All posts tagged City of Asylum

  • 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert Highlights

    This video shows highlights of the 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert in which Yusef Komunyakaa, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Khet Mar, Huang Xiang, Hinemoana Baker, and Maryia Martysevich read their work to the musical accompaniment of a 16-piece ensemble led by jazz legend Oliver Lake.

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  • Letter to City of Asylum/Pittsburgh

    Translated by Michelle Yeh Before the Tiananmen Massacre took place on June 4, 1989, I had been engaged in literary activities at five universities in Beijing. In 1987, I was charged with “disturbing peace of society” […]

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  • Protecting Freedom of Expression: Interview with ICORN’s Helge Lunde

    Sampsonia Way is pleased to present a series of interviews with writers from all over the world who have participated in International Cities if Refugee Network (ICORN). By way of introduction we present this interview with ICORN Executive Director, Helge Lunde. Here he tells the story of ICORN’s founding, how it has provided support for persecuted writers, and what inspires him to do this work.

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  • Soheil Najm Translates Iraqi Poetry

    For the Iraqi translator and poet Soheil Najm, poetry offers an opportunity to start a conversation across cultural barriers. Najm is the co-editor of Flowers of Flame: Unheard Voices of Iraq, an anthology of Iraqi poets in translation. He has also translated selections of work by Nikos Kazantzakis, Alasdair Gray, Ted Hughes, and Jose Saramago. Soheil Najm presents Ra’ad Zamil’s poem, offering a glimpse into the struggles of a generation of Iraqis who have survived Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and are trying to make a life in Iraqi’s nascent democracy.

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