Actor and performance poet latest to join Refugee Tales

Gary Hughes

Poet John Hegley and actor Niamh Cusack join School of English writers for Refugee Tales: A Walk in Solidarity with Refugees and Detainees (13 - 21 June).

Initiated by Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group (GDWG) in collaboration with refugees and former detainees, and co-organised by David Herd, a poet, Professor of Modern Literature and Head of the University’s School of English, this 80-mile nine-day walk from Dover to Crawley via Canterbury has been modelled on The Canterbury Tales and follows the route of the old Pilgrim’s Way.

Confirmed participants include Professor Herd and School of English colleagues Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah and Dragan Todorovic, alongside Ali Smith, Avaes Mohammed, Carol Watts, Denise Riley, Hubert Moore, Patience Agbabi, Iain Sinclair, Jade Amoli-Jackson, Chris Cleave, Marina Lewycka, Michael Zand, Steve Collis and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.

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 collaborate 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.

Niamh Cusack will host the evening of Sunday 14 June at Canterbury, where she will introduce The Unaccompanied Minor’s Tale and The Chaplain’s Tale.

John Hegley will host the evening of Friday 19 June at Knockholt, where he will recite the “the tale of the French Emigre (my Parisian gran) and the Lutonian refugee (myself as an adolescent, newly deposited in Bristol).”

The aim of 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 will recognise the importance of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and will communicate stories that normally go unheard.

Further information on Refugee Tales, including how to get involved, is available here.