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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As an estimated 60,000 barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico in one day of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill—the Library of Congress named W.S. Merwin the next Poet Laureate. Merwin, 82, is a staunch environmentalist who actively works to save the fragile ecosystem in his home state of Hawaii.
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Zaw Thet Htwe is a Burmese sports journalist. In 2008, Htwe was working with Burmese comedian Maung Thura -also known as Zargana- to deliver aid and support to the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma on May 2, 2008. While working as humanitarians for the Burmese people, Htwe and Zargana were placed under arrest by the Junta government.
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This past Thursday Cave Canem held writers’ workshops in City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s houses. That evening, they attended a reading by Colleen J. McElroy, Carl Phillips, Claudia Rankine, and Sapphire under a tent on Monterrey Street.
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Earlier this month, law enforcement officers pulled over a vehicle that ran a stop sign on Pittsburgh’s South Side. One passenger was arrested after he failed to produce immigration papers. According to immigration rights activist Sister Janice Vanderneck, the arresting officer scoffed, “Welcome to Arizona.”
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Congo/Women, a Pittsburgh-based Space Gallery exhibit of photographs documenting the effects of gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, asks viewers “too look and to learn and then to act,” according to a statement from the exhibit’s website.
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Here on Sampsonia Way, City of Asylum writer-in-residence Khet Mar and her family marked the 65th birthday of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by drawing and painting portraits of her. Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest due to her political involvement in the National League for Democracy in Burma. Following the publication of this post, she was release from house arrest in November 2010.
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Following the May 2010 release of Saw Wei, a Burmese poet imprisoned for two and a half years after “inducing crime against public tranquility,” Sampsonia Way writer Brian Honigman reflects on other Burmese authors imprisoned for their work.
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City of Asylum/Pittsburgh presents Poetry on the Northside, a free poetry reading featuring Cave Canem poets Colleen J. McElroy, Carl Phillips, Claudia Rankine, and Sapphire.
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This week’s featured poet is Toi Derricotte. As both a nationally-recognized poet and English professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Derricotte co-founded Cave Canem and serves on the board of directors for City of Asylum/Pittsburgh. Cave Canem offers a home for African-American poetry and aims to help colored poets grow both artistically and professionally.
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Cartoonists at Risk and Their Defenders
Sampsonia Way presents Cartoonists Rights Network International, a cartoon-focused human rights organization, along with several of its affiliates and their work. READ
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