With Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu und Sabina Brilo
Belarusian author
Sabina Brilo, who lives in exile in Vilnius, and her Eritrean colleague
Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu, who lives in exile in Munich, present their touching and illuminating correspondence, which they conducted as part of the project Weiter Schreiben Mondial. In the letters, the poets discuss the catastrophic human rights situation in their countries of origin, Belarus and Eritrea.
In readings and conversations, they report on arrests, abducted journalists, dangerous escapes, and the pain of having to live in exile, separated from their families. In their letters and poems, the authors take the floor and write against the silencing to which the dictatorships of their countries want to bring them.
Authors:
Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu, born in 1981 in Eritrea, is an author, poet and activist. She published in various Eritrean media and worked at Radio Bana until the station was banned. From 2009 to 2015 she was imprisoned, since 2018 she lives in Munich. In 2023,
Ich bin am Leben, her first collection of poems in German, was published.
Sabina Brilo studied media and communication as well as international human rights standards. From 1994 to 2011 she wrote about law and politics for various mass media such as
Femida and
Femida-
Nova, had a column on the website New Europe and was editor of the radio program
Belsat (
This is my right).
Moderator:
Lara Sielmann is a cultural journalist, literary critic as well as curator. She works as a freelance editor and author for Deutschlandfunk Kultur. At the Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf she curates the series
Berliner Gegenwartsliteraturen. She lives in Berlin.
Translation: Irina Bondas
The event "The Emptiness in the Place of the Heart" is held in cooperation with Weiter Schreiben. Weiter Schreiben is a project of WIR MACHEN DAS funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
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