2005

An evening with Latin American exiled writers and musicians

Alfredo Cordal (Chile)

Juan Calles (Peru)

Mentor Chico (Ecuador)

Omar Garcia Obrogon (Cuban)

Diego Laverde Rojas on his Colombian harp

Jose Navarro on his Andean flute

MC: Miriam Frank

When A Woman Lost Her Man

The mothers, wives, daughters, sisters…..who lost 8000 men

Dedicated to the women of Srebrenica

Presenters: Darija Stojnic, Amna Dumpor, Vesna Domani Hardi

East and West
The Meeting of Poets

John Weier meets Esmail Khoi

The distinguished Canadian poet John Weier has published ten books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction and has represented Canadian literature internationally. He will read with the renowned Iranian poet Esmail Khoi whose witty and political poetry has caused him to spend most of his life in exile. In Iran in the early 1980s, he was forced to spend nearly two years in hiding before fleeing in 1983. His anthologies of work translated into English are ‘Edges of Poetry: Selected Poems of Esmail Khoi (1995), the bilingual anthology ‘Outlandia: Songs of Exile’ (1999) and Voice of Exile (2002). Plus read your own work after the coffee break.

Sharing Thoughts about the New World Order

(any themes connected loosely or closely to the London bombings) – poetry, prose, images, multi-media etc

Grenzgänger / Border Cases

Stories of Immigration / Emigration / Migration

Written and performed by Martina Messing
Directed by Rebecca Tortora
Designed by Sarah Bird

We offer a storytelling workshop after the performance for more information please email:bordercases@yahoo.co.uk

Out Of Place

Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in England. She has had five books of poetry published: The Country at My Shoulder (OUP 1993), A Bowl of Warm Air (OUP 1996), Carrying My Wife (Bloodaxe 2000), Souls (Bloodaxe 2002) and How the Stone Found Its Voice (Bloodaxe 2005). She received a Cholmondeley Award in 2002. In 2003 a collection of her poems in translation was published in Holland.

Jane Duran was born in Cuba and brought up in the US and Chile. Her first collection Breathe Now, Breathe (Enitharmon Press, 1995) won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her second collection, Silences from the Spanish Civil War, was published by Enitharmon Press in 2002. A third collection, Coastal, is due in the autumn.

Plus guest poet (tba) and Open Mic session.

The Way Back

with Nora Armani, award-winning actress, playwright, author, producer, born in Egypt of Armenian parents, asks: “Is ‘return’ really possible?”

She reads from her new writing on the theme of ‘Exile and Return’. In her new work, Nora explores the issues of belonging and return to one’s place of birth after experiencing other cultures and living through exile.

Darija Stojnic
will read her short stories on Return. She is from Sarajevo, Bosnia where she lived until the outbreak of war in 1992. Some of her short stories have been published in SaLon, Big Issue, Crossing the Border and The Silver Throat of the Moon. She also writes for Bosniak Post, Norway.

Narratives of Africa

Tribute: Senait Gebremichaels reading Reesom Haile’s poetry in Tigrinea and English,
Eritrean music, Black British Sierra Leonean, author Valerie Mason-John on her debut novel, ‘Borrowed Body’ Khadija George with guest (tbc) from her anthology: ‘Write Black, Write British: From Post Colonial to Black British Literature’

Sinti (gypsy) Hauntings

Settela by Aad Wagenaar
(translation publ. Five Leaves, March 2005)
Janna Eliot, translator, on the search for Settela with
Florina, Romany poet and Romany music

“Citizenship of Sand: Window of Illusion”

Ghias Aljundi, Anywhere

Bashir Sakhawarz, Afghanistan
He has written articles, poetry and short stories and has also published three books. He recently appeared in ‘And the City Spoke’ performed at the Hampstead Theatre, London as part of EWI’s European project.

Wafaa Abdul Razzaq, Iraq
Wafaa came to the UK in 2000. She has had 3 collections of poetry published plus a CD book with music, two short stories and four novels. She has produced a further two unpublished collections of poetry, all in Arabic. Her work is gradually being translated into English.

Guitarist and singer Meguen Touko, Cameroon

Writers from tsunami affected countries

Parm Kaur, Mir Mahfuz Ali, Shantachar

Exiled Writers Ink in Paris

with Ziba Karbassi (Iran, London, Paris), Jennifer Langer (London), Ali Abdolrezaei (Iran, Paris), Parham Shahrjerdi (Iran, Paris)

Strangers on Other Shores

a night of poetry presented by Richard McKane (poet and translator) with Cristina Viti (Italian poet ), Stephen Watts (poet and translator- English) and Alev Adil (Turkish Cypriot poet).