Found in Translation invites you to a poetry performance and conversation between five different poets, hailing from different countries, on the importance of language, identity, culture, and the role they play in their poetry.

The five poets include; Aathma Dious (India), Danabelle Gutierrez (Philippines), Maitha Alsuwaidi (UAE), Rasha Alduwaisan (Kuwait), Zein Sa'dedin (Jordan).

A bit more about the poets:

Danabelle Gutierrez is an award winning artist, writer, actress, and photographer. She is the author of Tears Across the Earth, as well as poetry books. Her writing has been published in The Common, Cordite Poetry Review, Postscript Magazine, ElectraStreet, WordsDance, and in a video for Vogue Arabia recited by Ciara, among other publications. Born in Las Piñas, raised in Cairo, Vienna, and Muscat, Danabelle currently lives in Dubai.

Aathma Nirmala Dious is a Malayali writer and poet from Abu Dhabi. Much of her work deals with South Asian-Gulf migration narratives and personal history, with a focus on womanhood, family and memory.

Maitha AlSuwaidi is a performance artist, writer, and researcher. She finds a vibrant and fluid synthesis of those three identifications through her work on politics and the internet, Ajami identity in the Gulf, the domestic and built environment, and Khaeelji folktales. She enjoys exploring intersectional/interdisciplinary themes within the ecosystems she exists and has existed in. As a poet, Maitha has performed her spoken poetry in internationally renowned spaces like the 2022 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She is also a performance artist in both experimental and traditional theater spaces, where she enjoys creating multimedia spoken-word pieces, incorporating visual, sonic, and digital components.

Rasha Alduwaisan is an oral historian and writer from Kuwait. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Willow Springs, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Common and Painted Bride Quarterly. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.

Zein Sa’dedin grew up in Amman, Jordan. Her work appears widely online and in her debut pamphlet, Staircase (published by ignitionpress). Founding editor-in-chief of BAHR // بحر, a multilingual literary platform, she is a sagittarius and loves soup in every season.

4 April
8.30-9.30PM
Nappa Dori