I wake at about 11.00 o’clock after a brief rest. The hotel has been taken over by Soran University and Muli is now resident here. It’s mostly empty and pretty basic. After some running repairs to the plumbing, we drink more tea, test her new wi-fi setup, then begin to go through our plans. The… Continue reading Soran, 9 November 2013
Soran, 8 November 2013
The first leg of my trip to Soran begins in Manchester, the city I grew up in. The plane takes me to Istanbul where East and West seem to meet and compete before bringing me to the Kurdish city of Erbil at 4.30am. It seems strange to move from memories of my past to such… Continue reading Soran, 8 November 2013
Selma Dabbagh and Roger Bromley
On 28th November, the Centre for Transcultural Writing & Research presents a new event in our Writing for Liberty Series. The acclaimed Palestinian novelist and short fiction writer, Selma Dabbagh, will read from her recent work and will join Professor Roger Bromley in discussion. The event will take place in the Frankland Colloquium Room, Farraday Building,… Continue reading Selma Dabbagh and Roger Bromley
Mexico, 2013: Introduction
August 2013 – Cornelia Grabner’s trip to Mexico. Mexico is a cultural crossroads: Spanish is spoken as well as 68 indigenous languages; the mestizo culture exists side-by-side with indigenous cultures. Immigrants from all over Europe arrived in Mexico since the conquest, and Mexico granted political asylum to many refugees from the fascist dictatorships in Europe… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Introduction
Mexico, 2013: Encounters and Journeys
Allow me to invite you on a journey. Travel with me through the pluricultural terrain of Mexico and seek out encounters with writers, storytellers and poets. We’ll travel from encounter to encounter: each will lead to the next. Some of them might be coincidental: people we meet along the way. Others will be by recommendation… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Encounters and Journeys
Mexico, 2013: Listening Otherwise
Step 1 – Setting Out: Listening Otherwise Imagine your plane descending slowly; it would be evening, and you see an ocean of lights, and lights, and lights. ‘Surely we can’t be in Mexico City yet?’ you think. As the plane circles over the city, the little boy across the aisle calls out: ‘Look at the… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Listening Otherwise
Mexico, 2013: Rodrigo Solis
First Encounter: Invisible Relationships – An Interview Jam Session on the Chronicle with Rodrigo Solís We may have been cheating. When Rodrigo and I decided that the first contribution to this blog was an ‘interview’ – I was going to interview him – we probably knew that this wasn’t quite what it was going to… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Rodrigo Solis
Mexico, 2013: Alejandro Reyes
Second Encounter: Alejandro Reyes’ La reina del cine Roma – A Transcultural Language of Resistance Our next stop is San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Chiapas, in the South of the country. We take an overnight bus from Mexico City and then a taxi into this beautiful colonial city with its pedestrianized centre and the raised… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Alejandro Reyes
Mexico, 2013: Poetic Words and Shared Truths: The EZLN
Third Encounter: Poetic Words and Shared Truths: The EZLN Let’s sit quietly for a moment before we continue with our journey. Let’s do some reading and some talking. Someone reached out to you and it’s time that you give them some consideration. The Zapatistas, yes. They are mostly indigenous people from Chiapas. With ‘Zapatistas’ we… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Poetic Words and Shared Truths: The EZLN
Mexico, 2013: In the Heart of the Conch: Libraries
Fourth Encounter: In the Heart of the Conch: Libraries Find each other? Where? Let’s start looking in a library, one that is situated in the centric heart of a caracol, a conch: in La Garrucha. La Garrucha is one of five administrative centres on the land that the Zapatistas have reclaimed since 1994, and that… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: In the Heart of the Conch: Libraries