PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE IN PROGRAM: The poetry talk will be solely with Zaffar Kunial. Matthias Kniep will host the talk.

Clubraum 7/5€ | Tickets

In their writings, poets Meena Kandasamy (born 1984 in Tamil Nadu, India) and Zaffar Kunial (born in Birmingham) contend with processes of social stratification, cultural codification, inclusion, and exclusion. Kandasamy is critical of the caste system in India and fights for womens’ rights. Her language is plaintive, addressing readers directly: “I want a word that waits and weeps and hesitates,” one of her poems reads, the title of which can be understood as a self-portrait: “a wild woman on a word hunt.” Kunial’s poems are more indirectly political, addressing themes of identity and belonging with personal family history – Kunial is the son of a British primary school teacher and a Kashmir factory worker – as well as the sport of cricket. Kunial, who himself wanted to become a professional player, published a pamphlet of poems (“Six”, Faber & Faber 2019) devoted solely to the subject. In one of the poems, he writes, “my bat felt as heavy as England.”