Want to open up some political space? Read a poem

A New York Times article about a poetry salon in Syria includes one of the more charming sentences I’ve read in the media lately:

“Lukman Derky, the host of a weekly poetry salon here, was in classic form, a beer perched below a microphone he used to joke, to soothe, to provoke….He also politely apologized to any secret policemen he might have offended with one of his stories. Two men who fit that description, sitting at a table by the bar, quietly sipped their drinks.”

The article runs through a cast of artistic characters gently pushing the Syrian establishment. One poetry editor put it this way: Syria’s is “a culture that loathes dialogue,” but the poetry salon opens a different kind of space.
“What is tackled here,” he told the Times, “would never be approached elsewhere.”

I’d love to know more about the publishers, writers and musicians mentioned in the piece — any freelancers out there looking for profile subjects? This sounds different from the Syria we usually see in the news…