Friends of the Baobab Project gathered at the Meena Centre in Birmingham to celebrate Malka Al-Haddad’s most recent publication, titled ‘Birds without sky poems from exile’ today.
For Malka, the purpose of her collection is to give the reader a perception about being a refugee from a country ripped apart by war. By sharing her poems, she hopes to make a contribution to bring people together. Malka’s passion for human rights activism and the warmth and support of all the
communities present at the event—and above all, the strength of local asylum seeking women— demonstrated the importance of Malka’s collection.
A special thank you to Bridget and Gimbi, for reading poems they wrote at a workshop Malka facilitated with the Hope Women's Group, and to all the speakers for introducing and encouraging an open discussion concerning the impact—caused by governmentally imposed hostility—on today’s global citizen, to Saku for donating her wonderful paintings, to Pat for photographing the event, and finally, to the Meena Centre for their continual support.
Finally, a huge thank you to Malka for generously donating the proceeds of her collection to refugee and asylum seeker support organisations; the Baobab Women’s Project in Birmingham, Leicester City of Sanctuary and Greater Lincolnshire Area of Sanctuary.
Numerous copies of the book were sold during the event. You can buy your copy from Amazon.