Uplifting Voices: A New Word Travels Project
What does home mean when home no longer exists in the same way? The words motherland, exile, and belonging are not just concepts. They live in the body I come to tears every single time I say the word home or motherland. There are many reasons people are forced to migrate, war, danger, survival, the simple hope for safety. We're not talking about those who freely choose to migrate for a better life and can return if things don't work out. Forced migration has a different cost, leaving behind people, language, landscapes and many memories.
In the recorded interviews below, listen to Merna's Introduction for this project, to Shahrzad Sham's eloquent words on poetry, exile, and migration and her personal experiences as an immigrant from Iran, followed by Afghan poet Shogofa Amini's compelling poems addressing her country's violence and treatment of women with poems that also speak to her own strength and that of all Afghani women.