It has been a bumper month for the Between Two Islands project. I’ve been too busy to even do all the marketing expected of sole artists in today’s market… So in case you missed it:

The Between Two Islands Shop – August
In August, we launched the Between Two Islands shop where you can buy copies of the anthology (shipping worldwide!)

Between Two Islands in Middle East Eye – 27 September
Read my article for Middle East Eye where I discuss the whole project – with quotes from the poets involved, what brought out the project, what direction we’re heading towards now.

My favourite extract, from towards the end:

What is it that we need?

I think the answer lies within the anthology itself. I was 19 when the Arab uprisings erupted in Bahrain in February 2011. That year, when so many friends, protesters, children, doctors, journalists and hundreds of others were arrested and tortured, some to death, left a traumatic impact on Bahrain’s psyche.

That single year has defined my generation, and it feels as though I have relived it across the last decade. The cousin imprisoned for life, the family forced to close their business, the friend rendered stateless. Often, I seem to exist as a reaction to these events, responding to waves of a storm my boat can hardly withstand.

Yet through poetry, we were able to reset our relationship to our homelands and to ourselves, able to reconsider and move forward.

The Future – 1 October
We published The Future, a poetic audio feature with the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival. Audiences are invited to enter a vision of the future in this free, bilingual digital audio experience exploring a seascape of a future Bahrain. Featuring poetry and narration by seven Bahraini poets, it has been set to music and sound designed by Yussuf Maleem. Listen to it on the LAAF website for free.

Between Two Islands Live – 30 October
Last weekend, we gathered at Liverpool (for the Arab Arts Festival again!) and performed in front of a live audience at Chapters of Us – you can watch the full show for free on LAAF’s feed. Support us by checking it out! I read two poems for the first time in the event – Hide and Seek and What the Date Palm Said to the Sea. Amazing conversations are had throughout the show with the poets of the anthology. There is so much to be said… but so much of it is said in the video, so go watch it.

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I only regret that I don’t have much time to reflect on the project at the moment – that will come. Truly, the MEE article is a reflection – but another is needed after the Soundscape and event… all to come in good time, I’m certain. For now – please follow the links, support the project and the Festival which has supported us this October, and enjoy our words.