WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.900 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.900 --> 00:00:01.980 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:07.770 align:middle line:84% So I've been working on a sequence of poems 00:00:07.770 --> 00:00:14.490 align:middle line:84% on human trafficking that's been happening in North Africa, 00:00:14.490 --> 00:00:16.710 align:middle line:90% in my native Libya. 00:00:16.710 --> 00:00:20.820 align:middle line:84% And I've been researching it and how much in many ways 00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:29.550 align:middle line:84% it's economic, it's ambition, it's drought, it's poverty, 00:00:29.550 --> 00:00:33.600 align:middle line:84% and it's global economics all together. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:40.380 align:middle line:84% And it's also made the world into really a sequence 00:00:40.380 --> 00:00:42.810 align:middle line:90% of holding pens. 00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:44.250 align:middle line:90% A great book that I'm-- 00:00:44.250 --> 00:00:48.360 align:middle line:84% read is called Illegality, Inc, and in that book 00:00:48.360 --> 00:00:52.890 align:middle line:84% essentially, Europe's borders have become Africa really. 00:00:52.890 --> 00:00:58.110 align:middle line:84% The Spanish-- the Spanish guards, Guardia Civil, 00:00:58.110 --> 00:01:01.470 align:middle line:84% the ones that kill the local, are operating in Africa. 00:01:01.470 --> 00:01:03.430 align:middle line:90% They have their centers there. 00:01:03.430 --> 00:01:06.690 align:middle line:84% And they have something called Frontex, 00:01:06.690 --> 00:01:08.430 align:middle line:90% which is the front of Europe. 00:01:08.430 --> 00:01:12.300 align:middle line:84% The headquarters of Frontex is in Warsaw. 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:14.850 align:middle line:84% They are the ones who made a deal with Turkey to make 00:01:14.850 --> 00:01:17.280 align:middle line:90% the migrants stay in Turkey. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:21.120 align:middle line:84% Some of you may have heard NPR today about Moria, 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:22.545 align:middle line:90% the camp in Lesbos. 00:01:22.545 --> 00:01:25.560 align:middle line:90% 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:29.490 align:middle line:84% So that's what I've been thinking about. 00:01:29.490 --> 00:01:34.740 align:middle line:84% And myself as an immigrant, a refugee at some point, 00:01:34.740 --> 00:01:38.370 align:middle line:84% and the grandchild of refugees-- my family 00:01:38.370 --> 00:01:42.060 align:middle line:84% fled Libya when the Italians invaded in the '20s. 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:45.930 align:middle line:84% And they walked all the-- they walked all the way to Egypt. 00:01:45.930 --> 00:01:48.600 align:middle line:84% And they were stopped on the borders 00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:51.990 align:middle line:84% where the League of Nations before the UN 00:01:51.990 --> 00:01:54.570 align:middle line:90% had to make them some papers. 00:01:54.570 --> 00:01:58.680 align:middle line:90% And so it's a-- 00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:01.350 align:middle line:90% I don't know how we would have-- 00:02:01.350 --> 00:02:02.910 align:middle line:90% I mean, our relatives survived. 00:02:02.910 --> 00:02:06.120 align:middle line:84% We didn't flee, but it's just part 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:09.780 align:middle line:90% of my life and my grandparents. 00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:12.940 align:middle line:84% And my father was born on the trip. 00:02:12.940 --> 00:02:16.680 align:middle line:84% And the woman my grandmother ended-- 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:21.480 align:middle line:84% or grandfather ended up marrying after my grandmother died 00:02:21.480 --> 00:02:24.150 align:middle line:84% had her first wedding on this trip. 00:02:24.150 --> 00:02:26.880 align:middle line:84% So these journeys really do take a lifetime. 00:02:26.880 --> 00:02:29.790 align:middle line:84% I think it took them about a year and a half to walk. 00:02:29.790 --> 00:02:31.740 align:middle line:84% They had to prepare, they have to make sure 00:02:31.740 --> 00:02:33.230 align:middle line:90% that there's water. 00:02:33.230 --> 00:02:34.980 align:middle line:84% And so the people that are going to Europe 00:02:34.980 --> 00:02:39.240 align:middle line:84% from "deepest Africa," if you will, 00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:42.780 align:middle line:84% it takes them years to get on that boat, 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:45.930 align:middle line:84% whether it's from Libya to Lampedusa, 00:02:45.930 --> 00:02:53.010 align:middle line:84% or it used to be from Senegal to Cape Verde or from Turkey 00:02:53.010 --> 00:02:54.450 align:middle line:90% to Lesbos. 00:02:54.450 --> 00:02:56.490 align:middle line:84% Here, people from Afghanistan have 00:02:56.490 --> 00:03:02.070 align:middle line:84% to go south to Baluchistan, up all the way Iran, 00:03:02.070 --> 00:03:08.840 align:middle line:84% across Eastern Turkey, so years and years of work. 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:16.020 align:middle line:84% So as much as I feel like that story is part of my story, 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:24.750 align:middle line:84% I also feel like there is a story that I am hesitant about. 00:03:24.750 --> 00:03:27.360 align:middle line:90% Part of it is-- 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:31.800 align:middle line:84% but I mean, it's not emboldened, but I engage in this because, 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:34.380 align:middle line:84% yes, there's some alternate who does not speak. 00:03:34.380 --> 00:03:37.665 align:middle line:84% People who do not have power, one of their sources 00:03:37.665 --> 00:03:41.070 align:middle line:84% are a lack-- so their power is their ability not to express 00:03:41.070 --> 00:03:43.080 align:middle line:90% or talk about their lives. 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:47.970 align:middle line:84% And also because something like this-- 00:03:47.970 --> 00:03:51.030 align:middle line:84% this is articulated by Fernando Pessoa. 00:03:51.030 --> 00:03:55.500 align:middle line:84% He says, "I do not know who I am, what soul I have. 00:03:55.500 --> 00:03:58.590 align:middle line:84% When I speak with sincerity, I do not 00:03:58.590 --> 00:04:01.770 align:middle line:84% know what sincerity I am speaking with. 00:04:01.770 --> 00:04:06.120 align:middle line:84% Unvaryingly, someone other than I over whom I do not 00:04:06.120 --> 00:04:09.720 align:middle line:84% know if he exists, if he is those others." 00:04:09.720 --> 00:04:12.930 align:middle line:90% 00:04:12.930 --> 00:04:18.360 align:middle line:84% So in this regard, this suite of poems 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:25.120 align:middle line:84% is multivocal, a number of voices speaking. 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:27.600 align:middle line:84% There are maybe four characters that come in and out. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:28.560 align:middle line:90% One is Malouk. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:36.510 align:middle line:84% And he's not based, but evolved as a character based on a novel 00:04:36.510 --> 00:04:39.810 align:middle line:84% called African Titanics by an author 00:04:39.810 --> 00:04:42.960 align:middle line:84% from Eritrea named Abu Bakr Khaal. 00:04:42.960 --> 00:04:45.480 align:middle line:84% And Amadou is somebody I knew in Libya. 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:53.820 align:middle line:84% And Constance and Blessing are women whose stories 00:04:53.820 --> 00:04:56.610 align:middle line:84% I've learned about through interviews 00:04:56.610 --> 00:05:00.380 align:middle line:90% and through research. 00:05:00.380 --> 00:05:01.400 align:middle line:90% "Psalm." 00:05:01.400 --> 00:05:02.840 align:middle line:90% So this is the Lampedusa-- 00:05:02.840 --> 00:05:04.490 align:middle line:90% Lampedusa is a tiny island. 00:05:04.490 --> 00:05:05.870 align:middle line:90% It's actually in Africa. 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:08.720 align:middle line:84% It's the nearest point for migrants 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:12.380 align:middle line:84% who come through Western Libya to try to go to Italy. 00:05:12.380 --> 00:05:15.320 align:middle line:84% So once they reach Lampedusa, then they're in Italy. 00:05:15.320 --> 00:05:20.780 align:middle line:84% And they're then taken in by European migrants and so on-- 00:05:20.780 --> 00:05:22.460 align:middle line:90% European migration. 00:05:22.460 --> 00:05:24.980 align:middle line:84% And then they'll may be considered refugees and so on. 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:31.370 align:middle line:84% And Agadez, Agadez is a town in central Niger, 00:05:31.370 --> 00:05:36.560 align:middle line:84% where people are now congregating from all parts 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:38.362 align:middle line:90% of Africa, from Congo, from-- 00:05:38.362 --> 00:05:40.070 align:middle line:84% although sometimes they come from Senegal 00:05:40.070 --> 00:05:44.180 align:middle line:84% all the way to Niger, which is thousands of miles, 00:05:44.180 --> 00:05:47.240 align:middle line:84% or they come from Eritrea and there, 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:48.890 align:middle line:90% and then that's the second stop. 00:05:48.890 --> 00:05:50.360 align:middle line:84% And sometimes people spend a year 00:05:50.360 --> 00:05:53.480 align:middle line:84% in Agadez waiting to have enough money in order to make it. 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:55.910 align:middle line:90% And the traffickers are really-- 00:05:55.910 --> 00:05:58.190 align:middle line:84% their transporters, but they're also kidnappers. 00:05:58.190 --> 00:06:03.860 align:middle line:84% Once you agree for them to take you, then you are-- 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:05.360 align:middle line:90% you're in their hands. 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:08.570 align:middle line:84% They can ask for money, and they can ask for more money. 00:06:08.570 --> 00:06:10.670 align:middle line:90% And they put you up in a camp. 00:06:10.670 --> 00:06:15.090 align:middle line:84% It's a condition that no one will want to live in. 00:06:15.090 --> 00:06:17.420 align:middle line:84% So I'll read from them, and maybe I'll 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:20.080 align:middle line:90% close with something else.