Episodit
-
Sauti, 'voice for the voiceless' in Swahili, uses art and music to express themselves and to challenge racism in Ireland. They held the second Youth Anti-Racism Summit in Cork City Hall in 2024 and organized âRiot Against Racismâ to bring together many different performers and artists to tackle racism.
âRacism weâre gonna swing it outâ - Diamond
Thanks to the fantastic young people of Sauti Youth who talk to me for this podcast and who share their poetry, spoken word and music with us: Emmanuella, Ebenezer, Zoe, Kanyi, Pablo, Diamond, Toby and Caleb. And to Mark Mavambu and Raphael Olympio, youth mentors and founders of Sauti Studios who also share their insights on activism and working for change.
The poetry featured was created at a special workshop by Raphael Olympio (funded by the Arts Council) and the young people wrote about racism, the genocide in Congo, their hometown of Harare in Zimbabwe, âThe Sky Is The Limitâ, and their love of Nigeria. And we talked about colonialism, neo-colonialism, writing, activism and much more.
âAlthough all these countries have these great mineral resources or whatever in their country, it's supposed to be benefiting the country, not causing trouble and chaos in the country. Like this is not only happening to African countries, even in South America too, they have a lot of mineral resources and their country's donât get advantage of it - it's been happening for years. We all think this stopped by the countries being, having the so called independence, but they might have independence, but the country's not. It's not getting controlled on its own.â
- Ebeneezer
Music recorded at Wander Live Event at Laneway Studios, Cork where Sauti Youth performed 'Change' and 'They Don't Really Care About Us'.
Follow Sauti Youth @sautistudiocork & Cork Migrant Centre @corkmigrantcentre
Produced by @bairbreflood // bairbreflood.org
Thanks to the Arts Council of Ireland for their continued support and funding.
-
Good Day Cork was created in 2018 with a mission to amplify Cork's unrepresented voices. The first event they held was Many Tongues of Cork in March 2019.
Many Tongues is a multilingual prose and poetry gathering that recognises Cork's intercultural identity. And the aim of the event is to help people understand different cultures by using the sounds of the languages spoken by her people.
Joanna Dukkipati also organises regular salon events, podcasts and arts festivals focusing on the arts and diverse voices, and publishes a zine, also called Good Day Cork once a month.
-
Puuttuva jakso?
-
Olha Matso has performed at poetry readings and spoken word events at the Winding Stair Bookshop and Vicar St. (as part of the Red Cross/Ukrainian Action Ireland event in 2022) and others throughout Ireland.
Sheâs created poetry videos on her youtube channel and was recently commissioned by artist Varvara Shavrova for a poetry reading at the launching of an installation at the Photo Museum Ireland. Olha is studying performing arts, acting for stage and screen, and she often blends poetry with movement, dance and performance.
The âExecuted Renaissanceâ, as Olha explains, was an artistic movement violently repressed by the Stalinist regime. These Ukrainian poets, writers, and artists of the 1920s and early 1930s founded many literary organisations, and created art as they put it: "on the brink of the possible". Hundreds of them were deported, imprisoned or shot.
'Absurdity - and magical realism - it's more realistic than real life. It comes from the real life. People just live their lives in this domestic style, they forget about that magic and poetry. It comes to us to remind that ok, you live in this world, in a real world, but it's a magical world.'
Follow her @olhamatso and watch her poetry videos.
-
'So I wanted to bring Syria back to life, the Syria that I fell in love with before war. And that's what I wanted to do. That's what I did in the book. Like I talk about food, my grandma's cooking, the music, scenery, the literature, the books, the love scenes, the love chapters where I fall in love with my husband. And I wanted to bring that to life. So in the book, the war is just a small chapter of it, but for me, the most important thing was life before war and after.'
Suad Aldarra is a Syrian-Irish writer and data scientist. She was selected as the Common Currency writer in residence for Cuirt International Festival and has been on panels at many different literary festivals throughout Ireland, including at the Dalkey Book Festival, and most recently in April 2024, at the Cork World Book Festival. Her debut memoir, I Donât Want to Talk About Home was published by Penguin in 2022, and was shortlisted for the âAn Post Irish Biography of the Yearâ Award.
Follow Suad Aldarra here and here, and her website.
Produced by Bairbre Flood with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland.
-
Continuing on with the African Youth Artistic Poetry poets from Dzaleka in Malawi, Iâm delighted to have Kenny Mujago, Mirielle Abedi, Eagle, and Harry Rama as my guests today.
'A lot of my poems are advocating for Africa and refugees.' - Harry Rama
Kenny Mujago, reads an extract from his story, âA Snack From The Corner Streetâ about the myriad connections food like chapati creates. Mirielle Abedi reads her poems, 'Wipe My Tears', and 'Woman', Eagle reads his poem 'Tears of Innocence' and Harry Rama recites two of his pieces:
'Ask yourself why? To us poor, never say I am not me, but say I am me with the confidence without fearing anybody. Today is me. After so many years you. Life changing time, not because I'm wearing these clothes. Then you wanna undermine me, then you wanna laugh at me, but you don't know my tomorrow.' - Harry Rama
Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and produced by Bairbre Flood.
-
Charles Lipanda Matenga is a poet and activist and founder of AYAP - African Youth Artistic Poetry. His poems have been published in the anthology âOur Voices Are Gatheringâ in 2023 and âBeing A Refugee Wasnât A Choiceâ due out later this year.
'Our flag is dying for you have failed to protect your mother Congo. You brought war instead of peace. When will you stop grinding and crushing us? We are spice in the mortar. How long these bloodshed be swimming eternal? We are refugees with no shelters. The rhythm of hymns sang by souls. For the guns, guns, guns have been killing us.'
Ruth Takondwa a poet and advocate for gender equality and refugee rights in Dzaleka refugee camp, She reads 'A Hopeless Girl', 'A Woman In Esther':
'A girl in Esther, she has been useless for so long. Seeing her with a bag on her back, laughing at her, that she's wasting her time for. But see now she's opening evils and poverty doors. She's walking above the ground. Even the wind is afraid to attack. See, she's empowering the girls making word honey for girls.
Now she's very fantastic.'
Firstborn, poet and activist, was selected to be part of the Global Young Influencers group in Malawi. Heâs got a unique style, influenced by the Caribbean poet EA Prince, and he reads two pieces, including 'Is It A Case?':
'Africa, save your tomorrow's generation. Build peace in your neighbor's mansion. Escape the white colonization. Save our mother Congo. Today, it's us. Tomorrow might be anyone.'
Produced by Bairbre Flood with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland.
-
We talk about de-colonialising beauty standards, writing as a lifeline, experiencing the world through the eyes of her daughter, and 'setting a platform where things that weâre uncomfortable with discussing are being discussed'.
â Neo Florence Gilsonâ is a poet, writer and storyteller from South Africa. In 2021, she was awarded the â Play it Forward Fellowshipâ with Skein Press. Her writing is published in The Stinging Fly, Storm's Journal of Poetry, Prose and Visual Art, The Irish Examiner and Poetry Jukebox Belfast. And she's Artist in Residence with â Sample Studiosâ and the Graffiti Theatre Company in Cork.
Follow her: @neogilsonartist
Thanks to the Arts Council of Ireland for their continued support.
Produced by Bairbre Flood (@bairbreflood)
-
Palestinian poet Marwan Makhoul has published several works of poetry, including 'Hunter of Daffodils', 'Land of the Sad Passiflora', 'Verses The Poems Forgot With Me', 'Where is my Mom?' and 'A Letter From The Last Man'. His poems have won several awards and appeared worldwide in Arabic publications and translated into many languages.
'That poem was written ten years ago. It's exactly the same details. The world just keeps quiet, you know. The war keeps repeating itself.' - Marwan Makhoul on 'Portrait of Gaza'
Marwan was invited to Ireland by poet Annemarie NĂ ChurreĂĄin (Poetry Ireland and Liam Carson of IMRAM) for the 'Listen To The Birds' series of multilingual events which blended Arabic and English - and Irish versions of his poems by Eibhlis Carcione, Liam De Paor and Aine Ni Fhoghlu. Two of these translations by Eibhlis Carcione are featured in this episode.
Marwan recites 'Portrait of Gaza', 'Verses The Poems Forgot About Me' and 'On The Train To Tel Aviv', and Raphael reads the English translations.
We talk about many things, including why it's so important that artists speak out about what's happening right now, and how to prevent poetry from slipping into sloganeering while also engaging with political issues.'The artist through the creative process, they give a new image of the personal and the national...Politicians, they put makeup on the truth. Whereas the role of the artist is to wash away that makeup, and actually expose some kind of reality.'
__
Wander is an Arts Council of Ireland funded podcast series produced by Bairbre Flood which explores poetry related to migration, human rights and refugee solidarity.
-
Since October 7th, Israel has killed at least thirteen Palestinian poets and writers in Gaza. One of the most renowned is Saleem Al-Naffar. Throughout his life and career he advocated for peaceful resistance and documented the Palestinian struggle to survive.
Hamasâ actions on October 7th and their refusal to hand over the hostages were despicable actions by a corrupt terrorist organisation. But Hamasâ actions were not carried out by the thousands of men, women and children whoâve been killed since October. Hamas is not these thirteen poets and writers. Hamas is not Saleem Al-Naffar.
Al-Naffar was born in a refugee camp in Gaza, his family having been displaced from Jaffa, and as a child he moved with his family to Jordan and then Syria. He studied Arabic literature at Tishreen University in Syria and in 1994, returned to Gaza, where he published poetry collections, novels, and his autobiography.
His poem Life reads, âKnives might eat / what remains of my ribs, / machines might smash / what remains of stones, / but life is coming, / for that is its way, / creating life even for us.â
On Dec. 7 2023, Al-Naffar and his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in Gaza City.
This is an extract of his poem, âO Loversâ:
'Many corners of our home
are wound with our history.
Time did not exclude us.
Their crazy evil machine
did not smash our hopes.
The perfume of right sleeps in arteries
buried inside us.
Even if our footpaths lengthened
and our tragedies went further than insane,
right will come, slowly.'
__
The poet, Heyba Kamal Abu Nada, who wrote the novel Oxygen is Not for the Dead, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza on October 20th.
The poet, novelist, and community activist Omar Abu Shaweesh was killed on October 7th during the shelling of the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza.
On October 16, writer Abdullah Al-Aqad was killed, alongside his wife and children, when an Israeli shell struck his house in Khan Younis.
Writer and journalist Mustafa Hassan Mahmoud Al-Sawwaf was killed, alongside several members of his family, when an Israeli shell struck his home on November 18th.
And it just goes on and on. Many of these poets and writers killed along with their families.
The poet and writer Nour al-Din Hajjaj was the author of the play The Gray Ones and the novel Wings That Do Not Fly. This was his final message to the outside world:
âThis is why I am writing now; it might be my last message that makes it out to the free world, flying with the doves of peace to tell them that we love life, or at least what life we have managed to live; in Gaza all paths before us are blocked, and instead weâre just one tweet or breaking news story away from death.
Anyway, Iâll begin.
My name is Nour al-Din Hajjaj, I am a Palestinian writer, I am twenty-seven years old and I have many dreams.
I am not a number and I do not consent to my death being passing news. Say, too, that I love life, happiness, freedom, childrenâs laughter, the sea, coffee, writing, Fairouz, everything that is joyfulâthough these things will all disappear in the space of a moment.
One of my dreams is for my books and my writings to travel the world, for my pen to have wings so that no unstamped passport or visa rejection can hold it back.
Another dream of mine is to have a small family, to have a little son who looks like me and to tell him a bedtime story as I rock him in my arms.â
Nour al-Din Hajjaj was killed by an Israeli airstrike on his home in Gaza on December 2nd 2023.
___
If you want to support a Palestinian poet who managed to escape with his family - Mosab Abu Tohaâs poetry book âThings You May Find Hidden In My Earâ.
And writer Mahmoud Jouda needs support for The Right To Narrate Our Stories.
-
My guests this week: Caleb, Wealth, Angel, Gregory, Daphne, Edwin, Diamond, Nicosha and Promise - some of the inspiring young peopleâ Raphael Olympioâ works as a youth mentor with the Cork Migrant Centre (who featured last episode).
I recorded this a couple of months ago so the Anti-Racism Summit we talk about was going to be on at the end of May, and itâs interesting to hear how they were all preparing for this, and why itâs so important to have an event like this.
Many thanks again to the Arts Council who funded this particular workshop - and to Raphael and Fionnuala OâConnell of the Cork Migrant Centre.
Shout out also to the Haven Cafe, on Bachelors Quay in Cork who provided the space for the young people.
Created with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland.
-
Raphael Olympio, aka Olympio, is an immensely talented rapper and spoken word artist from Cork who was born in Togo, West Africa. He grew up in a Direct Provision Centre and feels inspired to motivate others who come from different parts of Africa and other countries across the world - and is a youth mentor with the Cork Migrant Centre.
Olympio has performed at UBUNTU: Local is Global (a CIPHER Hip Hop Interpellation) featured on RTE's Change Makers, and heâs been part of numerous collaborations and performances at Indiependence, Electric Picnic, Other Voices, and more.
He's released several spoken word/hip hop music videos - and the latest one called EPG (Exploitation, Power Greed) is absolutely brilliant, go and check it out.
He wrote a beautiful piece especially for this episode and we talk about social and racial anxiety, the richness of Africa, his creative process, and how his work as a mentor inspires and motivates him.
The creative work he does with the young people in the Cork Migrant Centre is something we look at more in the next episode - when I meet the young people at his workshop.
Thanks so much to Raphael Olympio for all the great - and valuable - work heâs doing - and thanks to the Arts Council for their support.
-
This week Iâm talking to Iraqi poet, Majed Mujed, whoâs lived in Ireland since 2015. One of the founders of the Iraqi House of Poetry, he worked as a journalist and publisher in the Iraqi cultural press for twenty years. Heâs published five collections of poetry in Arabic and his first book to be published in Ireland, âThe Book of Trivialitiesâ is out now, published by Skein Press.
In 2021, he was one of the inaugural recipients of Skein Presses âPlay It Forwardâ Fellowships from the Arts Council, and we also talk about that in the programme, and how it helped him.
âThe Book of Trivialitiesâ is originally written in Arabic, and translated into English by the award-winning translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid.
The poet Jessica Traynor has described it as âa gem of a book; intimate, tender, thought-provoking and intricately crafted.â
Huge thanks to Majed Mujed for talking to me - and to Zainab Salman for interpreting our conversation for us. Thanks so much for listening, and to the Arts Council of Ireland for their support.
-
Tanya is another member of âWrite to Lifeâ â the creative writing and performance group of Freedom from Torture (established in 1997, the longest-running refugee-writing group in Britain, and the only one specifically for survivors of torture.) She explains what writing means to her, how it helps the healing process â and she reads some of her work: her piece âSurviving Covid â and then the brook dried upâ. And earlier in the programme, her poem called âTreasureâ.
The Write to Life creative writing group have some great projects up on the site including: alphabet of poverty, An A-Z of Poverty a really powerful description of the asylum process â and a series called âLost And Foundâ â a combination of speech, song and recorded sound performed by a cast from Iran, Cuba, Uganda and Burundi.
And again you can find all these at Freedom From Torture.
A huge thanks to Tanya for being part of this episode, and to the Arts Council of Ireland for their continuing support.
-
Nalougo is a member of a creative writing and performance group with Freedom From Torture. âWrite To Lifeâ is the longest-running refugee-writing group in the UK, and the only one specifically for survivors of torture.
Theyâve collaborated with many galleries and museums, have produced zines, and have created several projects including one called the alphabet of poverty which explores the many failures of the asylum system in the UK.
As youâll hear Nalougo explain, âWrite To Lifeâ offers a valuable space for people to process their experiences, and he feels strongly that it could benefit so many more people.
A huge thanks to Nalougo for talking to me, and for reading his poems, âBelongingâ and âTimeâ.
Find out more about the Freedom From Torture creative writing group âWrite to Lifeâ.
-
Poet and playwright, Nandi Jola, lived in South Africa under the apartheid regime until she was 21, when she moved to Northern Ireland.
Sheâs a Rachel Baptiste 2022 Programme recipient at Smock Alley Theatre. A creative writing facilitator for Ulster University âBooks Beyond Boundariesâ, and a commissioned poet for Poetry Jukebox and Impermanence Way Archive Project 2022. Her play âThe Journeyâ, opened the International Literature Festival in Dublin in 2020, and she represented Northern Ireland at the Transpoesie Poetry Festival in 2021.
We talk about Direct Provision, South Africa, and the threat of deportation that hangs over so many people. Her debut poetry collection - Home is Neither Here Nor There - is published by Doire Press and is a beautiful, personal account of growing up under apartheid in South Africa, and her struggle as an immigrant in Belfast.
And she reads two poems from this collection - âIâm Not A Racist, Butâ and âInkâ and her specially commissioned piece for WANDER.
Thanks again to the Arts Council of Ireland for funding this new commission - and for their support for this podcast series.
-
Felicia Olusanya aka FELISPEAKS, is a Nigerian-Irish poet, performer and playwright from Co. Longford whoâs currently featured on the Leaving Cert English Curriculum with their poem âFor Our Mothers'. Theyâre a member of WeAreGriot, a poetry collective consisting of herself, Dagogo Hart & Samuel Yakura (who we talked to in the last episode) and a board member of Poetry Ireland.
They also opened for Kate Tempest at Vicar St, and have performed at festivals such as Mother Tongues, Women and Children First, in Belgium, Wexford Literary Festival, Cuirt, and the National Concert Hallâs Notes from a Quiet Land in 2021.
We've a great conversation about racism, George Nkencho, feminism, and their creative process - and their latest video, âTough Meatâ which was just released a few months ago.
You can find them @felispeaks on the socials // felispeaks.com
-
Samuel Yakura is a Nigerian born writer, poet and performing artist living in Ireland. He's a multiple-time Slam Champion both in Nigeria and in Ireland, winning Slam competitions like ALS, OxFam, and Talkatives. He's a member with the WeareGriot Poetry Collective who run regular poetry/rap and hip hop events in Dublin.
Heâs also done commissioned works for the likes of Summer in the city, Poetry Ireland, Dublin Fringe, Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation, IMMA, Gaisce Awards, amongst others. And his play, âThe Perfect Immigrantâ premiered at the New Theatre, at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2022.
We talked about his poetry videos on Tiktok, the slam poetry scene in Abuja before he left, his play, 'The Perfect Immigrant', spoken word and Joshua Bennet, and more about his creative process.
Find more of his work on his site - samuelyakura.com and on his Tiktok @samuelyakura
-
Sandrine Ndahiro is a writer and activist who moved to Ireland in 2006 from Rwanda. Sheâs the co-founder of Unsliencing Black Voices and co-editor of Unapologetic - an interdisciplinary, cultural literary magazine that celebrates marginalised voices who tackle social issues here in Ireland. The first issue of Unapologetic featured literature, artwork and articles on the theme of âChange Makersâ, and the second issue on the theme of âInbetweenâ.
With a Masters in African Literature from Limerick University, her work has appeared at the Dingle Literary Festival and at the Frederick Douglass Festival. Sheâs also a regular contributor to the online publication, Rogue Collective, and is currently starting to put together the third issue of Unapologetic.
She reads a piece specially commissioned for this podcast, inspired by a photograph of when she was a child growing up in a refugee camp - and weâve a great conversation about her background, her influences, and how she sees the future of Ireland developing.
-
Shehab is a poet from Yemen who spent time in Napier Barracks, Folkeston in the UK. Itâs one of two military sites the UK government send asylum seekers. Residents describe it as worse than a prison. Where nobody knows how long theyâll be kept there.
Thereâs been several court cases to try and close the place down, citing poor sanitation, lack of access to adequate medical care and legal advice, and severe overcrowding.
The mental health strain on the people forced to stay there is particularly inhumane as many of these people are already dealing with the fallout from war, torture and displacement.
Shehab reads two of his poems, the first a love poem, and the second, a letter poem he wrote while living in the Folkston camp.
Huge thanks to Shehab for sharing his poetry with us. If you want to find out more about the situation in the camps in the UK, go to closethecamps.uk - theyâve a link on there to a petition you can sign as well from Freedom From Torture.
-
Iya Kiva is a fantastic Ukrainian poet, translator and journalist.
Sheâs been translated into several languages, and is the author of two poetry collections - âFurther From Heavenâ and âThe First Page of Winterâ. Sheâs won numerous awards for her work including at the International Poetry Festival "Emigrant Lyre", the LitAccent-2019 award, and many more.
Iya had to leave Donetsk in 2014, when Russian-backed separatists began what many call âa Russian invasion by stealthâ, and she became a refugee within Ukraine, being forced to move to Kyiv.
Weâve a great conversation about the difficulties of trying to write - and live - during wartime; the importance of poetry especially during war; the job of being a poet - âlike a cleaner, itâs a dirty, but necessary jobâ; and much more.
In the midst of the current brutal Russian invasion, Iya continues to advocate for Ukrainian culture, and the hope for a genuine engagement with Ukrainian writing.
This first poem she reads is called 'Ilya (from âPeople of Dunbasâ)' - and â[untitled] if you close your eyesâ - you can find them here. Other poems in the podcast include âHow Long Have You Been A Daughter?â and âThe Year of Ukraineâ.
Also check out this excellent essay by Katherine E. Young - âWomen Writing War Redux: Ukraineâs Iya Kivaâ and this one edited by Zarina Zabrisky - Genres For War: Writers in Ukraine on Literature.
Her poems have appeared in English translation in Asymptote, Literary Hub, Los Angeles Review of Books, Words Without Borders, and others. Some poems not in the podcast, but translated into English by Amelia Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk are here. And âFebruary. Get the ink and weep - Contemporary Poetry From Ukraineâ
You can also follow her on twitter - Iya Kiva @sumriko.
Slava Ukraine.
- Näytä enemmän
