African and African Diasporic Poetry — As British As Fish And Chips — World Refugee Day — Translation Challenge

[Ambrose Musiyiwa]

Dear Colleagues,

The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series invites you to a series of poetry readings and conversations.

The sessions take place online on June 20, World Refugee Day, and on June 21:

June 20, World Refugee Day (Sessions 2-4) (Registration Link)

2pm-3.30pm BST/UK Time: feat. Remi Alapo 

4pm-5.30pm: feat. Vusumuzi Chirwa and Nii Ocquaye Hammond, and
6pm-7.30pm: feat. Jim Aitken, Abd Al-Wazir, Onyishi Chukwuebuka, Gary Huskisson and Mayor Prosper Ihechi.

June 21 (Online, 6-7.00pm BST), In Conversation with poet and migrants' rights activist, Loraine Masiya Mponela (Registration Link)

The session will feature readings and conversation focusing on Loraine's third and latest poetry collection, My Accents (Independently published, 2026) and around courage, this year's theme for Refugee Week. 

Originally from Malawi, Loraine Masiya Mponela is a migrants rights campaigner and a poet based in Coventry, England. She sits on the Board for Women for Refugee Women and on the Management Committee for Asylum Support Appeals Project (ASAP) among others, and is the ex-chair for  Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (CARAG) 2018-2022. CARAG is a peer support group which is for and run by people seeking asylum, refugees, migrants and anyone subjected to the UK Immigration and Asylum system. Loraine is the author of the poetry collections, I Was Not Born A Sad Poet (Independently published, 2022), Now I Sing (2024), and My Accents (2026).

RECORDINGS

The readings and conversations will be recorded and made publicly accessible through the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series video playlist and through social media and the website we are building around the series. 

ABOUT THE SERIES

The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series is volunteer-led and is organised by Forced Migration and The Arts in association with CivicLeicester and the migrants' rights collective, Regularise.

The series was inspired by the Africa Migration Report: 2nd Edition (African Union and International Organisation for Migration, 2024), and has open calls for poems (40 lines or less) and short prose (100 words or less) exploring:

• African and African diasporic migration and (im)mobility,
• how African and Asian refugees are being left to drown in the English Channel, and
• Edward Nkoloso, Afronauts and the 1960s Zambian Space Programme.

We take the African diaspora to include all people of African descent in all the ways they define themselves, e.g. African, African American, African Asian, African Brazilian, African Canadian, African Caribbean, African Italian, African Latino, African Palestinian, Afropean, Afro Turk, Black, Black British, Black Canadian, etc.

The series is currently not in receipt of funding from any source.

To cover some of the costs associated with the work, we have a crowdfunding appeal. 

Any support you can lend us around this and in spreading the word about books in the series will be most appreciated.

TRANSLATION CHALLENGE

Are you bilingual or multilingual? Would you like to have a go at translating Amanda Holiday's poem, "African Icarus" (Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration. CivicLeicester, 2024, p.35-36) into any of the languages you carry? 

You can do the translation on your own, with family and friends or, if you are a teacher, lecturer or workshop facilitator, with your students. The poem and further details are accessible here. 

Kind regards,

Ambrose Musiyiwa
Coordinator, Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series 

Ambrose Musiyiwa | Coordinator, Forced Migration and The Arts (Blog), Journeys in Translation (Journal Article; Video Playlist), and The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series (Concept Note; Call for Submissions; Video Playlist; Funding Appeal) | (Ed.) [New Book] Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (CivicLeicester, 2024. Co-edited with Munya R from the migrants' rights collective, Regularise); Welcome to Britain: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2023); Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (CivicLeicester, 2020)