#Theophilus Kwek

[poems-from-around-the-world]

Psalm for a Pandemic - Theophilus Kwek - Singapore

Left to themselves, the shapes of all green things begin to describe their own flourishing. 

A field rouses itself into a mist, a shimmer of birds among its tallest 

grasses. From bridges, the bougainvillea let their long hair down. Kerbside, the verges 

surge without remorse. Even the trees are no longer wood but water – like the sea 

unshored they spill out over the pavement, catch our feet in their slow accoutrements. 

Iron gives way to ivy. Where are the hard words now, of our roadsigns and hazards? 

As hair gone uncut, the whole earth thickens. We can be kind too, if they let us.

[montanamp3]

theophilus kwek

[thenarrativeofjohnsmith]

Fate

If you go backstage when the show ends, you’ll find us—heroes, ladies—all in the arms of the ugly puppeteer.

After we’ve been played, our heads are taken down, bodies folded and stacked again in his box, secured with string where patiently, like prisoners, we’ll wait to see the sun.

- Wong Yoon Wah

November, 1977

Translated from the Chinese by Theophilus Kwek

[whereivestood]

so this is arriving where we started, you say, this is knowing the place for the first time. I whisper that there is still the last of earth left to discover: not known, because not looked for. and so what? comes your reply. what we have found is more than enough. and what we have not is not for us.

- Upon Remembering by Theophilus Kwek (in Circle Line, 2014)

//photo: sunset in La Union, Philippines (April 2019)

[viperslang]

Happy to post that I won the Berfrois Poetry Prize for 2017. 

Here is a set of 4 deeply personal and visceral fragment-poems.

[actualbird]

"a rupture / in our time, where past and present / futures meet, stop short. A living fault." 'witness' by theophilus kwek -effie

oh i love THIS. THANK U EFFIE

[gojonstonego]

A-Z of Villainy / Aquanauts Live at Hay

Two upcoming events: I’m co-hosting an A-Z of Villainy this Friday, from 7pm at the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon. It’s a simple premise: writers reading pieces inspired by villains. 26 writers, 26 villains. Some of the writers may or may not be undercover villains themselves, and liable to hatch a scheme in the midst of proceedings. If no one else does, I will. If I can think of something dastardly enough.

I’m co-hosting this event with Kate Potts and Holly Hopkins, and contributing writers include Will Harris, Astra Papachristodoulou, Theophilus Kwek, Nisha Ramayya and Rishi Dastidar.

Then on Friday I’ll be in Hay-on-Wye with my Sidekick co-editor Kirsten Irving and two Sidekick poets, Abigail Parry and Clive Birnie. The fabulous Poetry Bookshop have invited us to host an interactive poetry performance linked to our interactive handbook, Aquanauts. We’re bringing party bags.

[rightsinexile]

OpEd: Refugees are not “political resources”

By Rebecca Buxton, an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies student at Oxford University and former president of the KCL Student Action for Refugees, and Theophilus Kwek, also an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies student at Oxford University and formerly vice-president of the Oxford Students’ Oxfam Group. The piece was originally published on 26 January 2017 by IRIN and is reproduced here with permission.

Academics and policymakers alike have begun to push back, in earnest, against popular conceptions of refugees as a burden on their receiving societies. While these conceptions certainly ought to be challenged, we must be careful not to overlook refugees’ voices – and our own obligations – in the process.

In a provocative article in The Guardian on Sunday, Professor Alexander Betts (director of the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University) argued that a view of refugees as potential economic contributors to their receiving societies must be complemented by a more radical “rethinking of the role of refugees in society”, one that sees refugees as political resources for reshaping regimes in their countries of origin. Within a day, the article was shared on Facebook by Melissa Fleming, official spokesperson for the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees, with the caption “refugees don’t just have economic potential – they are a political resource too.”

Betts makes a persuasive case. Recent research, he points out, focuses on the economic benefits of resettling refugees in European states while neglecting the political benefits of using them to support “long-term transitions to peace and democracy back home”. Fostering diaspora networks and providing political resources may not only prove a more successful but also a less expensive means of encouraging democratic transitions in “troubled countries” than current efforts to effect change through aid or intervention. Western democratic governments that refuse to acknowledge this potential, so the argument continues, will forgo the opportunity to fulfil their liberal foreign policy commitments while meeting refugees’ immediate material concerns, including legal status and temporary resettlement.

This proposal, though elegant, has several blind spots. It neglects, for example, the refugees who would prefer not to be associated with the political situation in their home countries, let alone be expected to return and change them. Many seek to distance themselves from recent trauma, while others deliberately adopt new identities (some even rejecting the label of “refugee” altogether) in order to start new lives and find new communities. It also neglects the refugees whose social networks and personal resources are less easily mobilised for political change in their home countries – those whose families are at risk of severe repercussions, for example, or those who are already marginalised in their societies of origin. Treating refugees as “useful” for political change implicitly devalues those who lack either the desire or the means to aid the rebuilding process.

But there are deeper problems at the root of this argument. Attempts to reconcile refugees to host states’ agendas represent an erosion of the basis of the refugee protection regime: the understanding that states have obligations towards refugees, and ought to reconcile their own agendas to fulfilling them. Specifically, states’ policies should recognise that refugees are in need of protection precisely because their individual freedoms – including the freedom to determine their own political actions – have been overridden by their home nations, leaving them, in the words of the 1951 Refugee Convention, “unable [...] or unwilling to avail themselves of the protections of [those] countries”. The primary duty of a receiving state is thus to restore the refugee’s personal agency: something that is easily occluded by reframing the refugee, instead, to suit its foreign policy goals.

Sadly, these are not hypothetical criticisms. Refugees have, historically, borne the costs of being treated as political resources by their hosts or powerful neighbours. As Ben Rawlence argued last year in The New York Times, Kenya’s decision to close the refugee camp at Dadaab – the world’s largest – and return close to 600,000 Somali refugees could be seen as an attempt to extract political concessions from Western donors and foster unrest in Somalia. To be fair, Betts acknowledges that past attempts to mobilise refugees for political change, such as US reliance on “refugee warriors” in Honduras and Pakistan, have been problematic, and seeks to distance his proposal from these examples through an emphasis on “non-violent political opposition”. But while the projected ends of democratisation and political change seem to be more subtle, peaceful, and legitimate, it is hard to argue that they justify the means – which similarly risk obscuring refugees’ wishes and aims.

Betts argues that states should “empower refugees”. We agree. But the idea of conceptualising refugees as “useful” to an international agenda does just the opposite. In order to truly empower refugees, we must eschew the rhetoric that they can be our “resources”. Otherwise, we view refugees as valuable only in so far as they are worth something to our rebuilding projects. And under this framing, to borrow Phil Cole’s words, the refugee “has their representation determined for them”.

[publicsituation]

RT @refugeesdeeply: Reply to Refugia: Nothing Utopian About an Archipelago of Exclusion by @RebeccaBuxton @HuynhJadeH & Theophilus Kwek https://t.co/UEA3ii1iAu

[gessvhowarth]

Free And Cheap London Events: 9-15 January 2017

All week Shadow walker by Richard Peters is on display at Horniman Museum. © Richard Peters WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY: Nature and photography lovers have one final week to check out the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Horniman Museum. Free, just turn up, until 15 January SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY: Lose yourself in Zara Hussein's sculptural installation Numina at Barbican, combining designs of the Islamic world with modern digital arts. Free, just turn up, until 25 January JOURNEY TO JUSTICE: Multimedia exhibition Journey to Justice, at Morley Gallery, tells the story of the US civil rights movement, its connection with the UK and the impact it had on the world. Using a series of 'bus stops', the exhibition focuses on the stories of people who are less known in the UK. Free, just turn up, until 3 February [open Monday-Saturday] GLAD TO BE GAY: Discover the struggle of the journey to legal equality faced by gay people since the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. Exhibition Glad to be Gay uses the Hall-Carpenter Archives and The Women’s Library collection to consider the legal challenges of the last 50 years. Free, just turn up, until 7 April Monday 9 January PRACTICAL MEDITATION: Get your zen on with Inner Space's Practical Meditation course in Covent Garden. For better concentration, creativity and relaxation, Raja Yoga is something anyone can do for a mindful, peaceful and happier life. Free, book ahead, 4pm-5pm Tuesday 10 January THE SPRING TO COME: It's the final day of this Southbank Centre exhibition, which explores the story of an aspiring poet as he tries to deal with the realities of war. Free, just turn up, from 11am LUNCHTIME CONCERT: Treat your ears to free music with a lunchtime piano concert at Morley College on Westminster Bridge Road. The students of the Composition Workshop will perform their work. Free, just turn up, 1.05pm-2pm MATHS AND MOVIES: Explore the relationship between maths and movies with Mathematics Goes To The Movies, a Gresham College lecture at Museum of London. Professor Chris Budd explains the significance of mathematics in manipulating and changing images, and how this can be used in fields from crime to medicine to film. Free, just turn up, 1pm-2pm Wednesday 11 January Listen to spoken word with The New Poet's Prize at Southbank Centre. GENDER INEQUALITY: Join this panel debate at LSE to explore recent developments affecting gender inequality. Maria Miller MP is among the panellists. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm-8pm SPIKE LEE: Explore Spike Lee's controversial breakthrough film, Do The Right Thing at Deptford Cinema. The film follows Mookie through a tense day on the streets of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. £5/£3.50, book ahead, from 7.30pm POETRY PRIZE: Relax with an evening of spoken word from 2016's New Poet's Prize winners. Listen to winners Imogen Cassels, Jenny Danes, Theophilus Kwek and Phoebe Stuckes's readings at Southbank Centre. Free, just turn up, from 8pm Thursday 12 January Lego Robots at Drink, Shop & Do. Photo: Drink, Shop & Do BUILD A LEGO ROBOT: Put your Lego-building skills to good use at Drink, Shop & Do in King's Cross. With a group of five, build a Lego Robot, give it a name and a skill, and see who wins. Free when you buy a drink, just turn up, from 7pm Friday 13 January LUNCHTIME GIG: Folk duo The Frog, The Fish & the Whale perform a lunchtime concert at Southbank Centre, blending genres from classical to world, pop and jazz. Free, just turn up, from 1pm THE GET DOWN: Confetti cannons, wall-to-wall disco and Bronx hip-hop is what's on offer at Drink, Shop & Do. Put on your finest threads for a night of New York fun in London with The Get Down. Free until 10pm, £3 after, just turn up The Frog, The Fish & the Whale will be playing at Southbank Centre on Friday 13 Jan. Photo Source: Southbank Centre Saturday 14 January MYTHOLOGY BITES: Children can learn about Nordic myths with this short workshop at Southbank Centre. Explore mythology and powerful poetry in this whistle-stop tour, Mythology Bites. Free, just turn up, 11.15am/12.45pm/2.45pm LEARNING THROUGH LEGO: Tap into your creative side with the Lego team at Southbank Centre. Learn about the value of play from experts and get hands on with those plastic bricks. Free, just turn up, from 11.30am PICK ME UP: Be motivated in 2017 with Inner Space's Boost Your Motivation, a talk guiding to towards a more motivated and driven life. Takes place in Dalston. Free, book ahead, 11.30-12.45pm COSY AND CRAFTY: Enjoy hot chocolate and other treats as you knit, craft flower crowns and relax in the story-telling corner at this family-friendly Hygge themed event at Southbank Centre. Free, just turn up, from 11.30am Sunday 15 January MYTHICAL BEASTS: Become one of the many mythical beasts in John Keats's poetry. Make head dresses and tails from natural materials in this family day at Keats House. Free, book ahead, 1pm-4pm A WORLD OF STORIES: Journey to far-off lands with Horniman Museum's A World of Stories. Inspired by the museum's exhibitions, festivals and nature, the event is run by some of London's best story-tellers. Free, just turn up, 2pm-2.45pm/3.15pm-4pm

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/londonist/sBMe/~3/VdyXRlJEzTI/free-and-cheap-london-events-9-15-january-2017

[kirstenirving]

Poetic Interviews: Line breaks of questioning

Poetic Interviews comes from a brilliantly simple idea: why not interview poets using poetry?

Aaron Kent, founder of Poetic Interviews, corners poets, asks them questions in verse and gets poetic responses back from the writers. The results are playful, revealing and spontaneous, and show the artistic side of both the interviewer and writer. Speaking from the writer/interviewee seat, even though Kent does not demand a form, I felt the constraints of the format were just as helpful as if I’d had a form to work to.

Poetic Interviews has spoken to a huge range of poets, from Theophilus Kwek to Jane Commane, and was shortlisted for a 2017 Saboteur Award. It’s an invigorating format and one that guarantees that the writer does not fall back on stock answers.

I’m in the middle of my grilling right now (poets answer between 1 and 5 questions). You can find Aaron’s questions and my responses here (Question One) and here (Question Two).

Don’t forget to follow Poetic Interviews for future inquisitions!

[heenbeans]

Theophilus Kwek; Chinese Workers on the Evening Train their tongues are rough, but fluent. They carve our silence into syllables that explore the crowd, fingers scouring thick curls in search of roots. there is disquiet at this intrusion. leave us alone, our lips say. we are pressed and drained by the office; you are from a different world. but they stay, and continue speaking, voices raucous and very dusty. the safety patches on their vests  ring loudly against our suits. we have learnt your words before. Our lips open in protest. We have no time for them now; they are so full of bad memories. still they take no notice, even joking among them selves. some of us turn to look, but dare not stare too long. they are an island in our sea. we lower our eyes. what do you want, our lips ask. take it, and then leave. we are a generous but tired people; you are strangers on our way home. the question passes unanswered, beneath the breathing of the train. their steady chatter never stops, and is unnaturally loud. we censor them with pretended sleep, soon our lips fall silent. we cannot comprehend them; they speak only our mother tongue.  

[themissingslate]

No haunt. No song. Only the heaven’s blue Graceless fire, and then as a ghost pursued Across a moor, the hunting-horn’s burly Cry                        crucify, crucify, crucify.

Theophilus Kwek, from ‘24.6.16′. Published in The Missing Slate.

[the-end-of-art]

"This Way" by Theophilus Kwek.

[rightsinexile]

Newsletters:  Refugee Studies Centre monthly news update, November 2017

The Refugee Studies Centre of the University of Oxford was founded by Rights in Exile’s Dr. Barbara Harrell-Bond in 1982.

News

Major new funding from the IKEA Foundation for research on the economic lives of refugees

We are delighted to announce a new three-year funding agreement with the IKEA Foundation.

RSC Annual Report 2016-2017 now online

Our latest annual report provides details of all our research and activities over the past year, including major new research projects, important new partnerships, and the RSC conference on Rethinking Refugee Studies.

Middle East Eye speaks to Matthew Gibney about the UK government's citizenship stripping powers

In an article reporting on British aid workers in Syria being stripped of their citizenship by the UK government, Middle East Eye spoke with Professor Matthew Gibney, RSC Director.     

Laat de Syriërs zichzelf helpen / Let Syrians help themselves

In this article, published in Het Financieele Dagblad and De Tijd, Professor Alexander Betts argues for an economic solution to the refugee crisis. (written in Dutch)    

Reply to Refugia: Nothing utopian about an archipelago of exclusion

Rebecca Buxton, Jade Huynh and Theophilus Kwek - three alumni of our 2016-2017 MSc in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies - have contributed an article to Refugees Deeply.   

Refugees and displaced people: how Japan can help | Jeff Crisp

Dr Jeff Crisp, RSC Research Associate, has written an article for the October issue of JICA's World magazine which focuses on 'Refugees and Displaced People: Rebuilding the Lives of the Displaced'.   

Afghanistan: Displacement Challenges in a Country on the Move

Matthew Willner-Reid, RSC and ODID alumnus, has written this new briefing for the Migration Policy Institute.  

Publications

Thrive or Survive? Explaining Variation in Economic Outcomes for Refugees    

A new article by Alexander Betts, Naohiko Omata and Louise Bloom drawing upon their extensive qualitative and quantitative research on refugee economies in Uganda.

Talent Displaced: The Economic Lives of Syrian Refugees in Europe   

This new report from Deloitte and the Refugee Studies Centre sheds light on the economic potential of Syrian refugees.

Local Politics and the Syrian Refugee Crisis

Written by Alexander Betts, Ali Ali, and Fulya Memisoğlu, this report details the findings of their research project 'The Politics of the Syrian Refugee Crisis'.  

FMR 56 on 'Latin America and the Caribbean: building on a tradition of protection'  

All language editions of this issue - English, Spanish, Arabic and French - are now available here  

Articles in English are also available as podcasts here

FORTHCOMING BOOK: 'Syria: The Making and Unmaking of a Refuge State', by Dawn Chatty  

The dispossession and forced migration of nearly 50% of Syria's population has produced the greatest refugee crisis since World War II. This book places the current displacement within the context of the widespread migrations that have indelibly marked the region throughout the last 150 years. Syria itself has harboured millions from its neighbouring lands, and Syrian society has been shaped by these diasporas.

Podcasts

The displacement paradox: good refugees, bad migrants. Where can the unwanted go? | Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture 2017    

Listen to the podcast of this year's Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture given by Dr Jemilah Mahmood (Under Secretary General, IFRC) on 22 November.

Borders, boxes and disciplinary boundaries: the delineation of forced migration in research and practice | Dr Gayle Munro

A podcast of the 1 November seminar, part of the Michaelmas term 2017 Public Seminar Series.

Asylum and Nehru's changing non-alignment: Tibetan refugees in India | Ria Kapoor    

A podcast of the 8 November seminar, part of the Michaelmas term 2017 Public Seminar Series.

Aqui­ es frontera. Transit migration and border control in southern Mexico | Dr Simon McMahon    

A podcast of the 15 November seminar, part of the Michaelmas term 2017 Public Seminar Series.