One day, two memories
Rahmetullah Berxwedan Andan and Núria Codina reflect on their first encounter at The Poetry Project and the power of literature to open doors to strangers Reflections on a Strange Day, by Rahmetullah Berxwedan Andan It was a strange day, really. I woke up like a penitent that morning, as if I had opened my eyes to summon the…
Call, Response, and the Migrant Voice: Dialogic Structures in A Migrant / Local Poetry Anthology
written by Delphine Van Der Biest What happens when voices separated by class, language, or borders begin to speak to one another through poetry? Call and Response: A Migrant / Local Poetry Anthology (2018), edited by Joshua Ip, Rolinda Onates Espanola, and Zakir Hossain Khokan, brings together over thirty migrant poets and pairs them with local writers in…
Speaking Otherwise: Fieldwork, Accent, and the Ethics of Listening
written by Delphine Van Der Biest Over the span of a few weeks, I was fortunate enough to attend several ‘conversation tables’ run by the non-profit organization Amal in Ghent dedicated to supporting migrants’ integration and civic participation through individual guidance, legal assistance, and —perhaps most importantly — language training (Vlaanderen.be, n.d.). At first, I didn’t really know…
THIS IS NOT YOUR LANGUAGE – relative fluency: a zine
click: relative fluency zine Description: “This is an interactive zine: you can use the free space! You’ll find questions about language use, ownership, being a ‘native’ speaker, and having a ‘mother tongue.’ Concepts that, in evoking bloodlines and nationalities, make those of us who have complex answers or feel uneasy with such terms (in our gut or politically),…
Riflessione Uno / Reflection One: “Both” / “Tutt’ e dduje”
When driving from Naples to Faicchio the road is often wrought with potholes, cracks caused by past earthquakes never to have been repaired, dirt, dust, and sometimes, ashamedly, litter. The surrounding vista is mountainous, rocky, covered in swathes of olive trees and sunlight, biblical almost in its tranquil but rugged expanse conjuring up images unchanged since Levi first…
COLLAB 