Wander

Poets with experience of seeking refuge share their writing. Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland. Cover art painting by Shukran Shirzad. Produced by Bairbre Flood.

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Episodes

Dawood Saleh

Dawood Saleh is the author of ‘Walking Alone’, an account of the Yazidi genocide. He’s a humanitarian activist, a genocide survivor and the host of The Dawood Show on Youtube which focuses on Yazidi stories. ‘Walking Alone’ is a powerful account, based on many interviews Dawood did with survivors of the genocide. And of course, his own personal experience. And he reads several of the poems from this book in this episode. We talk about how the Yazidi’s have been discriminated against - and killed...

Feb 26, 2022•17 min•Season 2Ep. 2

Amir Darwish

Welcome back to Wander! And the second season with poets from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen and Ukraine. A Rohingya poet, a Yazidi writer, and this episode’s guest, a Syrian British poet of Kurdish origin. Amir Darwish has published two collections of poetry - ‘Don’t Forget The Couscous’ and ‘Dear Refugee’, and the first part of his autobiography, ‘From Aleppo Without Love’. We’ve a great conversation about love and solidarity, the poets Rumi, Saleem Barakat and Adunis...

Feb 17, 2022•27 min•Season 2Ep. 1

From Zataari & Istanbul

Two Syrian artists with very different stories, both creating poetry in exile in Jordan and Istanbul. This episode is a special one with two parts. The first part comes from Zataari refugee camp in Jordan, with a poet called Nour al Hariri. Nour writes poetry and rap about human rights issues that are close to her heart - especially around women’s rights to education, the issue of child labour and of course, she writes about life in Zataari camp, where people have been living for up to nearly te...

May 28, 2021•23 min

Saharawi Poetry

Poetry from the camps of Western Sahara, with my guest Sam Berkson , who together with Saharawi artist and translator Mohamed Suleiman collected translations of these poems in ‘Settled Wanderers’ (published by Influx Press). It’s the first collection in English of poets such as Beyibouh Al Haj, Mahmoud Khadri, Badi and Al Khadra, and gives us a unique insight into the political situation for the Saharawi people; their rich culture, history of oppression, and continuing resistance. Sam Berkson al...

Apr 01, 2021•37 min

Tresor Mpauni

From Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi, with poet, musician and community activist Tresor Mpauni. We talk about his early influences growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - including African folk tales and music - how he joined a boyband, discovered French rap music, and started writing his own music and poetry. He tells me about why he had to leave the DRC, even though he had a promising career there - about arriving in Dzaleka camp - and the poetry club in Lilongwe. Tresor set up t...

Mar 18, 2021•32 min•Ep. 2

Parwana Amiri

Originally from Afghanistan, Parwana Amiri has written extensively about her time in Moria Refugee Camp, and now about life in Ritsona camp in Greece, where she lives with her family. She teaches at Wave of Hope for the Future - a school founded by refugees - is a coordinator of Youth Refugee Movement and has published a collection called ‘Letters To The World From Moria’. She publishes new poems every week in collaboration with the Brush and Bow Collective and is currently working on her new bo...

Feb 22, 2021•40 min•Ep. 1

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