Open Call for Submissions - The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series

Forced Migration and The Arts, in association with CivicLeicester and Regularise, is inviting and accepting poems for possible inclusion in the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series, a multi-year, multi-volume initiative that is publishing poetry collections on the theme of African migration.

Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (CivicLeicester, 2024), the first collection in the series was released just before Christmas in December last year. 

Building on this, we are accepting poems 365 days a year.

We welcome submissions exploring any of the images, enslavement, issues, visa applications, deportations, time spent in immigration queues, triggers, drownings, borders you crossed, the histories, killings, borders that crossed you, causes, deaths, cases, brutalisation, armed conflict, lives, exploitation, hopes, births, dreams, criminalisations, demands, plundering, damagings, detentions, pillagings, realities, personal, family and community histories, the effect that funding from the European Commission and others is having on how African refugees and migrants are being treated on the continent, in deserts, at borders, in camps, in slave markets, in mass graves, at sea, in informal refugee camps, in roadside graves, on barges, in streets, in prisons, for fleeing conflict and persecution, outcomes, futures that we are seeing, being, witnessing, experiencing, living, dreaming, feeling, hearing, screaming, sensing, dying to get out of, dying to live, arrival, departures, journeying, memories, encounters, experiences -- past, present, future -- around African migration.

We welcome submissions from writers of all ages, based anywhere in the world. 

INSPIRATION

The series is inspired by the 2nd Edition of the Africa Migration Report published by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

Speaking at the launch of the report, on 26 March 2024, H.E. Ambassador Minata Samate Cessouma, AUC Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs, and Social Development (HHS) described the report as a "joint initiative between the AU and IOM aimed at preserving historical perspectives, portraying the right narrative on African migration. While informing policy frameworks to support migration and human mobility on the Continent". 

We commend the AUC and IOM for the report and encourage the African Union to ensure they inform policy frameworks to support African migration, mobility and rights on and beyond the Continent. 

We stress that freedom of movement is a fundamental human right that should be enjoyed by all, including Africans.

MORE ON THE THEMES

We invite poems that explore the personal, familial, communal, continental, intercontinental, transnational past, present and possible futures of African migration across time and space, in and around this world and beyond.

What is Africa? Where is Africa? When is Africa?
What does it mean to be African? Who is African?
What is Africa and Africans' relationship or experience of or with migration?
What are the images, feelings, associations, realities, hopes, practicality, the day to day bits, dreams, pasts, presents, futures etc. of African migration? 

What are we seeing, hearing, feeling and sensing? 

What do we know? 

What are we not seeing, hearing, feeling, knowing, being, living, when, why, how?
The African migrant, who is he, she, they ...? Whose mother, father, sister, daughter, friend, relative? What is the present of the African migrant's past? 

What is the future of their tomorrow?
Who else is the African migrant coming into contact with? 

Who or what are they encountering where, when, and how? What is happening on that contact? Why are things happening this way? Is this new? How long has this been going on?
How are African governments, the African Union, the European Commission, the United Nations (UN), the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), NATO, ECOWAS, countries in Asia, North America, South America, Antarctica, Australia and the Caribbean, Africans on the continent, Africans in the diaspora, communities etc. ... how are they responding to African migration and migrants? What are the pasts, presents and futures of these responses?
What are Africans' experiences of migration on the continent and abroad?
What pasts, presents, futures, hopes, dreams, nightmares, joys, loves, memories, griefs, visions, seeds and so on are African migrants carrying, loving, singing, experiencing, living, gaining, losing, feeling, dancing, being, dreaming, moving through, reaching towards, living with, through, by etc.? 

What is happening to all this that they are carrying?

What are the pasts, presents and futures of African migration?

Please send the poems and short fiction to forcedmigrationandthearts@gmail.com 

The call for submissions is open 365 days of the year. 

All submissions received will be read and considered for publication in successive editions of the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

● Poems should be 40 lines or less, and short fiction,100 words or less.
● The poems and short fiction should be on the theme, African migration.
● Submissions must be in English. In the case of translated work, it is the translator’s responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright holder of the original work.
● If submitting a poem or short fiction which has been previously published, please give details of where it has appeared and confirm that you are the copyright holder.
● Ideally submissions will be typed single spaced and submitted either in the body of an email or as a .doc attachment.
● Please include a short biography of 50 words or less. This will be included in the anthology if your poem is accepted. 
● You may submit a maximum of three poems or three pieces of short fiction or a combination of poems and short fiction. You do not have to submit all three at the same time, but the editors can only consider a maximum of three submissions.
● We welcome submissions from writers of all ages, based anywhere in the world.
● Please send the poems and short fiction to forcedmigrationandthearts@gmail.com 

● The call for submissions is open 365 days of the year. 

● All submissions received will be read and considered for publication in successive editions of the Africa Migration Report.

NOTES

[1] CivicLeicester, a community media channel and indy publisher that uses digital and print technologies to highlight conversations of transnational significance, are publishers of poetry anthologies that include Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (2024), Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (2023), Poetry and Settled Status for All: An Anthology (2022) and Bollocks to Brexit: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (2019).

[2] Regularise is a collective of humans made up of migrants, citizens and allies who are committed to centreing and amplifying the voices and needs of undocumented migrants. The collective was founded in late 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, to address the years of sustained hardships that undocumented migrants experience in the UK and continues to organise and campaign for justice and for the rights of undocumented migrants.

[3] Forced Migration and The Arts is a global network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, refugee and non-refugee artists, academics and activists from around the world. The network, initial stages of which where developed with support from the University of Manchester's Humanities Global Scholars Fund hosts monthly discussion panels around forced migration and the arts, and encourages mutual support and collaboration. A playlist of conversations we have hosted so far is accessible here. 

[4] 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. Our call for submissions is open 365 days a year because every day is Africa Day and because we would like to keep the conversation going until the African migrant is treated with dignity and respect on the continent and around the world. To cover some of the costs associated with the work, we have a crowdfunding appeal. Any support you can lend us in spreading the word about these and about books in the series will be appreciated.

Towards a Database of UK Plays on Migration, Refugee and Asylum Matters

Screenshot from "Driftwood", a performance by Faceless Arts.
Journeys Festival International. Leicester, 21 August 2016.

Forced Migration and The Arts and the community media channel and indie publisher CivicLeicester, the publishers of anthologies like Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (2024) and Welcome to Britain: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (2023) would like to build a publicly accessible database of published and unpublished UK plays and related work on migration, refugee and asylum matters.

As part of this, we would also like to conduct interviews with playwrights, workshop leads, theatre companies, actors and others, and explore the possibility of publishing or supporting the publication, in book or other forms, of the plays and related works on these issues that individuals, community groups and companies have in their archives. 

If you or your group or company are among the people who have been devising, writing, producing or staging such plays, and you would like to be part of the effort, please email and let us know. 

RATIONALE 

We would like to do this because we are alarmed by the escalating, military-grade propaganda crusade that British politicians, the media and the state are deploying against refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, and by how - instead of giving safe passage to refugees like Britain did with Ukrainian refugees in early 2022 - Britain is responding towards people fleeing other wars, conflict, persecution, the ravages of climate change and extreme poverty by bankrolling the human zoos or human safari parks that France has transformed informal refugee camps into. 

We are alarmed by how Britain is leaving the mainly Black and Brown refugees and migrants to drown in the English Channel, and is deploying the country's anti-terror and counter-intelligence infrastructure against refugees (the people using the 'small boats') under the guise of smashing people smugglers, and by how it is either imprisoning or warehousing others in immigration reception and detention centres and hotels where (because of the hostility and violence the state is engendering) the people are ending up at the receiving end acts of terrorism and arson from racists and Islamophobes. 

We are equally alarmed by the extreme poverty and hardship that the British state is subjecting the people to, by its refusal to give asylum seekers the right to work, by how it has built a >£5bn industry around systematic, systemic and institutionalised cruelty and violence towards refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, and by how it is treated people like numbers to either be kept down or monetised.

At the same time, we are heartened by how, despite the vast amounts of resources, time, money and energy that the state continues to deploy towards turning refugees, asylum seekers and migrants into hate objects, public opinion remains largely in favour of giving refuge to those who need it, and to Britain remaining open to migrants.

We believe that part of the reason why people in Britian remain this positive is because of work that refugee and migrant support groups, schools, communities, faith groups, artists, playwrights and theatre companies, large and small, up and down the country, have been doing with and around migration and around refugee and asylum matters. 

We believe the database, the publications and the interviews and conversations around the plays and the issues can further support this work.

ABOUT FORCED MIGRATION AND THE ARTS & CIVICLEICESTER

Forced Migration and The Arts is an international network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, refugee and non-refugee artists, academics and art spaces for conversation looking at work taking place at the intersection where forced migration and the arts meet. 

The network, initial stages of which were developed with support from the University of Manchester’s Humanities Global Scholars Fund, hosts monthly indabas or discussion forums on the last Thursday of each month and encourages mutual support and collaboration.

Established in 2010, CivicLeicester is a community media channel and indie publisher that uses print and digital technologies, social media platforms, the arts, and online and in-person events to highlight conversations of transnational interest and significance. 

Books we have edited and published include: 

• Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (2024), 
• Welcome to Britain: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (2023), 
• Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (2020), and 
• Bollocks to Brexit: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (2019).

[The Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series] In Conversation with Jamaican-American author and LGBT rights activist, Thomas Glave. Online, Wedns., 6 Nov. 2024 (6pm-7.30pm UK Time)

Join us for an evening of conversation with fiction and nonfiction writer, Thomas Glave. 

Attendance and participation are free and open to all. 

As part of the event, Thomas Glave will talk about the work he is doing interspaced with readings from the works.

Glave will also share thoughts and reflections on what works of literature add to the conversation taking place at a familial, community, national, continental and international level on African migration and on Africans on the continent, in the diaspora and on the move. 

The conversation and readings will be followed by a Q&A session with all present. 

REGISTRATION

To attend, please register here.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER 

Thomas Glave is the author of four books, including The Torturer's Wife (City Lights Publishers, 2013) and Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh (Akashic Books, 2013), and editor of the anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (Duke University Press Books, 2008). The recipient of two Lambda Literary awards and a Dayton Literary Peace Prize nomination, Glave is a two-time Fulbright Scholar, an honorary visiting professor at the University of Liverpool and professor of English and creative writing at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He has been Martin Luther King Jr Visiting Professor at MIT, Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Warwick, and a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He is a trustee of Writing West Midlands and Peepal Tree Press, and a member of the editorial boards of the journals Transition and Wasafiri. His most recent work appears in the anthology Encounters with James Baldwin: Celebrating 100 Years (Supernova Books, 2024). 

The conversation takes place as part of the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology readings and conversations series.

ABOUT THE AFRICA MIGRATION REPORT POETRY ANTHOLOGY SERIES

Organised by Forced Migration and The Arts in collaboration with CivicLeicester and Regularise, the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series draws inspiration from the 2nd Edition of the Africa Migration Report, jointly published by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in March 2024. Through poetry, the anthology series explores multifaceted narratives surrounding African migration, capturing personal, familial, community, national and international histories and experiences of African migration. Because every day is Africa Day, our call for submissions is open 365 days a year.

Forced Migration and The Arts is an international network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, refugee and non-refugee artists, academics and art spaces for conversation looking at work taking place at the intersection where forced migration and the arts meet. Developed with support from the University of Manchester’s Humanities Global Scholars Fund, the network hosts monthly indabas or discussion forums on the last Thursday of each month and encourages mutual support and collaboration.

Regularise is a migrant-led collective founded in late 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The collective aims to address the years of sustained hardship that undocumented migrants experience in the UK and continues to organise and campaign for justice and for the rights of undocumented migrants.

CivicLeicester is a community publisher that uses print and digital technologies, social media platforms, the arts, and online and in-person events to highlight conversations of transnational interest and significance. Books we have edited and published include Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (2023), Poetry and Settled Status for All: An Anthology (2022) and Bollocks to Brexit: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (2019).

[Forced Migration and The Arts] Claire French, In conversation with Kasia Lech, author of Multilingual Dramaturgies Towards New European Theatre (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024). Online, Fri., 8 Nov. 2024 (3pm-5pm GMT; 4pm-6pm CET)

Europe – as a geopolitical concept, its residents, communities, and countries – is a multilingual space where people communicate in multiple languages such as Polish Sign Language, Ukrainian, Arabic, Tamazight, Spanish, Sami, Greek, and Shelta. These languages may arise from ethnicity, a country, or a region but also from disability contexts. They interact within multiple physical, geographical, socio-political, and virtual spaces, and open new possibilities for theatre.

Join Kasia Lech (University of Amsterdam) and Claire French (University of Aarhus) as they discuss Lech’s new book Multilingual Dramaturgies: Towards New European Theatre (Springer 2024). Written in a dialogue with diverse artists and their languages, it argues for multilingual theatre's central role in Europe’s futures. The book reveals a complex set of negotiations involved in the creative and political tasks of staging multilingualism, as well as funding and working models. Through different theatrical, historical, cultural, and geographic contexts, the book features over 60 languages that arise from state, ethnicity, region, and disability. Multilingual Dramaturgies offers new ways of understanding identity in European contexts.

REGISTRATION

To attend, please register here.

NOTES

The event is hosted by Forced Migration and The Arts, and the Performance and Migration Working Group established and coordinated by Yana Meerzon (University of Ottawa, Canada), Steve E. Wilmer (Trinity College, Dublin), and Sheetala Bhat (York University, Canada). The group has been meeting online during the 2023-2024 academic year and has been accepted for a three-year partnership with CATR (Canadian Association for Theatre Research). It has also been accepted at the IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research). The work of the group is supported through the Palgrave Studies in Performance and Migration book series co-edited by Meerzon and Wilmer.

Forced Migration and The Arts is an international network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, refugee and non-refugee artists, academics and art spaces for conversation looking at work taking place at the intersection where forced migration and the arts meet. Developed with support from the University of Manchester’s Humanities Global Scholars Fund, the network hosts monthly indabas or discussion forums usually on the last Thursday of each month and encourages mutual support and collaboration.

[Invitation] The Africa Migration Report Poetry Readings and Conversations: Sessions 1 -3: Online, 2pm-3.30pm; 4pm-5.30pm & 6pm-7.30pm UK Time; Online, Thurs., 17 October 2024

Join us for an afternoon and evening of poetry and conversation on the theme of African migration.

As part of the readings and conversation a number of poets featured in the upcoming, African Migration Report: an Anthology of Poems; Volume 1 & 2 (CivicLeicester, forthcoming) will share thoughts, experiences and poetry on the theme of African migration, and share the vision they have on African migration and how we get to that future.

The readings and conversations will be followed by a Q&A with all present.

Attendance and participation are free and open to all.

REGISTRATION

To attend, please register here.

THE SESSIONS

The conversations are taking place in three sessions, each with a different set of poems, namely:

• Session 1: 2pm-3.30pm (UK Time) (Details), featuring poets Ayo Ayoola-Amale, Philippa Hatendi-Louiceus, Tifany MarSah, M Sahr Nouwah, Collins Chibunna Nwachukwu, Joseph C Ogbonna, Omobola Osamor, Adaora Raji, and Patrick Kapuya Tshiuma,
• Session 2: 4pm-5.30pm (Details), featuring poets Jo Blackwood, Anayo Dioha, Samuel Julius Habakkuk Kargbo, Ilan Kelman, Anton Krueger, Octavia McBride-Ahebee, Remind Mugwambani, Francis Muzofa, J.O. Neill, and Ejime Ijeoma Victory,
• Session 3: 6pm-7.30pm (Details), featuring poets Oluwaseyi Adebola, Abiola Agbaje, Jim Aitken, Brian Siang'ani Boyí, Barrington Gordon, Gorrety Yogo, Monica Manolachi, Mariam Mohammed, and Epiphanie Mukasano.

We will be using the same link for all three sessions. Once registered, you can join a session or sessions of your choice.

NOTES

Organised by Forced Migration and The Arts in collaboration with CivicLeicester and Regularise, the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series draws inspiration from the 2nd Edition of the Africa Migration Report, jointly published by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in March 2024. Through poetry, the series explores multifaceted narratives surrounding African migration, capturing personal, familial, community, national and international histories and experiences of African migration. Because every day is Africa Day, our call for submissions is open 365 days a year.

Forced Migration and The Arts is an international network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, refugee and non-refugee artists, academics and art spaces for conversation looking at work taking place at the intersection where forced migration and the arts meet. Developed with support from the University of Manchester’s Humanities Global Scholars Fund, the network hosts monthly indabas or discussion forums on the last Thursday of each month and encourages mutual support and collaboration.

Regularise is a migrant-led collective founded in late 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The collective aims to address the years of sustained hardships that undocumented migrants experience in the UK and continues to organise and campaign for justice and for the rights of undocumented migrants.

CivicLeicester is a community publisher that uses print and digital technologies, social media platforms, the arts, and online and in-person events to highlight conversations of transnational interest and significance. Books we have edited and published include Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (2023), Poetry and Settled Status for All: An Anthology (2022) and Bollocks to Brexit: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (2019).

[Invitation] The Africa Migration Report Poetry Readings and Conversations: Session 3: Online, 6pm-7.30pm UK Time; Online, Thurs., 17 October 2024

Join us for an evening of poetry and conversation on the theme of African migration.

The event takes place online, from 6pm till 7.30pm (UK time), on Thursday, 17 October 2024.

As part of the evening, poets featured in the Africa Migration Report: an Anthology of Poems; Volume 2 (CivicLeicester, forthcoming) will share poetry and reflections on the theme of African migration, the vision they have on the matter, and how we get to a future where freedom of movement is a right that extends to and includes Africans on the continent, in the diaspora, and on the move.

The readings and conversations will be followed by a Q&A with all present.

Attendance and participation are free and open to all.

REGISTRATION

To attend, please register here.

FEATURED POETS

Oluwaseyi Adebola (MBBS, MSc. MRCS) is a Nigerian trained doctor currently working as a neurosurgery specialty registrar in Liverpool. He has a master's degree in translational neuropathology from Sheffield & a distinction in advanced diploma in creative writing from Tennessee. He is the author of a collection of short stories titled 'A Cluster of Petals' which was shortlisted for the 2019 Quramo Writer's award and the 2019 Afire Linda Ikeji Prize for literature. He is also the founder and curator of CreativeNaija.com, a social network/marketplace for creative Nigerians via which he curated the work- "I Am Nigeria: An anthology of what it means to be Nigerian in past, present and future tenses" He is a contributing author for ‘African Ghost Short Stories’ and his works have appeared in international and local platforms including Papercuts and Itanile.

Abiola Agbaje is a passionate writer, dedicated professional and an individual who likes to advocate for empathy and social consciousness. She’s currently on the path of honing her story telling skills and enjoys lots of quiet time as well as playing car race game.

Jim Aitken is a poet and dramatist living and working in Edinburgh. He is a tutor in Scottish Cultural Studies with Adult Education and he organises literary walks around the city. His last poetry collection was 'Declarations of Love', published in 2022. Jim is a widely published poet and Associate Editor with Culture Matters.

Brian Siang'ani Boyí is a poet from Kenya aged 24. He writes poems and short stories on different topics of life. The poems below have been published on scribd.com and on his Facebook page (Black-Well Poetry 23).

Barrington Gordon’s poems and short stories address conundrums behind humanity’s masks. His short story, "Grandfather's Feet" was published in Whispers in the Walls: New Black and Asian Voices from Birmingham (Tindal Street Press 2001), anthology endorsed by Benjamin Zephaniah and Bonnie Greer. The story was also read and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. In addition, his work has been featured in anthologies and publications that include Voice Memory Ashes: Lest we Forget (Mango Publishing 1999), Steel Jackdaw: Edition 4 (2021), Poetry and Settles Status for All (CivicLeicester 2022), Welcome to Britain (CivicLeicester, 2023) as well as the Walsall Society of Artists' 73rd annual exhibition at the New Walsall Art Gallery (2024), and Art Meets Poetry which curated his Ekphrastic poems twinned with artists’ compositions as part of Wolverhampton’s Annual Literature Festival.

Gorrety Yogo is an early career researcher on Migration and Development. Gorrety enjoys writing, self-care and compassion during her personal time. She has self-published lots of note-books on self-care and one book on youth development on Amazon. Gorrety has been published by different projects on MIAG, Dynamig, IOM and the youth Cafe.

Monica Manolachi is a writer, literary translator and lecturer at the University of Bucharest, Romania. She is the author of Performative Identities in Contemporary Caribbean British Poetry (2017) and has published many academic articles on contemporary literature in English. Her latest work, Journeys in Europe (2022) is co-authored with Neil Leadbeater..

Mariam Mohammed is a Ghanaian graduate student at the University of Tennessee. As a teaching associate, and a second-year master’s student in the Rhetorics, Writing, and Linguistics department, she is deeply engaged in exploring the intersections of race, language, mental health, and belonging. Her academic interests are reflected in her scholarly work, which includes both research and creative writing. Her commitment to understanding and articulating these complex issues drives both her teaching and creative endeavors.

Epiphanie Mukasano was born in Rwanda in 1961. Now she lives in Cape Town and writes poems and short stories. Her poems were published in a collection, Living on the Fence (2007), by refugee women from Africa. In 2010, she published her own collection, Kilimanjaro on my lap.

NOTES

Organised by Forced Migration and The Arts in collaboration with CivicLeicester and Regularise, the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series draws inspiration from the 2nd Edition of the Africa Migration Report, jointly published by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in March 2024. Through poetry, the series explores multifaceted narratives surrounding African migration, capturing personal, familial, community, national and international histories and experiences of African migration. Because every day is Africa Day, our call for submissions is open 365 days a year.

Forced Migration and The Arts is an international network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, refugee and non-refugee artists, academics and art spaces for conversation looking at work taking place at the intersection where forced migration and the arts meet. Developed with support from the University of Manchester’s Humanities Global Scholars Fund, the network hosts monthly indabas or discussion forums on the last Thursday of each month and encourages mutual support and collaboration.

Regularise is a migrant-led collective founded in late 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The collective aims to address the years of sustained hardships that undocumented migrants experience in the UK and continues to organise and campaign for justice and for the rights of undocumented migrants.

CivicLeicester is a community publisher that uses print and digital technologies, social media platforms, the arts, and online and in-person events to highlight conversations of transnational interest and significance. Books we have edited and published include Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (2023), Poetry and Settled Status for All: An Anthology (2022) and Bollocks to Brexit: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (2019).

[Invitation] The Africa Migration Report Poetry Readings and Conversations: Session 2: Online, 4pm-5.30pm UK Time; Online, Thurs., 17 October 2024

Join us for an evening of poetry and conversation on the theme of African migration.

The event takes place online, from 4pm till 5.30pm (UK time), on Thursday, 17 October 2024.

As part of the evening, poets featured in the Africa Migration Report: an Anthology of Poems; Volume 1 (CivicLeicester, forthcoming) will share poetry and reflections on the theme of African migration, the vision they have on the matter, and how we get to a future where freedom of movement is a right that extends to and includes Africans on the continent, in the diaspora, and on the move.

The readings and conversations will be followed by a Q&A with all present.

Attendance and participation are free and open to all.

REGISTRATION

To attend, please register here.

FEATURED POETS

Jo Blackwood is an engaging and establishing street poet, writer, actress, community actress (Derby Theatre); (more recently) a digital online movie reviewer and hosts The Soothing Session (Derby Sound Community Radio Online). She has participated in development programmes, commissions, with Renaissance One London and volunteering programmes within the East Midlands community.

Anayo Dioha is a lawyer and writer from the Igbo tribe of Nigeria. His poems lie on the online and print pages of The New Verse News, Queen's Quarterly, Password: Very Short Poetry and The Literary Cocktail Magazine. He's on course to complete a PhD in law.

Samuel Julius Habakkuk Kargbo was born in Wilberforce village, Freetown, Sierra Leone, and is a poet, preacher and songwriter. He has a BSc in Chemistry from Fourah Bay College, US and an MSc in Environmental Sciences (Hons) from Cyprus International University. He is currently researching Environmental Toxicology at Nagasaki University in Japan, and is the CEO and founder of Poem Makers SL, a poetry brand that motivates and mentors young brilliant minds in Sierra Leone and abroad.

Ilan Kelman is Professor of Disasters and Health at University College London, England and a Professor II at the University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway. His overall research interest is linking disasters and health, integrating climate change into both. Instagram/Threads/X @ILANKELMAN 

Anton Krueger has published plays, memoir, short stories, criticism and arts journalism. Lately, he’s been experimenting with spoken word collaborations with improvising musicians, including Tony Bental, Warrick Sony, Francois le Roux and Paul Hanmer. He lives in Makhanda where he heads the Department of Literary Studies in English at Rhodes University. To sample his work, visit: https://amateurist.weebly.com/writings.html.

Octavia McBride-Ahebee's poetry is informed by the convergence of cultures and the many ways people move throughout the world. She presents relationships within the context of global inequality.

Remind Mugwambani is a young man born in 2001, in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe. He is the third of four children. His published works include "Today is Your Day, Go and Win," "Resilient Driver," and "I Will Be Home to Tell the Story," all of which were featured in the anthology "Wind on My Face: Motorcycle Diaries."

Francis Muzofa (aka@Pope) is Zimbabwean poet. His poems have been published by various Platforms both locally and internationally. He is a philosophical poet, who use humor, allegory and satire to poke into the eyes of those who cause harm. His writings are inspired by nature and the social ills that hurt the innocent and vulnerable. If he was God for a day, he would kill poverty and spread kindness.

J.O. Neill is a freelance writer, producer and funeral celebrant based in Bristol, UK. Born and raised till aged nine in Jamaica, her work is concerned with liminality, history, memory and belonging. She has also written, produced and directed two independent, crowdfunded films exploring her family's story. Find out more on her website - jessicaolivianeill.com - or follow her Instagram @jessolivianeill

Ejime Ijeoma Victory, born in Nigeria, is an multiple award winning essayist, poet, and humanitarian. In 2019, she was the first recipient of the Delta Short Fiction Award prize. Her work includes the novel, where the rivers go, which is due to be published in 2025; short stories, among them, "a song of ashes", and the poetry collection, a burning road. Ejime is also founder of the Anwumilli Foundation, and a book editor. She is currently studying at the College of Nursing Science in the city of Agbor, Nigeria.


NOTES

Organised by Forced Migration and The Arts in collaboration with CivicLeicester and Regularise, the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series draws inspiration from the 2nd Edition of the Africa Migration Report, jointly published by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in March 2024. Through poetry, the series explores multifaceted narratives surrounding African migration, capturing personal, familial, community, national and international histories and experiences of African migration. Because every day is Africa Day, our call for submissions is open 365 days a year.

Forced Migration and The Arts is an international network that brings together people with lived experience of forced migration, refugee and non-refugee artists, academics and art spaces for conversation looking at work taking place at the intersection where forced migration and the arts meet. Developed with support from the University of Manchester’s Humanities Global Scholars Fund, the network hosts monthly indabas or discussion forums on the last Thursday of each month and encourages mutual support and collaboration.

Regularise is a migrant-led collective founded in late 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The collective aims to address the years of sustained hardships that undocumented migrants experience in the UK and continues to organise and campaign for justice and for the rights of undocumented migrants.

CivicLeicester is a community publisher that uses print and digital technologies, social media platforms, the arts, and online and in-person events to highlight conversations of transnational interest and significance. Books we have edited and published include Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (2023), Poetry and Settled Status for All: An Anthology (2022) and Bollocks to Brexit: An Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (2019).