‘And Still, It Remains’ Poetry Reading Circle

We’d like to invite Black and non-white participants to a poetry reading circle facilitated by filmmaker and writer Leena Habiballa to mark the last week of Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah’s exhibition, ‘And Still, It Remains’, on Sunday 8 October 2023 (2-5pm).

By exploring the legacy of French nuclear colonialism in the Algerian Sahara, ‘And Still, It Remains’ throws into sharp relief the racial oversight in the ‘end of the world’ discourse, thereby asking what worlds have already ended and what does a life after the end of the world look like? This poetry reading circle extends this enquiry to the conditions of climate crisis experienced by racialised people, with a particular focus on recently affected communities including Moroccan, Libyan, and Sudani communities.

All participants are invited to bring one or two poems they would like to share with the group. Participants will together translate, read, and discuss poems from these regions and beyond that speak to the loss, rage, and hopes of this moment with the aim of collectively cultivating a space of expression, connection, and reflection over shared legacies of colonialism and environmental collapse.