Literature Talk: Poets from Black Europe

With Radna Fabias (NL), Ubah Cristina Ali Farah (IT), Raquel Lima (PT), Fiston Mwanza Mujila (AT) & Roger Robinson (U.K.)

An evening of poetry which crosses national and continental borders, with poets born in Africa, the Caribbean, or Europe, who have African roots. However, they all remain children of Europe, as they almost all grew up there. Their poetry challenges both the concept of a diaspora and that of national literature. The work navigates personal, collective, and universal mythologies, and is rooted in different traditions: the music and orality of African poetic tradition, and the European canonical poetic texts. The poets do not limit themselves to topics such as identity, gender, racism, or colonial violence. They also show a diversity of aesthetic and artistic positions.

This evening is curated by the Austrian-Congolese writer Fiston Mwanza Mujila and is part of the annual Transpoesie festival.

Radna Fabias (1983) was born and raised in Curaçao. She is a graduate of HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. She debuted as a poet with the poetry collection Habitus (2018) which won all major poetry awards in the Netherlands & Belgium, amongst which the Herman de Coninck prize. She was hailed as the Dutch literary talent of 2019 by Dutch National newspaper De Volkskrant.

Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Lubumbashi, Congo) lived in several European countries and teaches African literature at the University of Graz. He writes poetry, short stories, and theatre texts, reflecting on the chaos and civil wars during Mobutu’s dictatorship. He also edited the poetry anthology Kontinentaldrift. Das Schwarze Europa, which is the basis for this evening.

Raquel Lima is a poet, performer, and art educator, based in Portugal. In 2019 she released her first book and audio-book of poetry entitled Ingenuidade Inocência Ignorância. She co-coordinated the 7th Afroeuropeans Conference: Black In/Visibilities Contested.

Roger Robinson is a writer and educator who has taught and performed worldwide and is an experienced workshop leader and lecturer on poetry. He was chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the black-British writing canon.

Ubah Cristina Ali Farah is a Brussels-based Italian-Somali writer. In 2006, she won the Lingua Madre National Literary Prize. Her novel Madre piccola (2007) was awarded the prestigious Vittorini Prize and has been translated in English under the title Little Mother (2011).