Leading writers and poets to participate in 'The Refugee Tales: A Walk in Solidarity with Refugees and Detainees' from Dover to Crawley via Canterbury.
Initiated by Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group (GDWG) in collaboration with refugees and former detainees, the 80-mile walk from Saturday 13 to Sunday 21 June is modelled on The Canterbury Tales and follows the route of the old Pilgrim’s Way.
Kent’s participants include: David Herd, poet, Professor of Modern Literature, Head of its School of English and co-organiser of the project; Abdulrazak Gurnah, a Booker-shortlisted novelist and Professor of Postcolonial Literature; and Dragan Todorovic, writer and Lecturer in Creative Writing.
They will be joined by poets and novelists Ali Smith, Avaes Mohammed, Carol Watts, Denise Riley, Hubert Moore, Patience Agbabi, Iain Sinclair, Jade Amoli-Jackson, Chris Cleave, Marina Lewycka and Michael Zand.
At each of the stopping points along the route – Shepherdswell, Canterbury, Chilham, Charing, Wrotham, Rochester, Knockholt, Oxted and Crawley – there will be readings and performances of tales connected with the Refugee experience. In each case the writer will be collaborating with the person whose tale is being told. Many of these will be the tales of refugees, asylum seekers, detainees and ex-detainees themselves, presenting various stages of the migrant experience: The Arriver’s Tale, The Detainee’s Tale, The Appellant’s Tale and The Deportee’s Tale.
These will be accompanied by tales of people who work with and encounter refugees and asylum seekers in the UK: The Interpreter’s Tale, The Solicitor’s Tale, The Dependent’s Tale and The Lorry Driver’s Tale.
The aim of The Refugee Tales, which has been designed to echo the journey that is the migrant’s defining experience, is to make a major contribution to the national debate on refugees and migration during Refugee Week 2015 (15-21 June). In building the Tales around a shared walk, it aims to ‘recognise the importance of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and will communicate stories that normally go unheard’.
Further information on The Refugee Tales, including how to get involved, is available here