The grant is for the development and implementation of creative writing workshops for young urban female refugees in Kenya, the country home to the largest number of refugees in the world. The wonderful Mikhail Iossel, founding director of the Summer Literary Seminars, contacted me about possibly programming together last fall after he heard about my advocacy for exiled dissident Chinese writer Tumen Ulzei Bayunmend at the Writers and Literary Translators International Congress in Istanbul last September. This happened to be around the same time as my good friend Michael Littig, who was a Fulbright scholar in drama in Mongolia the year I was a Luce Scholar there, and I started talking on the phone about possible collaborative projects.
Since our time in Mongolia, Michael has gone and moved mountains with the miracle of his presence and dedication, creating the Great Globe Foundation (GGF), an organization that brings theater arts workshops to Dadaab–the largest refugee camp on the planet–and arts in general to disadvantaged youth around the world. I’ll be working in tandem with them, and with the UNHCR (the refugee arm of the UN that I’ve worked with since getting involved with freedom to write advocacy in Mongolia ’07) to get the program up and running. My long-term hope is to connect the girls and their work with Kenyan Literary Seminar faculty authors via mentorship programming. Before and after getting the news about my grant, directors at all of the above organizations have gotten back to me quickly with wonderful encouragement, support, and contacts, which means that a solid, sustained program for these girls beyond my summer tenure there is an actual possibility. I can’t think of a more important function of literature than to give voice to the voiceless, and I can’t think of a more voiceless demographic than young urban female refugees in Africa. They need to be given the mike, so to speak.
I am honored in advance to meet these young women and hear from them, and humbled and amazed at the opportunities my community continues to give me to do work in the arts for the international development sector. It’s a conversation I am thrilled to be part of.
Creative Writing With Refugees in Kenya!
I am officially Kenya-bound! Thanks to an International Enhancement Grant, I’ll be working with the amazing Michael Littig at the Great Globe Foundation, PEN Freedom to Write, the Summer Literary Seminars, the UNHCR Kenya, and other awesome orgs and peeps to bring creative writing workshops to young urban female refugees in Kenya this summer!
The grant is for the development and implementation of creative writing workshops for young urban female refugees in Kenya, the country home to the largest number of refugees in the world. The wonderful Mikhail Iossel, founding director of the Summer Literary Seminars, contacted me about possibly programming together last fall after he heard about my advocacy for exiled dissident Chinese writer Tumen Ulzei Bayunmend at the Writers and Literary Translators International Congress in Istanbul last September. This happened to be around the same time as my good friend Michael Littig, who was a Fulbright scholar in drama in Mongolia the year I was a Luce Scholar there, and I started talking on the phone about possible collaborative projects.
Since our time in Mongolia, Michael has gone and moved mountains with the miracle of his presence and dedication, creating the Great Globe Foundation (GGF), an organization that brings theater arts workshops to Dadaab–the largest refugee camp on the planet–and arts in general to disadvantaged youth around the world. I’ll be working in tandem with them, and with the UNHCR (the refugee arm of the UN that I’ve worked with since getting involved with freedom to write advocacy in Mongolia ’07) to get the program up and running. My long-term hope is to connect the girls and their work with Kenyan Literary Seminar faculty authors via mentorship programming. Before and after getting the news about my grant, directors at all of the above organizations have gotten back to me quickly with wonderful encouragement, support, and contacts, which means that a solid, sustained program for these girls beyond my summer tenure there is an actual possibility. I can’t think of a more important function of literature than to give voice to the voiceless, and I can’t think of a more voiceless demographic than young urban female refugees in Africa. They need to be given the mike, so to speak.
I am honored in advance to meet these young women and hear from them, and humbled and amazed at the opportunities my community continues to give me to do work in the arts for the international development sector. It’s a conversation I am thrilled to be part of.
Much more, very soon.
Love and thanks
Ming