Coming up

Transcultural poetry: a Kurdish-Turkish encounter with readings, dialogue and music

Texts without Borders brings together Elif Yıldırım and Emin Uslu, two Swiss-based poets working in their native languages: Elif Yıldırım writes in Turkish, Emin Uslu in Kurdish (Kurmanji) and Turkish. They’ll be talking about key themes of their writing, always linked to their country of origin: longing and sadness, hope and love and references to myths and legends. Look forward to hearing their poetry in the original and in German translation, with a musical framework of Kurdish and Turkish songs.

Featuring

Elif Yıldırım (writer)

Emin Uslu (writer)

Ilayda Kaya (vocals), Henrik Dewes (guitar), Finn Mück (percussion)

Ivana Martinović (German readings)

Alice Grünfelder (presenter)

Zarina Tadjibaeva (director)

5 pm: bar opens

From 6 pm: Middle Eastern cuisine

7:30 pm: event begins

An event from the Texts without Borders series by Translation House Looren, in conjunction with Kulturmarkt Zürich. Texts without Borders shines a spotlight on writers and translators working in various world languages. These creatives are part of the Swiss literary scene but don’t write in the four official national languages. Each event is framed by music from the specific culture on stage. This year’s language focus is on Turkish and Kurdish in all variants.

Biographies:

Emin Uslu

Emin Uslu was born in the south-east Anatolian province of Adıyaman. After university, he worked as a primary school teacher. He fled to Switzerland due to his political and trade union activities, and has lived in St. Gallen since 2016. His first poetry collection Katlime Sebeptir Bütün Bunlar was published in Turkish; his second, Çîroka welat, is forthcoming in Kurdish.

Elif Yıldırım

Elif Yıldırım was born in Samsun. While studying engineering, she also worked as a journalist. Facing criminal proceedings in Turkey for her journalism, she has lived in Basel since 2000. She writes poems in her native Turkish and is also a social education worker and professional carer. Elif Yıldırım has published three poetry collections in Turkey, most recently 2020’s Bennu.

Ilayda Kaya

Ilayda Kaya studied law in Basel before making a career out of her love of music. She teaches music and movement, studies elementary music teaching in Zürich and sings in a number of bands. For the musical framework at Texts without Borders, she’ll perform in a trio with Henrik Dewes (guitar) and Finn Mück (percussion), singing Turkish and Kurdish songs.

Free entry for Translation House Looren Association members.

Flyer German

Flyer Turkish