Readings

Home in the word? Exile literature yesterday and today

Tuesday, 11/11/2025 / 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM / Kulturforum Schleswig-Holstein-Haus

The Belarusian poet Volha Hapeyeva and the Turkish author and filmmaker Şehbal Şenyurt Arınlı report on what it means for them and their work to have to leave their homeland due to political persecution.

What does it mean to have to leave your home country due to political persecution? What does it mean not to be able to return? These and similar experiences have driven thousands of people into exile today and in the past. What difficulties and challenges does this new situation entail?

The Belarusian poet Volha Hapeyeva and the Turkish author and filmmaker Şehbal Şenyurt Arınlı talk about their personal experiences in exile and how this situation influences their work.

The head of the Walter A. Berendsohn Research Center for German Exile Literature, Doerte Bischoff, will build a bridge to the historical dimension of exile in literature. Cultural journalist Nadine Kreuzahler will moderate the event.

Admission is free - registration is not required.

The Körber Foundation's Exile Poetry Machine will also be presented that evening. The machine dispenses texts by poets who live or have lived in exile. Spanning epochs and countries, their poems tell of a world of persecution and loss of home. The Exile Poetry Vending Machines are accessible from 8.11. to 14.11. in the Schwerin City Library and the Kulturforum Schleswig-Holstein-Haus during the respective opening hours.

An event as part of the program Days of Exile Schwerin & Festival for Ostracized Music. An initiative of the Körber Foundation in cooperation with the Mecklenburg-Schwerin State Theater and the State capital Schwerin.

All statements without guarantee.