Celebrating 20 Years of Tromsø ICORN City of Refuge
In 2025, Tromsø marks its 20th anniversary as an ICORN City of Refuge. On 6 and 7 October, a programme of conversations, readings, musical performances, and film screenings celebrated the courage, resilience, and creativity of Tromsø’s ICORN residents, as well as the city’s symbolic and practical commitment to freedom of expression.
The celebration opened on Monday 6 October, with an address by the Mayor of Tromsø, Gunnar Wilhelmsen, followed by a performance from renowned Afghan musician Hamid Sakhizada, former ICORN resident in Harstad.
The evening continued with presentations by Ingeborg Kværne and Ole-Gunnar Solheim. Kværne, National ICORN Coordinator for Norway through Norwegian PEN, introduced the history and purpose of the ICORN network, while Solheim, Regional Director of Amnesty International Norway (Region North), reflected on Tromsø’s own 20-year history as a City of Refuge.
Tromsø’s first ICORN resident, acclaimed Naga poet and writer, Easterine Kire, read selections from her poetry collections, accompanied by live music from the Birgitte Damberg Trio.
A conversation followed between Syrian writer Sanaa Aoun, ICORN resident in Tromsø 2016- 2018, and Ole-Gunnar Solheim. The discussion explored Syrian literature of war, including Aoun’s short story collections and other works. The evening concluded with Syrian food.
The second day began with a film screening of the documentary ‘Behind the Mask’. The film follows the Uyghur linguist, writer, and activist Abduweli Ayup as he travels to Germany to confront a former prison guard at a Chinese internment camp for Uyghurs- a meeting fraught with personal and family dilemmas. Prior to the screening, there was a reading of Uyghur poetry and a musical performance by the Uyghur musician Yusuf Suleiman, ICORN resident in Piteå from 2023 to 2025.
A panel discussion titled ‘The Abuse of Power and Technological Surveillance’ followed the film screening. The conversation focused on the systematic digital and political surveillance of the Uyghur ethnic minority in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, where Uyghurs are facing persecution and mass internment in so-called re-education camps.
Since becoming an ICORN City of Refuge in 2005, Tromsø has hosted 7 writers, artists, and journalists in ICORN residence, including Naga poet and writer Easterine Kire, Bangladeshi journalist Jahangir Akash, and Syrian writer Sanaa Aoun.
