Tonight we welcome two poets from the other side of hope: journeys in refugee and immigrant literature, a UK-based literary magazine edited by migrant writers and poets of the world.
Luca Spiller is an Italian poet based in London. He holds a master's degree in forced migration. Driven by years of living across several countries and working with migrants, he explores concepts such as identity, belonging, and journey in his work.
Amir Darwish is a British Syrian poet & writer of Kurdish origin who lives in London. Born in Aleppo in 1979, he came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 2003.
His work has been published and anthologised worldwide. His poetry was translated into Arabic, Bengali, Estonian, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, and Turkish, amongst other languages. He was part of several radio programmes, including BBC 4, BBC World Service and Refugee Radio. Amir was invited and attended literary and poetry festivals worldwide, including Finland, India, Italy, Turkey, Morocco, and Estonia.
His two collections of poetry are Dear Refugee (Smokestack, 2019) & Don’t Forget the Couscous (Smokestack, 2015).
The first half of this event will be open mic, so please feel free to bring and read a poem in a friendly and welcoming space.
Tickets on the door: £5; £3 for students under 24; Free to ages 18 and under.