The International Cities of Refuge Network is an association of cities and regions around the world dedicated to the value of Freedom of Expression.
Protection
ICORN Cities offer persecuted writers a safe haven where they can live and work without fear of being censored or silenced.
Promotion
ICORN supports the artistic endeavours of its guest writers and promotes new spaces for intercultural dialogues worldwide.
Al Jazeera features ICORN Guest Writer Manal Al-Sheikh in upcoming documentary
January 2012 Saved to Network News
Al Jazeera's English language television channel has selected Stavanger Guest Writer Manal Al-Sheikh to be among six poets featured in an upcoming documentary series titled 'Poetry in Motion.' The programme will delve into the lives of poets living in Norway, France, Lebanon, Bahrain, Egypt, Palestine, and Algeria, highlighting the particular obstacles and challenges each writer faces in expressing his or her ideas. The project aims to explore the importance of poetry in Middle Eastern culture and its special relevance to the revolutionary movements of the Arab Spring. The documentary will also focus on writers in exile and how this experience affects the subject matter and languages in which they work.
Uppsala announces Spring 2012 Literary Programme
January 2012 Saved to Events, Festivals and Opportunities
Uppsala has a very active literary community and the city's Literature Centre recently has released its upcoming programmes and events. ICORN Guest Writer Anisur Rahman is on the planning committee and participates heavily in the activities. For more information, go to the Studie Framjändet web site (in Swedish) or continue reading this article for highlights.
ICORN cartoonist Abdul Arts speaks with high schoolers in Skien
January 2012 Saved to Network News
Abduallahi Muhiaddin, Skien City of Refuge's latest guest writer, spoke with local high school students recently about his life, work, and the current political situation in his native Somalia. Muhiaddin lived as a refugee in Cairo before ICORN selected him for its two-year programme. Muhiaddin is a well-respected political cartoonist who publishes his drawings under the name 'Abdul Arts.' Now that Muhiaddin has arrived in Norway, his work will be able to find new and wider avenues for publication.
Visit Shahrazad!
Welcome to the Shahrazad website, a free space in Europe for writers from all over the world to tell their stories and to be heard.
Six ICORN cities are taking part in the Shahrazad project: Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Norwich, Stockholm and Stavanger. But writers from every corner of the world are invited to contribute words.
The Shahrazad project will set in motion a transnational dynamic of sharing and exchanging new stories. It will reach out specifically to individuals and groups unfamiliar with traditional literary and cultural activities. It will focus especially on children and young people who, through educational programmes, creative workshops and digital story production, will experience both the receiving and production ends of the Stories for Life chain of communication.
Ultimately, the Shahrazad project aims to provide Europe with new, more open and sustainable narratives about itself. By opening up to human and artistic impulses from ‘outside', Europe can regain and revitalise some of its capital values: freedom, democracy and solidarity.
Shahrazad is a European Union Culture 2007: multi-annual co-operation project
ICORN cities
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