Freedom of Expression=Freedom of Movement

More on the story of the Ledbury poets (two Moroccan, one Indonesian -- hmm, what do those disparate countries have in common?) denied visas to read at the festival from Guardian columnist Henry Porter.

You can sign the Manifesto Club's petition to stop this deeply worrying trends here and join their Facebook group here.

Onyeka Igbe of WorldBytes reports in this video on the Club's Cabaret Without Borders: freedom of expression live in action.

L'Amour de Loin (libretto by Amin Maalouf) in London

Three performances still remain for the English National Opera's new production of L'Amour de Loin, Kaaja Saariaho's opera from a libretto by Amin Maalouf.

Maalouf's libretto uses the poem "L'Amour de Loin" by Jaufré Rudel, a twelfth-century troubadour from Occitan, who fell in love with a woman in Tripoli (Maalouf has made the opposite journey in his life, in a sense, from Lebanon to France). The libretto can be read here.

For more on the fascinating relationship of troubadours to Muslim Spain and North Africa, check out María Menocal's The Ornament of the World.

Suheir Hammad: Live

Fantastic video of Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hammad reading (in Arabic) in Amman, posted by Black Iris.

Michael Rosen's poem, "In Gaza, children"

Thanks to Susana Tarbush of the Tanjara for posting this poem, which Michael Rosen, the British Children's Laureate, read at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, yesterday (Sat 10 Jan, 2009) during the rally that marked the start of the Stop the Massacre:Israel out of Gaza demonstration.



In Gaza, children,
you learn that the sky kills
and that houses hurt.
You learn that your blanket is smoke
and breakfast is dirt.

You learn that cars do somersaults
clothes turn red,
friends become statues,
bakers don’t sell bread.

You learn that the night is a gun,
that toys burn
breath can stop,
it could be your turn.

You learn:
if they send you fire
they couldn’t guess:
not just the soldier dies -
it’s you and the rest.

Nowhere to run,
nowhere to go,
nowhere to hide
in the home you know.

You learn that death isn’t life,
the air isn’t bread.

The land is for all - you have the right to be
not dead.
The land is for all - you have the right to be
not dead.
The land is for all - you have the right to be
not dead.
The land is for all -you have the right to be
not dead.

Literature of Immigration

FLYP, an American magazine with a rare internationalist outlook, has an online discussion, organised by Words Without Borders, on the Literature of Immigration, including this interview with Algerian-born novelist Amara Lakhous, who now lives and writes in Italy. Lakhous describes the opportunities presented by immigrant literature in terms of a broadening of the world, and as a commonality: "I think immigrants or the experience of being an immigrant is the kind of experience that touches humanity, that touches all of us in one way or another.”