Poetry and conflict

SOUTHBANK CENTRE WELCOMES INTERNATIONAL POETS AND
HIGHLIGHTS THEMES OF WAR AND CONFLICT
IN POETRY INTERNATIONAL 2015

Thursday 23 July – Sunday 26 July 2015
#PoetryInternational

Southbank Centre’s Poetry International festival, founded by Ted Hughes in 1967, returns this summer for four days of events showcasing international poetry. True to Hughes’ vision of highlighting both traditional and new forms of poetry, the festival welcomes poets from across the world for a varied programme of talks, readings, workshops, performances, music, films, family and free events. This year’s festival is focused on themes of war, conflict and oppression and features stories of political adversity and personal struggle.

As well as two groups of poets from Afghanistan and Pakistan, over 30 poets, writers, translators, performers and musicians will gather at Southbank Centre including Choman Hardi, Warsan Shire, Kei Miller, Imtiaz Dharker, Malika Booker and Jo Shapcott. Travelling from over ten countries including Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, Palestine, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Jamaica, USA, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, they will read their work in a number of languages including Pashto, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.

Those coming to Southbank Centre include many poets with incredible stories of hardship that showcase the power of poetry including Sahira Sharif, founder of Mirman Baheer Society, a women’s literary society based in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul and the surrounding regions. Meeting weekly to share and recite poetry as a form of resistance, many living outside the capital are forced to share their verses by phoning the society in secret and keeping their involvement hidden from their families for fear of retribution. Often writing under the protection of pen names, members have suffered death threats for exposing the truth of their everyday sufferings of war, grief, love and separation. Their plight was brought to the public realm in an article written by New York Times journalist Eliza Griswold who also joins the festival for several events and workshops.

Saleem Khan, Zahid Ullah Khan and Dilawar Khan are Pashto-speaking poets from Pakistan traditionally known for writing traditional poetry celebrating their mountainous terrain, tribal culture and love. As Islamist militants tightened their hold on Pakistan’s tribal regions, they were forced to compose jihadist messages of war, brutality and conformity; penning memorial messages to suicide bombers, recording recruitment messages and creating slogans for Taliban commanders. Forced to flee their homes in the North Waziristan region in an attempt to dislodge the militants, they are attempting to restore tradition to their writing amidst a refugee life. Enduring rationed food and overcrowded housing, they three of 50 poets amongst a mass migration of 700,000 Pakistanis. They are joined by Washington Post journalist Aamir Iqbal, who met with them in Pakistan last year.

Further poets and contributors include Ghareeb Iskander, Nick Makoha, Rafeef Ziadeh, Paul Batchelor, Sasha Dugdale, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Sean Haefeli, Etta Ermini,  Meena Ibrahimkhil, Shkola Zadran, Stephen Watts, Hubert Moore, Nasrin Parvas, Pascale Petit, Ebrahim Golestan, Reem Kelani, Jasmine Cooray, Aviva Dautch and Shazea Quraishi.

Jude Kelly, Southbank Centre’s Artistic Director, said:
“In his programme notes for the first ever Poetry International festival in 1967, Ted Hughes wrote that poetry: ‘is a universal language of understanding in which we can all hope to meet.’ At that time, the festival served to get poetry out from behind the Iron Curtain and to share it with artists and audiences from the west in order to inspire and challenge them. It is this political and poetic vision that has formed the heart of the festival ever since. True to his desire to highlight an international perspective and the conditions modern writers face today, this year’s festival has a special focus on the Middle East and welcomes poets from countries including Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, Palestine, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Featuring poets whose freedom of expression has been suppressed under the influences of war and conflict, we are particularly privileged to welcome two groups of poets from Afghanistan and Pakistan who share their incredible stories of adversity and highlight the enduring ability of poetry to envisage change and transcend barriers.”

HIghlights of Poetry International include:

Talks and Readings:

• Pakistani poets Saleem Khan, Zahid Ullah Khan and Dilawar Khan talk about fleeing the controls and censorship of the Taliban as part of the Poetry in Conflicts Day Pass (Saturday 25 July) and join UK based poets, including 
  

  The British Writers at The VIII Krasnoyarsk Book Culture Fair

  Image by British Council Russia

  , in a Mushaira, an evening of traditional Pakistani music, contemporary British poetry and words of the Pashto language (Saturday 25 July)
• New York Times journalist Eliza Griswold joins founder of the Mirman Baheer Society, Sahira Sharif​, to discuss the women risking their lives to write poetry in Afghanistan as part of the Poetry in Conflicts Day Pass (Saturday 25 July); they later join musicians and UK based poets,Rafeef Ziadah, Jasmine Cooray and emerging poets, to honour the the women of their society in an evening of Landays, a popular form of Afghan spoken word (Sunday 26 July)
• Contemporary war poets discuss recording their experiences for future generations as part of the Poetry in Conflicts Day Pass (Saturday 25 July)
• Choman Hardi, Ghareeb Iskander and Kei Miller discuss the challenges of capturing conflict in poetry (Friday 24 July)
• An introduction to contemporary Persian poetic forms and discussions on poets response to the modernisation of Iran, translations of European poetry and new literary forms by Ted Hodgkinson and Stephen Watts (Saturday 25 July)
• Poet Hubert Moore and translator Nasrin Parvaz discuss translating some of the less well-known poems in contemporary Iranian literature (Saturday 25 July)
• Leading Iranian and UK poets including Stephen Watts, Paul Batchelor, Karen McCarthy Woolf and Pascale Petit come together to read poems by London Iranian poet Ziba Karbassi, who gained attention for Sangsar, a poem about the stoning to death of a relative of her mother (Saturday 25 July)
• Close readings and discussions on poetry translation from Paul Batchelor who reads Babak Khoshjan’s So That Minotaur (Saturday 25 July) andHubert Moore and Nasrin Parvaz on Sabeer Haka’s short poems (Saturday 25 July)
• Forward Prize winner Kei Miller, inaugural RSC Poet in Residence Malika Booker, Young Poet for London and Winner of the African Poetry Prize Warsan Shire and performance maker and curator Rachel Mars join forces to share their poetry and prose exploring sex as part of the Wellcome Collection’s Sexology Season (Sunday 26 July)

Performances:

• Palestinian singer, musician and broadcaster Reem Kelani performs Arabic and Palestinian music at Friday Lunch with Mastercard, including her arrangements of songs she recorded from women in Palestinian refugee camps (Friday 24 July)
• USA-born pianist-vocalist Sean Haefeli performs a set of jazz improvisations at Poetry International’s Friday Tonic with Mastercard (Friday 24 July)
• 2012 Poetry Parnassus delegate Nick Makoha and award-winning company Nimble Fish stage five new one-person pieces of work exploring women’s rights in UK detention centres, migration, identity and transracial adoption (Saturday 25 July)
• Dance and movement inspired by Pashto language and poetry from led by Soo Wright and Etta Ermini, the artistic director of London-based physical theatre company Etta Ermini Dance Theatre (Sunday 26 July)

Workshops:

• Performance poet and activist Rafeef Ziadah leads a workshop on activist poetry (Friday 24 July)
• Karen McCarthy Woolf combines the personal with the political in Poetry of Witness Workshop (Friday 24 July)
• Warsan Shire demonstrates how to write about violence and trauma in a way that’s empowering (Saturday 25 July)
• Workshops on how to write Ghazals with Aviva Dautch (Saturday 25 July); an introduction to feminist poetry from around the world by Shazea Quraishi (Saturday 25 July); an introduction to landays by Eliza Griswold (Sunday 26 July); an introduction to Pashto literature and languageby Washington Post journalist Aamir Iqbal (Sunday 26 July); and writer and photographer Yemisi Blake leads a workshop on censorship and secret messages in poetry for young people (Sunday 26 July)
• The Poetry Library, which is the largest public collection of modern poetry in the world, will be open to all and in residence on the Ballroom Floor, with tours and workshops throughout the festival (23-26 July)

Films:

• The UK Premiere of A Soldier Dreams of White Lilies, a cinematic performance to camera from Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish shortly before he passed away in 2008 (Friday 24 July)
• A film screening and discussion on the most devastating and poetic film to emerge from pre-revolutionary Iran, The House Is Black, by Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad and Ebrahim Golestan (Sunday 26 July)
• A film screening of Snake, a 15-minute documentary by Seamus Murphy and Eliza Griswold showcasing the photography and video behind their Afghanistan landay project as part of I Was Your Daughter: Poetry In Her Name (Sunday 26 July)

Family:

• Join Poetry Library puppets Federico, Firebird and their animal friends to learn songs and poems from Afghanistan and Pakistan in Poetry International Rug Rhymes (Friday 24 & Saturday 25 July)
• The Poetry Library invites families to bring their favourite poem or create poetry artworks to add to their collection in Around the World in 80 Poems (Saturday 25 July)

Exhibitions:

• Echoes and Reverberations, a group exhibition challenging cultural memory through objects, performances and videos from Jumana Emil Abbud's weaving of Palestinian folktales into everyday life to Joe Namy's interest in forms of collective sound and music (23 June - 16 August)

Ticket booking:
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/poetry-international
0844 847 9910, http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk

Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, comprising three iconic buildings (Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery) and occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Building on this rich heritage, Southbank Centre offers an extensive artistic and cultural programme including annual and one-off themed festivals and classical and contemporary music, performance, dance, visual art and literature and spoken word events throughout the year. www.southbankcentre.co.uk 

Shubbak (‘window’ in Arabic) is London’s premier festival of contemporary Arab culture. We offer London audiences the chance to discover and enjoy some of the most exciting voices and practitioners of contemporary Arab culture, in partnership with leading cultural organisations in London and the Arab region. Shubbak 2015 will run from 11-26 July 2015, in partnership with the British Museum, British Library, Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre, Sadler’s Wells Theatre and many others.  The 2013 festival showcased 52 events in 15 days, reaching an audience of over 55.500 people. www.shubbak.co.uk