Giving young refugees a voice

We were delighted to welcome Oxford-based poet, Kate Clanchy, to our July meeting and to hear about her work, as a teacher, with the child refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants.  Kate's teaching focuses on poetry and she shared with us how poetry can help to give these young people a voice to express their feelings about what they have left behind, and what they see and how they are navigating their new lives in our local communities.  She shared with us some very powerful and moving poetry that they have written, sometimes translated from their own language and sometimes written in their newly acquired English.  It was highly inspirational.

Not content with only giving her students a transient voice, Kate has ensured that their poetry has been captured in print, both in individual booklets and in poetry collections.  And a window into one of Kate's poetry workshops can be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06gpcgw.