PRICE: £12
Language: English
‘What is the language of Diaspora?’
Poetry has long played an indispensable role in Somali social and political life. But what happens to poetry when people are uprooted by war and communities are displaced – temporally, geographically and linguistically – from their homelands? What might this poetry teach us about the ongoing negotiation of ‘diaspora’ and what it means to be Somali in the UK?
Featuring a line-up of award-winning poets – including Samatar Elmi, Warda Yassin, Elmi Ali, and Yusra Warsama – this event will explore how Somali-British poets who compose in English are re-shaping an ancient poetic tradition to give voice to the concerns of diasporic Somalis.
Through conversation and performance, we will hear how poetry that grapples with themes of trauma, migration, racism, love, and belonging continues to provoke, inspire and inform Somali and English-speaking audiences alike.
This event is co-organized by the Southbank Centre and Kayd Somali Arts & Culture as part of the London Literature Festival and Somali Week Festival.
Warda Yassin is a British-born Somali poet and secondary school teacher based in Sheffield. She is a former Sheffield Poet Laureate and winner of the Women's Poetry Prize. Her debut pamphlet, Tea with Cardamom (Poetry Business, 2019), won the New Poets Prize. A member of the Hive Collective, her work has appeared in The North, Magma, Oxford Poetry, and several anthologies.
Samatar Elmi is an award-winning writer, musician, and educator. His debut pamphlet Portrait of Colossus (flipped eye, 2021) was a PBS Choice, and his collection The Epic of Cader Idris (Bloomsbury, 2024) includes the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize-winning poem ‘The Snails’. An Obsidian Fellow and associate editor at flipped eye press, his work has appeared widely including in Poetry, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Magma and anthologised in More Fiya, Filigree, After Plath, and featured on BBC Radio 4. As Knomad Spock, his acclaimed albums have featured on BBC Radio 6, and are highly praised in Clash Magazine.
Elmi Ali is a Manchester-based poet and multidisciplinary storyteller whose work spans performance, translation, and education. He holds degrees in English Literature and Contemporary Literature from Manchester Metropolitan University. His practice explores the intersection of language and creative resistance, often within global postcolonial narratives. A significant part of Elmi’s work is poetry, which he uses to transform the mundane and reveal political truths. He is a prolific performer, with stage credits including Survival and Water Seeds Not Stones. As the curator of See My Dunya, he showcased the stories of Manchester’s Somali diaspora. His latest project is the documentary, The Success of Moss Side.
Yusra Warsama is a performance poet, actor, writer and theatre practitioner. She began her theatre career in her home city Manchester, whilst studying Criminology & Sociology. She has since built a reputation for bold, thought-provoking work on stage and screen, including her performances in Castle Rock (2018) and The Last Days on Mars (2013). Her collaborative work includes Don Lett's Speakers Corner, a spoken word theatre piece. She is currently acting on several projects and working on her pieces - 'Of All the Beautiful Things In The World' (2023) inspired by Lorca's - Arewelo - the original Somali warrior Queen.