Poems & Research Based Film
A short poem-film exploring Somalinimo and a sense of home across Sheffield, Bristol and London.
A short poem-film exploring Somalinimo and a sense of home across Sheffield, Bristol and London.
In collaboration with the Anglo-Somali Society, the University of Manchester, York St. John University and SAAFI, Kayd Somali Arts & Culture kindly invites you to an evening in two parts: new research on Somali communities and care, followed by the premiere of a short poem-film and panel discussion on the film.
Part one:
Research done in the partnership between York St John University and SAAFI, will be presented by Dr Anita Atwal will showcase findings from research co-produced with Somali communities on how occupational therapy can become more accessible, equitable and culturally responsive. Presented by Professor Anita Atwal of York St John University, the research highlights the diversity of Somali perspectives and the importance of understanding language, faith, family, community and individual needs when shaping health and social care.
Part two: The premiere of ‘Blue Lines’
A short poem-film about Somali life in three UK cities: Sheffield, Bristol and London.
‘Blue Lines’ is the creative output of a research project led by the University of Manchester, made with a team of Somali-heritage creatives: poets Anzal Omar, Asmaa Jama and Ibrahim Hirsi, Abdillahi Haybe and film-maker Osman Jama. The project set out to understand how Somali communities experience a ‘sense of home’ in the UK, and how each city shapes that experience differently.
Drawing on conversations with more than one hundred people, three poets, one from each city, wrote new work capturing a Somali sense of home in UK urban life. Their three poems were then brought together with stunning visuals to create an original poem-film.
Stay for the post-screening discussion with the poets, the film-maker and members of the research team from the University of Manchester.
Contributors Include:
Anzal Omar is a Somali British poet based in Sheffield and a member of Hive Poetry Collective. Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies, most recently in The Rising Line (Hive Books). She was a shadow judge for the Forward Prizes 2025 as part of Young Poets Summit. Anzal's work is an exacting study of debris: historical, feminine and political. She writes toward the fractures of exile, examining the structures that shape immigrant life and the wreckage left behind
Asmaa Jama is an award-winning poet, filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist based in Bristol. Asma’s poetry has been widely published in journals including The Poetry Review, Ambit, and Magma and in 2024 they won the Geoffrey Dearmer Poetry Prize, having been previously commended for the Brunel African Poetry prize.
Ibrahim Hirsi is a writer, archivist, and editor at Journal Gobanimo. He is a co-founder of Koor Archives and is currently working on his first monograph, which explores the metre of southern Somali poetic forms. His work has been published in The Poetry Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, PBLJ, and the anthology Before Them, We (Flipped Eye, 2022).
Abdillahi Haibe is anti-disciplinary maker trained in architecture, whose creative practice explores how heritage, migration, and everyday life can inform new ways of making, working across objects, research, and visual storytelling.
Dr. Muna Abdi is a researcher, consultant, leadership coach, speaker and founder working at the intersection of leadership, community accountability, racial equity and organisational change.
Dr. Cathy Wilcock is a political anthropologist and cultural geographer specialising in East Africa and its European diasporas. She is a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, where she researches transnational connections, political movements and communities, with a particular focus on the Somali peninsula.
Osman Jama is a filmmaker and producer at Kayd Somali Arts and Culture. He is also the Director of Production at Somaliland National TV.
Rhoda Ibrahim is the Founder and CEO of SAAFI, a community leader with more than 35 years’ experience in community development, women’s empowerment, peacebuilding and supporting Somali and migrant communities in the UK and across the Horn of Africa.
Language: English