Happening Today! | Online, Sat., 30 May 2026 (2, 4 & 6pm BST) | Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series | Readings & Conversations

[Ambrose Musiyiwa]

Join us online for readings and conversation focusing on Volume 3 (forthcoming) in the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series. 

The sessions take place today, Saturday, 30 May 2026 starting at 2pm, 4pm and 6pm BST (UK time) respectively. 

To attend, register here.

The poets taking part are:

• 2pm-3.30pm BST: Laurenne Ajayi, Rodney D. Coates, Babatunde Fagbayibo, Zamokuhle Madinana, Elle Reynolds,
• 4pm-5.30pm BST: Neo Florence Gilson, Nii Ocquaye Hammond, Manu Herbstein, Pascal Kito and Rishan Singh
• 6pm-7.30pm BST: Ayo Ayoola-Amale, Antônia Gabriela P. de Araújo, Mayor Prosper Ihechi, Ziba Karbassi and Samantha Vazhure

ABOUT VOLUME 3

Edited by Ayo Ayoola-Amale (Nigeria / Ghana) and Sello Huma (South Africa), Volume 3 (title TBC) follows Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (2024, edited by Munya R and I) and From Here To There (2025, edited by Nandi Jola and Omobola Osamor).

The anthology will feature poems from 63 poets based on the continent and in the diaspora.

UPCOMING EVENTS 

Because June is Refugee Month, with key dates including Refugee Week (June 15-21) and World Refugee Day (June 20), we will be concentrating on As British As Fish and Chips (working title), the anthology focusing on how African and Asian refugees are being left to drown in the English Channel and how those who survive are being swapped and traded like cattle between the erstwhile slave trading empires, Britain and France.

Details on events taking place as part of this focus will be given closer to the time. 

RECORDING

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.

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)