translations as well as further developing the performance piece. Gafori has performed and  offered workshops and lectures across the country, at venues and institutions such as Stanford University, Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, Bradford Literary Fest, and The New York Public Library.