My suitcase is packed...... by Miriam Halahmy

How do you write what is in your heart if you are fifteen years old, your mother tongue is Arabic or Somali or Amharic and you have only been in the UK for six months? This year I had the opportunity to work on a project organised by English PEN and the Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn, North London, for newly arrived young people. Last week we launched the anthology of their work, 'My Suitcase is Packed' at the theatre, with many of the young people reading on stage.

After working with people from many different countries with minimal English for some years I have come to realise that in fact 'less is more' and perhaps it is even possible to get closer to your feelings if your vocabulary is very limited.
Asked to write on the subject of 'Power Over My Life', in the form of an acrostic, one boy from Somali wrote :
My life is like a movie
Yesterday is gone and it will never come back.

Watching these young people come on stage and read in English in front of an audience of their peers, their teachers, the guest authors which included the well know poet and performer, John Hegley, I was amazed at their poise and confidence. They read beautifully, they were clear and concise and they gave us a very strong impression of their feelings about their home countries and their lives in the UK.

One of the poems I used in my session was 'Go and Open the Door' by Miroslav Holub. Some amazing and deeply moving poetry emerged.
Hamed from Somalia who has not seen his mother's face for five years wrote :
Go and open the door
maybe outside there is a river of blood
Go and open the door
maybe outside there is my old home.


Being given the opportunity to bear witness has a huge effect on asylum seekers in a writing workshop. Ahmed commented to us after we listened to his poem, "This has been the best day of my life." I interpreted this as meaning, at last I have been heard. This is what he wrote in class :
Iraq is the country
maybe I will see dead and war
maybe I will see guns bombs and bullets
but no matter what
I will see happy, helpful and nice people.

One of the high points of the performance at the Tricycle was the reading of a poem by John and a simultaneous translation into Somali by Abukhar which he did very fluently.

...your journey is your own
my heart is like a stone
and I know how it must be
I know you must be free
and I knew you wouldn't 
get very far without me.

Philip Cowell, Director of the Readers and Writers programme at English PEN commented on stage, "Writing is a brave thing to do. It is a true expression of free speech and it is a very brave thing to come up on stage and to read your work." English PEN campaigns for freedom of speech for all writers wherever they are in the world and fundraises for projects in prisons and with refugees and asylum seekers to ensure they also have access to opportunities to write and be heard.

All the participants received this lovely certificate and will have the opportunity to use the work in these sessions towards receiving an Arts Award. For some of these young people who will miss out on GCSEs this is a chance to gain a first qualification and they were all very proud of their certificates, as you can imagine.

Go and open the door

Maybe outside there's

A celebration of your mother's birthday and lovely faces

smiling with you.

Go and open the door

Maybe there's a Lion fighting with the people or your country is burning.

Go and open the door

You'll see your mother smiling at you

Or your boyfriend

Just

Go and open the door

Maybe there's 

Your boyfriend kissing your lips

Or your dreams coming true.

by Fadumo Mohamed ( who enjoys reading history books, playing basketball and watching TV.)

You can find out more about English PEN at this link : http://www.englishpen.org/

http://www.miriamhalahmy.com/