Local Community Experiences of Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey
My Mother’s Heels Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, University of Oxford and Refugee Hosts ‘I live in Baddawi Camp.’ This is what I used to tell foreigners every single time they came to my primary school. At times I used to run after them and repeat these words without waiting for their questions. I have always thought…
This piece continues a series of poetic responses to photographs taken by Refugee Hosts PI Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh during a field-trip to Baddawi refugee camp and the neighbourhood of Jebel al-Baddawi in North Lebanon, and to a range of neighbourhoods in Beirut in March-April 2018. Written by Refugee Hosts Writer-in-Residence Yousif M. Qasmiyeh and PI Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh,…
This piece continues a series of poetic responses to photographs taken by Refugee Hosts PI Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh during a field-trip to Baddawi refugee camp and the neighbourhood of Jebel al-Baddawi in North Lebanon, and to a range of neighbourhoods in Beirut in March-April 2018. Written by Refugee Hosts Writer-in-Residence Yousif M. Qasmiyeh and/or PI Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh,…
This is the first in a series of poetic responses to photographs taken by Refugee Hosts PI Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh during a field-trip to Baddawi refugee camp and the neighbourhood of Jebel al-Baddawi in North Lebanon, and to a range of neighbourhoods in Beirut in March-April 2018. Written by Refugee Hosts Writer-in-Residence Yousif M. Qasmiyeh and/or PI Dr…
Name by Frances Timberlake, Refugee Women's Centre The name lands on the pavement slapped down like spilt water A person a body a name tumbling from this young boy's mouth like spilt water Like a splash from the Black Sea waters the man drowned in four months ago as the young boy sat watching with the…
The Camp is the Reject of the Reject Par Excellence by Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, University of Oxford and Refugee Hosts Writer in Residence I It bears multiple meanings, depending on how it is said. For my mother, however, the meaning was clear enough to be taken from my father’s mouth to God’s and vice…
How can creative storytelling enable new ways of thinking about and representing displacement? In this piece, Tahmineh Hooshyar Emami reflects on the process of writing her fictitious account, Alice’s Alternative Wonderland, which was originally displayed in three parts on Refugee Hosts. Alice’s Alternative Wonderland is the fictitious account of a child’s experiences on the European refugee trail; here the author…
This and the following poem describe a trivial yet emotionally charged object: the thermo-blanket distributed to migrants in emergency situations. Is the thermo-blanket a sign of our welcome or the symptom of a tendency to cover and make ourselves blind to what is difficult to see? Through the simple yet powerful image of the blanket,…
How can poetry, creative writing and translation unearth and represent experiences of displacement? In this poem - the first of two pieces by Giulia Balestra of REFUNITE which will feature on Refugee Hosts' Representations of Displacement series - Giulia offers a reflection on belonging and positionality, with an English translation sitting alongside the original Italian. Through reflecting…
Refugees are Dialectical Beings: Part Two by Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, University of Oxford and Refugee Hosts Writer in Residence To the ones who are en route, the ones whose stomachs are compasses and whose compasses are manifestos of nothing… Refugees are dialectical beings I The aridity of a camp presupposes the aridity of life.…
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