The Loose-Haired Women: A Haunted Reading Room at KALW

Bat Witch Ghost, Cuentero Productions, and the Center for the Art of Translation team up to create an artist-made haunted reading room built into the lobby of the KALW studio.

Inspired by the short story “The Loose-Haired Women” by Salomat Vafo, translated from the Uzbek by Sabrina Jaszi and published in I Was Alive Here Once: Ghost Stories by Two Lines Press, this installation reinvents the classic ghost story, abandoning tired tropes to confront modern political horrors and blurring the lines between the living and the dead.

In celebration of the opening of the reading room on March 19, Sabrina Jaszi will read her translation of “The Loose-Haired Women,” followed by a conversation with Two Lines Press Calico Series Editor Sarah Coolidge.

7:00 pm PDT

To celebrate the launch of I Was Alive Here Once, Sabrina Jaszi reads her translation of “The Loose-Haired Women,” followed by a conversation with Two Lines Press Calico Series Editor Sarah Coolidge. Tea and light snacks will be provided. Tickets for the opening (opens in a new tab)include a copy of I Was Alive Here Once

The Haunted Reading Room will be open to the public, free of charge March 19–March 20, 10:00 am–5:00 pm.

10:00 am to 5:00 pm PDT

Reading Room opens to the public. It will be open and accessible to the public during KALW operating hours.

BWG is an arts organization building on the tradition of the American haunted house. They unite artists, neighbors, and local businesses in collaborative creation, artistic stimulation, and neighborhood connection. Their mission is to use recycled and discarded materials whenever possible and to provide paid opportunities for artists and craftspeople. Through a sustainable revenue model, they aim to become a lasting San Francisco tradition that celebrates the city’s creative spirit and love of costumed performance. Bat Witch Ghost demonstrates how community-driven art can be both financially viable and socially transformative, designing gathering spaces where creativity and community intersect.

Cuentero Productions is an award-nominated, multilingual, multimedia production house. It draws its name and spirit from the Colombian tradition of the cuentero—storytellers who fill town squares and theaters with the magic of stories. Rejecting one-mold-fits-all models, the company focuses on a deeply collaborative co-creation process to tell entertaining fiction and nonfiction tales exactly as the creators want them told. The house’s creative vision is led by Creative Director Camilo Garzón, an award-winning interdisciplinary artist, writer, and filmmaker. Beyond their current collaboration at KALW, Cuentero Productions has a prolific history of adapting complex narratives. This includes notable past literary and multimedia projects with the Center for the Art of Translation’s Two Lines Press such as “Husband in a Box,” “Cigarettes Until Tomorrow,” and “Soroche.”

Ghost stories from Korea, Yemen, Poland, Japan, Uzbekistan, Iceland, Tanzania, and Thailand. A water ghost and a forest ghost fall in love as developers destroy the only world they know. A midwife helps a jinn give birth. When an ancient tree is cut down, it unleashes a family’s dark secret along with a vengeful spirit. Through eight contemporary stories exploring a range of genres, from fantasy and horror to eco-fiction and romance, this collection breathes new life into the ghost story, foregoing familiar tropes to speak to today’s unique political and ecological horrors. Both lighthearted and menacing, I Was Alive Here Once will lead you into the haze where the living and the dead meet.