Date:16-18  April 2010

Venue: Goldsmiths College, London

A rare opportunity to be taught by Writer and Activist Nawal el Saadawi.
Nawal el Saadawi is a popular speaker and writer in the UK. For the
first time ever she will be facilitating a course on her specialised
area, creativity  and dissidence.This is still dependent on funding,
but places are limited and will be offered on a first come first serve
basis.

This course is suitable for writers and non-writers who are interested
in these themes and is based on facilitation and discussion between
Nawal el Saadawi and participants. The course is open to men and women.

The course will start on Friday 4pm – 8pm
Saturday from 10-4pm
Sunday from 10- 4pm
Registration is at 3.30pm

This course relies on discussion and participation between
Nawal el Saadawi and the students and will cover
the following themes:

• What   is   creativity ?
• what    is   dissidence ?
• are   men    more   creative   than   women?
• what    is   the  relation   between   creativity  and   dissidence?
• role  of  knowledge    in   creativity
• role   of   religion
• what   are   the  obstacles    to   creativity ?
• creativity      and    social    revolution
• creativity    and    political    activism

Reading    list   for  students   before    the   course :  
Woman at Point Zero and ‘God Resigns at the Summit Meeting’
(included in The Dramatic Work of Nawal El Saadawi) 
Saqi Books,London

Course costs from £50 for concessions to £200 for full payment. 
Discounts available for PEN members.
Contact: africanwritersabroad@yahoo.com for more information
and booking form

There has been news from other members of Haiti PEN; their call is for help – medicine water and food.

http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/go/news/international-pen-mourns-the-loss-of-georges-anglade

AfricanWritersOnline with African Writers Abroad are organising a fundraising event in March (tbc). Watch this space for updates.

Kettly Mars of Haiti PEN has written “Our situation is serious and we urgently need aid. Medicine, water, food. International aid is starting to come but there will never be enough.”

The weblink to give donations is :www.DEC.org.uk/haiti-appeal

Haiti PEN - President and wife killed in earthquake. Photo: Margaret Busby

6pm AWA meeting – Southbank Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer , London SE1.(not the Royal Festival Hall but as you face it, the building on the left, where the Purcell Room is)

Nearest underground: Waterloo or Embankment

Agenda – Aims and objectives of the Centre;AWA Achievements;Taking the Centre forward; officer roles; membership; future projects and progammes. How to get involved. We look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions.

7.30pm AFRICAN WRITERS’ EVENING feat. Nadifa Mohammed & a parade of emerging writers
Friday 20 November 2009, 7.30pm
Weston Pavilion, (top floor – usually used as a ‘corporate’ space). Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
FREE (Invitation only – please send your name by e-mail to events@x-bout.com)
Info: www.x-bout.com/awe

For our annual finale, African Writers’ Evening returns to its exploratory origins – with four short readings from emerging writers, followed by a featured reading from Nadifa Mohammed, a Somalian writer who is herself still waiting for the release of her first novel by HarperCollins. Hosted by Nii Ayikwei Parkes.

AUTHOR BIO:

NADIFA MOHAMED - Born in Hargeisa, Somalia in 1981 as the country fell into dictatorship, Nadifa Mohamed moved to London with her family in 1986, just before the beginnings of civil war as Siad Barre lost his grip on power. She was educated in London and went to Oxford to study History and Politics. Her début novel, Black Mamba Boy, based on the true story of her father’s life in 1930s, was acquired by HarperCollins UK in 2008.. Nadifa is currently working on her second novel.

END

Lydia Besong is a writer.  Her debut play “How I Became an Asylum Seeker” is being staged by Community Arts Northwest (CAN) at the Zion Theater in Hulme, Manchester on 3^rd December.  She is also on the Management Committee of WAST (Woman Asylum Seekers Together).

Bernard Batey, her husband, has been leading for the national award-winning Human Rights organisation RAPAR in a partnership with Revive, Changemakers, Boaz Trust and Citizens for Sanctuary.  Together, they have opened Manchester’s first voucher exchange network.

On Thursday night, 29^th October 2009, this married couple got back to their home in Rochdale after a busy day to find a letter from the Border and Immigration Agency telling them that they must go back to Cameroon, the country they fled from late at night on December 17th 2006.

Both Lydia and Bernard were tortured in Cameroon and, as well as being tortured in gaol, Lydia was raped by one of the guards.   This happened because Lydia and Bernard were members of SCNC [Southern Cameroon National Council].  SCNC is an organization that is fighting for the freedom and liberation of southern Cameroon [English Speaking Cameroon].

Lydia and Bernard’s MP, Paul Rowen, says:  “I believe Bernard and Lydia have a genuine case for political asylum and I don’t say that about every case I see.”

Reverend Graham Lindley, Parish Priest at St Anne’s Church, Belfield, Rochdale, has backed Bernard and Lydia to the hilt.  He is calling on the Home Office to grant them leave to remain in this country.

Former Rochdale MP Sir Cyril Smith is also backing Lydia and Bernard’s case and wrote to the Home Secretary on their behalf.

One of the reasons Lydia wrote the play that is now about to have its premiere was to find a way of coping with the horrors of what had happened to her, and also to raise awareness and educate people about Asylum.

Jasmine Ali, Lead Artistic Manager for CAN says:  I have been working closely with Lydia over the last few months to help her produce a short play that she has written which highlights important issues faced by women asylum seekers in the UK.  Lydia has been an inspiration for the artistic team with her dedication and commitment to the project.  Without her contribution WAST (Women Asylum Seekers Together) would not have had the confidence to devise and perform their play to a wider audience.

Recently Lydia has been working with RAPAR and Commonword to collect stories about people in Manchester who are destitute.    This publication is being launched in the spring.  Commonword’s Artistic Director, writer Pete Kalu, says: “Lydia has been a tremendous resource in helping us to find new pathways to new writers in communities.”

Send messages of support to Lydia and Bernard c/o RAPAR 6 Mount Street Manchester M2 5NS or email admin@rapar.org.uk

And send your message that Lydia and Bernard must stay, quoting – Lydia Ebok Besong &Bernard Oben Batey:  HO Ref: B1236372 to

FAX:  Home Office on 0208-760-3132

Email: CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk; UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk; Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

and cc admin@rapar.org.uk

For further information contact:

• RAPAR’s Press Officer Kath on 0161-225-2260 or kath.northernstories@googlemail.com
• RAPAR’s office:  0161-834-8221 or admin@rapar.org.uk

FULL CIRCLE
A poetry workshop led by Dorothea Smartt

Using visual images and other eco-poems as inspiration, together with a mix of writing exercises, and group discussion we’ll develop and draft poems exploring the power of poetry to give voice to our environmental destruction and efforts towards ecological balance.
“Poetry is a political action undertaken for the sake of information, the faith, the exorcism, and the lyrical invention, that telling the truth makes possible.” June Jordan’s Poetry For The People

Participants will get the opportunity to read their writing at the evening event, No Condition is Permanent. 7 Nov (Afternoon workshop)

KILLING TINA, EMBRACING TABOO

Creative Writing workshop led by Simon M Murray.

We were told “There Is No Alternative” (T.I.N.A.). C Words helps prove that “There Are Billions Of Options” (T.A.B.O.O.)… Come and explore some of these and the power of your own creative voice to write back at the madness that surrounds us. Participants will get the opportunity to read their writing at the evening event, No Condition is Permanent. 7 Nov (morning workshop)

From C Words by Simon Murray:

Supporter of conservative, labour, liberal, republican, democratic governments
C behind all Criminal Cartel Crusading Corrupt Corporate… Stunts
Chattel, Colonialism, neo-Colonialism
Corporatocracy, Consumerism , “Civilisation”
Columbus, Cook, Churchill, Church
Control, Coerce, Chaos, Crisis, Crunch, Crush, Clash, Culture, Capture, Crooks
Crass, Class, Conflict, Convict, Complicity, City, Corrode, Crude… Coca Cola
For more information on all events in the C Words season, please visit the 100 days website, www.platformlondon.org and www.arnolfini.org.uk

No Condition is Permanent:
With Dorothea Smartt, Simon Murray and Zena Edwards, hosted by PLATFORM’s remember saro-wiwa project.

For over 40 years the multinational oil giant Shell has been flaring gas in Nigeria. This ‘poison fire’  releases toxins and carbon dioxide on a vast scale, devastating the environment and the global climate.

But no condition is permanent.

Join three performance poets on three intimate journeys that take you from the frontlines of climate injustice to radical hopes for a sustainable future.

The event marks the 14^th anniversary since the writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by Nigerian government for his campaign against the impact of oil companies, in particular Shell, on the environment in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

remember saro-wiwa uses art, activism and education to campaign for human and environmental rights in the Niger Delta.

7 Nov Evening Event

Venue: Arnolfini,
16 Narrow Quay
Bristol BS1 4QA

For more information for the season of events, starting with the launch on 3 Oct visit

www.arnolfini.org.uk or www.platformlondon.org