Ifti Nasim

Ifti Nasim (1946 – July 22, 2011) was a

Nasim worked at a gay bar named Bistro owned by Eddie Dugan as a go-go dancer. Meeting his lover Prem, a relationship that lasted a while till Nasim discovered Prem was married; after 3-4 years however the two met again and Nasim learnt that Prem was divorced, leading the two to date again and eventually became a long lasting couple.

In 1986 he co-founded Trikone which was later renamed to Sangat/Chicago, inc. The company was officially incorporated on November 30, 1998, and involuntarily dissolved on April 13, 2007.^[8] Nasim died in a hospital in Chicago on July 22, 2011, at the age of 64, following a heart attack.

Poetry

The publication for which Nasim was best known was a book of poetry entitled Narman, a word meaning "hermaphrodite" or "half-man, half-woman" in Persian. It met immediate controversy in Pakistan and had to be distributed underground; even the printer of the book, belatedly realizing its contents, was reported to shout, "Take these unholy and dirty books away from me, or I'll set them on fire!" However, its frankness inspired a younger generation of Pakistani poets to write "honest" poetry, a genre becoming known as "narmani" poetry.^[9]

He later released Myrmecophile in 2000,^[9] and Abdoz in 2005.^[2]

References