Poet and youth worker Dean Oke studied Community Development and Social Policy, and has a postgrad in youth work and his poetry reflects this interest in community issues and social justice. He’s an emerging poet with a strong social conscience and an advocate for youth voices. We talk about whether there’s enough room for young people’s voices in literary spaces right now, the importance of spaces like the YMCA and Sauti in Cork, and what the future could look like in this regard. Dean also exp...
Jun 06, 2025•21 min
Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan is a writer, performer, and arts consultant from India living in Ireland. Her work's been published by Dedalus Press, Lifeboat Press, Little Island, Poetry Ireland, Banshee, and The Stinging Fly amongst others. She's been the recipient of multiple Arts Council Awards, one of which supported her being the 2023 Writer in Residence for the Institute of Physics. In 2024 she was selected as a Goethe-Institute Studio Quantum Artist in Residence, and is currently under commiss...
May 23, 2025•54 min
Amano is a multidisciplinary artist with roots in Ireland and Japan. Her practice includes sean-nós, vocal improvisation and folk storytelling. She’s working to de-colonise the Irish language through music, and writes beautiful, evocative and often politically charged poetry and spoken word. She reads her poem, 'Underpass 6' and we've a lovely talk about sean-nós singing, the everyday practice of decolonising ourselves, how activism fuels her art, being a culchie from both Ireland and Japan and ...
May 09, 2025•47 min
In this special Poetry Day episode, Lavie Olupona reads her poems and we talk about being a young writer in Ireland today, setting up the new magazine Blaithi ('Little Flower' in Irish) and how her Nigerian and Traveller ethnicity influences her writing. Wander, produced by Bairbre Flood, gives space to poets with lived experience of exile and is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland. www.bairbreflood.org...
May 01, 2025•19 min
Palestinian-American poet, journalist, teacher and activist Noor Hindi's debut poetry collection Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow published by Haymarket Books, was an honorable mention for the Arab American Book Award. She reads us several poems from this collection - ‘Palestine’, ‘Breaking News’, ‘Swearing Allegiance’. And ‘A Day, A Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident?’ for Rouzan al-Najjar after / in defiance of a piece published by the New York Times about al Najjar'. S...
Apr 25, 2025•35 min
Welcome back to this new season of Wander. This year we’ve got a fantastic lineup - and for the first time including Traveller poets. For those outside of Ireland, Travellers are the indigenous people of Ireland. They are a distinct ethnic minority with their own culture, language and traditions. In the 1960’s the Irish government brought in a series of laws that tried to destroy their way of life. My guest today, Helen Hutchinson, was one of the first families to experience this state policy an...
Apr 15, 2025•30 min
Racism in Greece, Mahmoud Darwish, normalising pushbacks and genocide, writing as witness, collective liberation, Moody reads his poem ‘Borders’ and Mustafa reads his ‘ Kanoon’ (‘ كانون’) - from the Boat Arts Centre again in Kypseli, Athens. Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and produced by Bairbre Flood .
Dec 03, 2024•27 min
Sauti, 'voice for the voiceless' in Swahili, uses art and music to express themselves and to challenge racism in Ireland. They held the second Youth Anti-Racism Summit in Cork City Hall in 2024 and organized ‘Riot Against Racism’ to bring together many different performers and artists to tackle racism. ‘Racism we’re gonna swing it out’ - Diamond Thanks to the fantastic young people of Sauti Youth who talk to me for this podcast and who share their poetry, spoken word and music with us: Emmanuell...
Sep 02, 2024•33 min
Good Day Cork was created in 2018 with a mission to amplify Cork's unrepresented voices. The first event they held was Many Tongues of Cork in March 2019. Many Tongues is a multilingual prose and poetry gathering that recognises Cork's intercultural identity. And the aim of the event is to help people understand different cultures by using the sounds of the languages spoken by her people. Joanna Dukkipati also organises regular salon events, podcasts and arts festivals focusing on the arts and d...
Aug 01, 2024•13 min
Olha Matso has performed at poetry readings and spoken word events at the Winding Stair Bookshop and Vicar St. (as part of the Red Cross/Ukrainian Action Ireland event in 2022) and others throughout Ireland. She’s created poetry videos on her youtube channel and was recently commissioned by artist Varvara Shavrova for a poetry reading at the launching of an installation at the Photo Museum Ireland. Olha is studying performing arts, acting for stage and screen, and she often blends poetry with mo...
Jul 10, 2024•23 min
'So I wanted to bring Syria back to life, the Syria that I fell in love with before war. And that's what I wanted to do. That's what I did in the book. Like I talk about food, my grandma's cooking, the music, scenery, the literature, the books, the love scenes, the love chapters where I fall in love with my husband. And I wanted to bring that to life. So in the book, the war is just a small chapter of it, but for me, the most important thing was life before war and after.' Suad Aldarra is a Syri...
Jun 11, 2024•31 min
Continuing on with the African Youth Artistic Poetry poets from Dzaleka in Malawi, I’m delighted to have Kenny Mujago, Mirielle Abedi, Eagle, and Harry Rama as my guests today. 'A lot of my poems are advocating for Africa and refugees.' - Harry Rama Kenny Mujago, reads an extract from his story, ‘A Snack From The Corner Street’ about the myriad connections food like chapati creates. Mirielle Abedi reads her poems, 'Wipe My Tears', and 'Woman', Eagle reads his poem 'Tears of Innocence' and Harry ...
Jun 04, 2024•15 min
Charles Lipanda Matenga is a poet and activist and founder of AYAP - African Youth Artistic Poetry . His poems have been published in the anthology ‘Our Voices Are Gathering’ in 2023 and ‘Being A Refugee Wasn’t A Choice’ due out later this year. 'Our flag is dying for you have failed to protect your mother Congo. You brought war instead of peace. When will you stop grinding and crushing us? We are spice in the mortar. How long these bloodshed be swimming eternal? We are refugees with no shelters...
May 28, 2024•17 min
We talk about de-colonialising beauty standards, writing as a lifeline, experiencing the world through the eyes of her daughter, and 'setting a platform where things that we’re uncomfortable with discussing are being discussed'. Neo Florence Gilson is a poet, writer and storyteller from South Africa. In 2021, she was awarded the Play it Forward Fellowship with Skein Press. Her writing is published in The Stinging Fly, Storm's Journal of Poetry, Prose and Visual Art, The Irish Examiner and Po...
May 20, 2024•19 min
Palestinian poet Marwan Makhoul has published several works of poetry, including 'Hunter of Daffodils', 'Land of the Sad Passiflora', 'Verses The Poems Forgot With Me', 'Where is my Mom?' and 'A Letter From The Last Man'. His poems have won several awards and appeared worldwide in Arabic publications and translated into many languages. 'That poem was written ten years ago. It's exactly the same details. The world just keeps quiet, you know. The war keeps repeating itself.' - Marwan Makhoul on 'P...
May 09, 2024•39 min
Since October 7th, Israel has killed at least thirteen Palestinian poets and writers in Gaza. One of the most renowned is Saleem Al-Naffar. Throughout his life and career he advocated for peaceful resistance and documented the Palestinian struggle to survive. Hamas’ actions on October 7th and their refusal to hand over the hostages were despicable actions by a corrupt terrorist organisation. But Hamas’ actions were not carried out by the thousands of men, women and children who’ve been killed si...
Mar 19, 2024•7 min
My guests this week: Caleb, Wealth, Angel, Gregory, Daphne, Edwin, Diamond, Nicosha and Promise - some of the inspiring young people Raphael Olympio works as a youth mentor with the Cork Migrant Centre (who featured last episode). I recorded this a couple of months ago so the Anti-Racism Summit we talk about was going to be on at the end of May, and it’s interesting to hear how they were all preparing for this, and why it’s so important to have an event like this. Many thanks again to the Art...
Jul 04, 2023•28 min
Raphael Olympio, aka Olympio, is an immensely talented rapper and spoken word artist from Cork who was born in Togo, West Africa. He grew up in a Direct Provision Centre and feels inspired to motivate others who come from different parts of Africa and other countries across the world - and is a youth mentor with the Cork Migrant Centre . Olympio has performed at UBUNTU: Local is Global (a CIPHER Hip Hop Interpellation ) featured on RTE's Change Makers, and he’s been part of numerous collaboratio...
May 31, 2023•27 min
This week I’m talking to Iraqi poet, Majed Mujed, who’s lived in Ireland since 2015. One of the founders of the Iraqi House of Poetry, he worked as a journalist and publisher in the Iraqi cultural press for twenty years. He’s published five collections of poetry in Arabic and his first book to be published in Ireland, ‘ The Book of Trivialities ’ is out now, published by Skein Press. In 2021, he was one of the inaugural recipients of Skein Presses ‘Play It Forward’ Fellowships from the Arts Coun...
May 25, 2023•29 min
Tanya is another member of ‘Write to Life’ – the creative writing and performance group of Freedom from Torture (established in 1997, the longest-running refugee-writing group in Britain, and the only one specifically for survivors of torture.) She explains what writing means to her, how it helps the healing process – and she reads some of her work: her piece ‘Surviving Covid – and then the brook dried up’. And earlier in the programme, her poem called ‘Treasure’. The Write to Life creative writ...
May 22, 2023•14 min
Nalougo is a member of a creative writing and performance group with Freedom From Torture. ‘Write To Life’ is the longest-running refugee-writing group in the UK, and the only one specifically for survivors of torture. They’ve collaborated with many galleries and museums, have produced zines , and have created several projects including one called the alphabet of poverty which explores the many failures of the asylum system in the UK. As you’ll hear Nalougo explain, ‘Write To Life’ offers a valu...
May 08, 2023•21 min
Poet and playwright, Nandi Jola, lived in South Africa under the apartheid regime until she was 21, when she moved to Northern Ireland. She’s a Rachel Baptiste 2022 Programme recipient at Smock Alley Theatre. A creative writing facilitator for Ulster University ‘Books Beyond Boundaries’, and a commissioned poet for Poetry Jukebox and Impermanence Way Archive Project 2022. Her play “The Journey”, opened the International Literature Festival in Dublin in 2020, and she represented Northern Ireland ...
May 02, 2023•23 min
Felicia Olusanya aka FELISPEAKS, is a Nigerian-Irish poet, performer and playwright from Co. Longford who’s currently featured on the Leaving Cert English Curriculum with their poem ‘ For Our Mothers' . They’re a member of WeAreGriot , a poetry collective consisting of herself, Dagogo Hart & Samuel Yakura (who we talked to in the last episode) and a board member of Poetry Ireland . They also opened for Kate Tempest at Vicar St, and have performed at festivals such as Mother Tongues , Women a...
Apr 26, 2023•36 min
Samuel Yakura is a Nigerian born writer, poet and performing artist living in Ireland. He's a multiple-time Slam Champion both in Nigeria and in Ireland, winning Slam competitions like ALS, OxFam, and Talkatives. He's a member with the WeareGriot Poetry Collective who run regular poetry/rap and hip hop events in Dublin. He’s also done commissioned works for the likes of Summer in the city, Poetry Ireland, Dublin Fringe, Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation , IMMA, Gaisce Awards, amongst others. And his...
Apr 19, 2023•30 min
Sandrine Ndahiro is a writer and activist who moved to Ireland in 2006 from Rwanda. She’s the co-founder of Unsliencing Black Voices and co-editor of Unapologetic - an interdisciplinary, cultural literary magazine that celebrates marginalised voices who tackle social issues here in Ireland. The first issue of Unapologetic featured literature, artwork and articles on the theme of ‘Change Makers’, and the second issue on the theme of ‘Inbetween’. With a Masters in African Literature from Limerick ...
Apr 06, 2023•36 min
Shehab is a poet from Yemen who spent time in Napier Barracks, Folkeston in the UK. It’s one of two military sites the UK government send asylum seekers. Residents describe it as worse than a prison. Where nobody knows how long they’ll be kept there. There’s been several court cases to try and close the place down, citing poor sanitation, lack of access to adequate medical care and legal advice, and severe overcrowding. The mental health strain on the people forced to stay there is particularly ...
Jan 09, 2023•7 min
Iya Kiva is a fantastic Ukrainian poet, translator and journalist. She’s been translated into several languages, and is the author of two poetry collections - ‘Further From Heaven’ and ‘The First Page of Winter’. She’s won numerous awards for her work including at the International Poetry Festival "Emigrant Lyre", the LitAccent-2019 award, and many more. Iya had to leave Donetsk in 2014, when Russian-backed separatists began what many call ‘a Russian invasion by stealth’, and she became a refuge...
Nov 09, 2022•27 min
Njamba Koffi is a talented poet, musician and writer originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. When Njamba was 11, he and his family, like millions of others, had to flee the DRC. They stayed briefly in Tanzania, then in Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi until finally settling in Eswatini, where Njamba helped set up a youth group in the camp. His book, ‘Refugee, The Journey Much Desired’ is based on this part of his life and he’s currently working on another part of his autobiography and a ...
Jun 16, 2022•36 min
Mayyu Ali’s poetry book, ‘Exodus - Between Genocide and Me’ describes his experiences and his journey escaping to the relative safety of Coxs Bazaar refugee camp in Bangladesh. Around 700,000 Rohingya people fled in 2017, joining about 300,000 Rohingya men, women and children who had arrived after fleeing earlier waves of violence. Mayyu is one of the people who escaped in 2017. We talk about the importance of poetry in Myanmar’s culture, some of the earliest influences on his writing, and the d...
Mar 26, 2022•18 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Aryan Ashory is a hugely talented and inspiring young Afghan poet, filmmaker and human rights activist. She writes in four languages and her poetry was recently featured on PBS America. She reads several of her poems, including ‘Hey Talib a Stain of Shame in Our History', ‘Don’t Kick Us Like a Ball’ and ‘Like a Black Ceiling Dark and Silent’ which explore, among other things, the way women are treated in Afghanistan since the Taliban took control. She shares her observations about how it's diffi...
Mar 05, 2022•18 min•Season 2Ep. 3
