To mark our 20th birthday year, we’re planning a year of events featuring some of the fantastic poets and translators we’ve worked with over the past two decades, returning to venues and partners we’ve worked with, and making new friends along the way.
The theme of our fourth showcase is Somali poetry, but we’re throwing a few extra polylingual poetry offerings for good measure. We’re delighted to be working with long-time collaborators Kayd Somali Arts & Culture, Off the Shelf Festival, Southbank Centre and international partners at Hargeysa Cultural Centre in Somaliland.
Poetry is vital to Somali culture and bringing Somali poetry to new audiences has been core to the PTC’s work from its very beginning. We’re thrilled to celebrate the Somali poets and translators we’ve worked with over the past twenty years with two of our biggest events of 2024. And if you’ve never read a Somali poem – start now!
Londoners are invited to join us at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room on Friday 25 October, when we’ll be treated to poems by Asha Lul Mohamed Yusuf and Yasmin Mohamad Kahin, two trailblazing Somali women writers based in London and Ethiopia. This exciting dual language reading takes place as part of Somali Week and London Literature Festival. It’s the first time Yasmin’s work has been translated into English, and we’ll hear from all the translators, Maxmad Xasan ‘Alto’, Clare Pollard and Anna Selby, about the collaborative translation process. Don’t miss it.
Otherwise, we’re delighted to be taking up residence in Sheffield at Off the Shelf Festival throughout October. Don’t miss our Somali showcase event, the fourth of our international hybrid events in 2024. Rising star Weedhsame will beam in from Hargeysa Cultural Centre, in conversation with Martin Orwin and Daljit Nagra, his co-translators. That will be at Israac Somali Centre, Sheffield, on Wednesday 23 October.
Inspired by translation? Catch our Somali poetry translation workshop to learn a bit more about translation yourself. And check out Home and Away, a poetry reading featuring Somali writers from the UK diaspora and abroad, exploring which languages they choose to write in and why.
You’re also invited to write and share your own poems at an online polylingual poetry workshop and in-person polylingual open mic hosted by Sheffield Laureate Danaé Wellington. These two events feature UNDERTOW alumnae Fathima Zahra and Lydia Hounat.
Find out more and book below.
These events are made possible through the support of Arts Council England.
