Summary
👥 The Poetry of Forced Migration – Malka al-Haddad and Loraine Masiya Mponela: In Conversation
🎟️ To attend, register here
🗓️ Thursday, 28 March 2024, Online, 6-7.30pm UK Time
Join us for an evening of poetry and conversation with poets Malka al-Haddad and Loraine Masiya Mponela.
As part of the evening, Malka and Loraine will read and discuss each other’s and their own work and share insights and reflections on the influences they draw on in their writing and activism.
The readings and conversation take place online on Thursday, 28 March 2024, from 6pm till 7.30pm UK time.
ABOUT THE POETS
● Malka Al Haddad is the author of The Truth at the End of the Night (Palewell Press Ltd, 2023) and Birds Without Sky: Poems from exile (Harriman House Ltd, 2018). Malka grew up during the Iran-Iraq war and lost several close family members during the first Gulf War and American invasion in 2003. She became a poet and a human rights advocate, which attracted hostility towards her in Iraq. While she was studying English in preparation for her PhD in the UK, death threats against her escalated and she couldn’t return back to her beloved home and family. Malka’s asylum claim was continually refused by the Home Office and after 11 years, she was eventually granted leave to remain, but without access to public funding. She is now an ambassador for City of Sanctuary in the UK. Malka’s pain and anger on behalf of all those caught up in the UK asylum system give her poetry a passionate strength and urgency.
● Loraine Masiya Mponela is a migrants rights campaigner, community organiser and the author of Now I Sing: 50 poems to celebrate 50 years (Independently published, 2024) and I Was Not Born a Sad Poet (Independently published, 2022). Loraine was born and raised in Malawi, and currently lives in England, UK. A writer of poetry, comedy and articles, her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies, journals, and magazines.
ABOUT FORCED MIGRATION AND THE ARTS
Forced Migration and The Arts is a global network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, artists, academics and activists from around the world. The network hosts monthly discussion panels around forced migration and the arts, and aims to:
● bring together refugee and non-refugee artists, activists, scholars and art spaces,
● create a platform for conversation, dialogue, discussion and the sharing of ideas, experiences, knowledge, information and approaches, and
● encourage mutual support and collaboration.
