On the Frontline: Beyond the Stereotypes

Monday 9th October at 7.30 pm at West Greenwich Library
146 Greenwich High Road, London SE10 8NN

Come along to an exciting evening of poetry and discussion and get creative!

These are challenging times for Muslims, Jews and Black people with these groups on the frontline confronting racism. In the face of hostility, Muslim, Black and Jewish cultural communities can draw strength and solidarity from one another.

Come along and gain insights into the complexity of these identities.
Bring an object that is meaningful for your identity.
With poets
Omer Aksoy – Dzifa Benson – Barbara Saunders

Omer Aksoy’s poems reflect on relationships, nature, and politics. His work has appeared in Poets’ Poems, a poetry anthology in Turkish and he performed in Exiled Words, exploring the life of a diaspora poet. He is a member of Exiled Writers Ink and Greenwich Meantime Stanza.

Dzifa Benson is a Ghanaian-British, multi-disciplinary artist who explores identity, heritage and being via a constellation of literary and non-literary art forms, journalism, as well as immersive technologies. She is a poet, curator, dramaturge, and playwright. Her most recent collection is Staying Human.

Barbara Saunders’ poems appear in multiple anthologies and magazines and online. She is a member of Exiled Writers Ink and Sutton Jewish community in south London.

Literary Activism

Towards an Open Land: On the Frontline Together

In response to rising Islamophobia and anti-Semitism across the UK, Exiled Writers Ink will be bringing together a diverse range of Muslim and Jewish writers currently living in Britain. Through workshops, they will explore their personal narratives and literary traditions to create poetic responses.

After these London workshops, we will take our project on the road to expand the conversation. These events with local communities will include poetry, discussion and workshops on the nuances of writing poetry as an enquiry into transnational cultural identities.

Other Voices Project

4 Free Sunday afternoon
Workshops

with acclaimed writers & facilitator-tutors

Aviva Dautch – Nick Makoha – Shazea Quraishi

This short course aims to help articulate your experiences, drawing on your cultural background to create work that resists stereotypes and celebrates difference and diversity. What insights come from listening to each other’s stories?

In the face of increasing hostility, Muslim, Black and Jewish cultural communities can draw strength and solidarity from one another.

The workshops build from an exploration of the creative process to completing work you are proud of.

Come listen, learn and be inspired.

After these workshops, we aim to form a collective of writers to draw in London’s local communities to expand the conversation.
Sunday 26th March 3 to 5 pm
Sunday 2nd April 3 to 5 pm
Sunday 16th April 3 to 5 pm
Sunday 7th May 3 to 5 pm

49 Great Ormond Street
London WC1N 3HZ
(nearest tube: Russell Square)

Free for Exiled Writers Ink 2023 members
Join here >
Contact EWI in confidence if there is a problem

Register for the 4 workshops: exiledwritersink@gmail.com

With thanks to the Edge Funds

Workshops

Mondays 24th June, 1st, 22nd, 29th July from 6 to 8 pm

SOAS, 10 Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG (nearest tube: Russell Square)

Facilitated by experienced Muslim and Jewish tutors working together, this short course aims to help you articulate your experiences, drawing on your cultural backgrounds to create work that resists stereotypes and celebrates difference and diversity.
In the face of increasing hostility, the two communities can draw strength and solidarity from one another.
Four workshops build from an exploration of the creative process to completing work you are proud of.
Come listen, learn and be inspired.

About the tutors:
Shamim Azad is a bilingual poet, storyteller and writer of Bangladeshi origin.
Ariel Kahn is a published novelist and lecturer in creative writing.

After these London workshops, we will take the project on the road in England to draw in local communities to interactively expand the conversation about imposed identities.

Register now: exiledwritersink@gmail.com

Free for Exiled Writers Ink 2019 members. Otherwise, join EWI (£15) for 4 free workshops. FREE if there is a payment problem.
www.exiledwriters.co.uk

The first event was
On the Frontline: Jewish and Muslim Poets Speak Out
Changing Wor(l)ds Literature Festival
Saturday 25th May from 12.30 to 2.30 pm
Nottingham Writers’ Studio, 25 Hockley, Nottingham NG1 1FH
with poets Amir Darwish, Dr Jennifer Langer, Mohamed Mohamed and Jill Abram.
Come and hear their poems and join them in the discussion.