Exiled Writers Talk Survival and Dissent

On September 22, the Park Center for Independent Media hosted a discussion with dissident writers who were forced from their homelands and found sanctuary through a City of Asylum in Ithaca, Pittsburgh, or Detroit. The event, which was attended by nearly 70 Ithaca College students, faculty and community members, provided an opportunity for these writers to read from and discuss their work, and explain why their writings put them in danger in their respective countries of origin.
The discussion was led by PCIM Director Raza Rumi, a former writer in residence hosted by the Ithaca City of Asylum. “This event was exclusively put together for our brilliant students to hear from this panel and learn the important lessons of not giving up and upholding truth.”
The writers were Russian poet Dmitry Bykov, Nigeria essayist Pwaangulongii Dauod, Nicaraguan cartoonist Pedro X. Molina, and novelist Anouar Rahmani.
Rahmani gave insight to his journey to writing novels through activism. “I didn’t want to be novelist, actually. It all happened as a coincidence,” Rahmani said. “In 2015, a lot of my friends who were Atheist or Christian and they were actually in jail because the regime, or the Algerian government at the time, decided to use religion as a way to legitimate their power.”
Dauod, who gained national recognition for his 2016 essay, “Africa’s Future Has No Space for Stupid Black Men,” spoke on his dissatisfaction with Western coverage of African issues and stories. He said, “I would go on to read what the New York Times has published and it's a different experience. And you kind of sense that [this journalist] is not trying to be dishonest.”
Molina described his responsibility to give voice to the voiceless in Nicaragua through his cartoons: “I stopped worrying about my role as a cartoonist, having people laugh, and I started to worry more about connecting with people. And I found out that the best way that I could connect with the people, it was to realize that I was just one of them; the only difference between them and me is that I could draw and I could actually have a voice when they can't.”
Bykov delivered an animated standing delivery of his poem, “A Ballad of No Laments,” first in Russian, then in English, adapted to retain its rhyming scheme. On Russian opposition to the Russia-Ukraine war, Bykov said, “In Russia, the population consists of the most free slaves. They are slaves because they have no political opposition to power. We are free because we have freedom of speech in Russia, sure. We can criticize anything at all… We are free in everything except criticizing Putin.”
Read more from the evening's speakers here: www.theedgemed...
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