A discussion on craft with acclaimed Native American poet and musician Joy Harjo widens to include stories about her family and ancestors, writers’ block, the forced exile of Native Americans in the US, and what it takes to balance her “two lovers,” music and poetry.
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“When you face up to those in power you always do it from the periphery, whether you are in a neighborhood in Maracaibo, a housing estate in Valencia, a university in Caracas, or in any other part of the world.” Venezuelan writer Israel Centeno on exile and the ongoing struggle with having left.
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Iranian painter Nicky Nodjoumi left his country in 1980 after an exhibition of his work opened in Tehran. “[The authorities] saw the show and they labeled me as anti-revolution, anti-Khomeini, and anti-regime,” he says. He is now an established artist living in New York.
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“My exile began long ago, before I left Venezuela.” Author Israel Centeno – former City of Asylum Pittsburgh exiled writer-in-residence – on how the extreme political polarization and violence that swept through the country in recent years has torn apart relationships and his beloved Caracas.
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Egyptian writer and Sampsonia Way columnist Hamdy El-Gazzar shares his notes from a recent stay at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh earlier this month. In this account, he stumbles upon the fun-filled art project Randyland, which is just around the corner from COAP writers’ residences.
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Egyptian writer and Sampsonia Way columnist Hamdy El-Gazzar shares his notes from a recent stay at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh earlier this month. In this account, he stumbles upon the fun-filled art project Randyland, which is just around the corner from COAP’s writer residences.
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Independent Chinese PEN Center president Tienchi Martin-Liao discusses the importance of the Tiananmen Square Massacre twenty-four years later, why China should not wait for a savior, and her work with imprisoned writer Liu Xiaobo.
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