It was a night to remember. Almost 1 year after the launch of Remnants of War, Migration, Love by Taha Salim in Barcelona, we took the book all the way to Athens. A place where both Taha and I have lived, where friends and projects are still dear to us, we wanted to create an evening of poetry and music to bring everyone together.
I had the joy to see old friends, former volunteers and students from my time in Greece, as well as to re-connect with the team at We Need Books who offered us their beautiful multilingual community library.
The evening saw an atmospheric start by mama_matrix, live producing music to accompany Taha’s first poetry readings. We then settled down to a interview hosted by old friend of both of us - Iskandar. Taha and I spoke on a range of topics related to the writing, editing and publication of the book. We fielded questions from a curious and friendly audience.
As the evening progressed, local poets were invited to the stage, reading a mix of political and personal poetry, as well as bringing in some famous poetic voices from the Arabic-speaking world.
What a joy to be back in Athens and putting on an event to celebrate creativity and community in such lovely company! Thank you to long-term friend and project partner Cyril for his incredible photography too, which I’ll leave you with for a better sense of the evening.
