Two internationally acclaimed poets come together in Sheffield for an evening exploring testimony, resistance, creative liberation and human connection.
Carolyn Forché and Kwame Dawes will present readings from their work before joining a conversation chaired by curator and poet Melanie Abrahams as part of the University of Sheffield’s Off the Shelf Festival of Words.
Forché is internationally recognised as a poet of witness, translator and human-rights activist. Across a career spanning several decades, her writing has explored violence, political struggle, memory and the responsibility of poetry to bear witness to human experience.
Joining her is Kwame Dawes, a poet, novelist, playwright and editor whose extensive body of work includes poetry, fiction and drama.
Born in Ghana and raised in Jamaica, Dawes is the Poet Laureate of Jamaica and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival.
The evening moves beyond a conventional poetry reading by inviting both writers to reflect on how art can respond to injustice and historical trauma while also creating possibilities for survival, freedom and connection.
For Black History Month audiences, Dawes’ presence offers an opportunity to encounter one of the most important contemporary literary voices of the Caribbean and African diaspora.
Poetry of Resistance and Transcendence promises an intimate and thoughtful evening about the enduring relationship between poetry, memory and social change.
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