Poets Across Borders | Rhythm of the Heart | Honour Songs | Word! Symposium | Other Events | Credits

 

 

Nine pairs of poets crossing languages, countries and cultural backgrounds from the Caribbean to Pakistan. Here’s a selection of the work they produced and performed. The videos were taped at the CBC’s Centre Stage performance area in downtown Edmonton, where office workers and mall walkers wandered by, stopped, then sat down to take in the words of people who share their city – and a world of difference.

A description of the project and detailed biographies about all the poets are here.

Photos by Tracy Kolenchuk


Identity Shock
Rod Loyola & Nicole Pakan
Run Time: 3:50
"Crossing Borders" &"The Last Step"
Sandra Mooney-Ellerbeck
& Jalal Barzanji

(Mehmet Yesildeniz, Violinist)
Run Time: 4:20

  
Home in a Suitcase
by Jalal Barzanji

Istanbul to Edmonton is seventeen hours by air
Flying across the Adriatic Sea
the fabric of the ocean floor shortens our exile to waterland
For we and our home live inside a suitcase
From the veiled city of Sevas to the airport of Istanbul
Thirteen hours by bus
The refugees fly at dawn
...

Click here to read the full poem

Jalal Barzanji is from Kurdistan. He has been in Canada since 1998. A poet & human rights activist for many years in his own country, he published a multitude of poems & articles on individual freedom & freedom of expression. In Edmonton he helped established the Canadian Kurdish Friendship Association and the Edmonton Immigrant Support Network Society. He was a 2004 recipient of a RISE award and was recently appointed PEN Canada Writer-in-Exile. Jalal has three children and works with the Multicultural Health Brokers Co-operative.

Across Borders (from Saskatchewan meets Sudan)
Ruth Anderson Donovan
Run Time: 4:04

 

Bull Song
Ring Deng Biong
Run Time: 5:08

Bull Song
Ring Deng Biong

Come with me to the Dinka land, and you will be amazed to see a most beautiful interaction between human beings and their animals that surpasses all ghazal poetry in the world. But first, some background:

click here to read full text


Pillow Poem
Magdalena Witkowski
Run Time: 3:56
Knowing Papa
Shabnam Sukhdev
Run Time: 3:09
Cuba
Marijan Megla & Melle Huizinga
Run Time: 6:06
  
Language is our Skin
Rusti LeHay & Therezinha Franca Kennedy
Run Time: 1:48