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Cornell Daily Sun: Georgian Writer Emphasizes Art As Protest (2009)

Fearing for his and his family’s lives, artist and activist Irakli Kakabadze fled from his native country Georgia. Now a visiting scholar at Cornell’s peace studies program and writer-in-residence of Ithaca City of Asylum, Kakabadze spoke last Saturday at the Unitarian Church of Ithaca to emphasize the importance of art and writing as an instrument for peace building… To read the entire story, click here.

Wells College: Bringing The World To Wells (2009)

In December of 2006, Irakli Kakabadze and Anna Dolidze fled the Georgian Republic when, due to their outspoken criticism of the government, they faced repeated attacks and arrests. By the fall of 2007, Kakabadze, a renowned political activist, and Dolidze, a human rights lawyer, had begun a new life in America with their infant son… To read the entire story, click here.

Cornell Alumni Magazine Online: Writing For Your Life (2008)

Book readings generally start the same way: there’s a welcome, an introduction, and then the author reads from his or her work. But from the beginning, I could tell the first event of the Creative Writing Program’s 2008 Fall Reading Series would be different… To read the entire story, click here.

All Things Considered: Banned Writers Find Refuge In U.S. Cities (2007)

Cities of Refuge North America is an organization that takes in banned writers, hoping to buoy them from hostile homelands to life and work in a U.S. city. One such city is Ithaca, New York where Bridget Meeds runs the local organization. Meeds and writer in residence Sarah Mkhonza speak with Andrea Seabrook… To read the entire transcript, click here.

Cornell Chronicle: Dissident And Novelist Finds Sanctuary At Cornell (2006)

“I didn’t attach writing to politics; I just thought it was important to inform Swazis about certain simple things that can be harmful,” says writer Sarah Mkhonza [pronounced mm-KON-za] of her fictional stories that tell of violence against women and other injustices in her native country, Swaziland, the southeast African nation that is one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies… To read the entire story, click here.

Ithaca Community News: Refugee Writer Finds Asylum In Ithaca (2006)

“I like words, I like the way they sound. Yet I cannot speak them.” Those were some of the words spoken last Sunday by Sarah Mkhonza, a dissident writer from Swaziland, as she read from two works-in-progress to a packed house in the Unitarian Church. The event, called Voices of Freedom, was sponsored by the Ithaca City of Asylum and commemorated Banned Books Week, September 23-30… To read the entire story, click here.

Ithaca Times: Fighting From Afar (2006)

“You move things when you write,” says Sarah Mkhonza. “You can move energy.” A writer, feminist and teacher, Mkhonza, who is from Swaziland, is the third writer-in-residence hosted by Ithaca City of Asylum, part of a growing number of cities that make up the North American Network of Cities of Asylum (NANCA), which provides refuge for persecuted writers… To read the entire story, click here.

Syracuse Post-Standard: Ithaca Project Sponsors Iranian Writer (2004)

Reza Daneshvar came of age as a writer in Iran when the art could get you killed. By the time he had finished his university education, he had published two novels and spent a year in prison for his work. At 34, threatened with arrest again and seeing friends executed for their work, he fled to Paris. There, his writing diminished to a trickle, his creative drive choked by 11-hour days driving a cab… To read the entire story, click here.

Ithaca Times: Seeking Asylum (2004)

“Voices of Freedom,” an annual event hosted by Ithaca City of Asylum (ICOA), will present Reza Daneshvar as the group’s second resident writer during Banned Books Week, Sept. 25- Oct. 2. ICOA will celebrate Banned Books Week with a performance of dissident poetry, music and theater at the Unitarian Church of Ithaca… To read the entire interview, click here.

Ithacan: Group Celebrates Artistic Freedom (2004)

During “Voices of Freedom,” new Ithaca resident Reza Daneshvar showcased his artistic talent as a part of a celebration of freedom of expression. Daneshvar’s one-act comedy, “Sandwich Deluxe,” was performed for a small crowd in the Unitarian Church of Ithaca. Although audience members laughed at the sex jokes, the play served as a salient reminder of artists’ ongoing struggle for intellectual freedom in the face of censorship… To read the entire story, click here.

Cornell Chronicle: Event Celebrate Work of Ithaca City Of Asylum’s Second Writer (2004)

In 2001 Cornell’s Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) joined the International Parliament of Writers and the Ithaca City of Asylum Project to support the arrival in Ithaca of Yi Ping, exiled Chinese poet, essayist and playwright. Earlier this year, Reza Daneshvar, an Iranian-born writer, became the Ithaca City of Asylum’s second resident writer… To read entire story, click here.

Buzzsaw Haircut: A Writer In Exile (2003)

Reza Baraheni has been described as “Iran’s finest living poet.” He has also imprisoned, tortured and exiled under two different regimes. “Have you heard about the hit list?” Baraheni, 67, asked after a speech he gave at Ithaca College. “It was published a while ago by the Iranian government, and Der Spiegel published it, and I am at the top of the list,” he said with a somber smile… To read the entire story, click here.

Ithaca College Quarterly: China Connection (2003)

When Liz Bishop ’04 first read the phrases “Baby grass lead along sunlight” and “Times step in pace of wedding,” she was baffled. She was expected to take these words — loose translations from a Chinese poem — and turn them into poetry that accurately conveys the poet’s intent. Bishop’s writing professor Jerry Mirskin had arranged for her poetry class to help translate several poems written by Chinese writer Yi Ping, who is living in exile in Ithaca… To read the entire story, click here.

Poets & Writers: Ithaca Named Second U.S. City Of Asylum (2001)

In October, Ithaca, New York, was officially designated a city of asylum for exiled writers, only the second of its kind in the U.S. Ithaca is the newest member of a worldwide network of cities that is maintained by the International Parliament of Writers, an organization based in Paris. Cities of Asylum offer refuge to writers whose works are repressed, whose cultures are vanishing, or whose languages are endangered. Each of the 27 cities around the world, including Amsterdam, Vienna, and Mexico City, provides exiled writers and their families with housing, part-time employment, a monthly stipend, and medical, legal, and social support… To read the entire story, click here.

Arts Wire Current: Yi Ping Becomes Ithaca City Of Asylum’s First Resident Writer (2001)

In October, the Ithaca City of Asylum project welcomed Chinese poet and essayist Yi Ping to a two-year residency. Yi Ping, who is exiled from China because of his participation in democracy activism, will spend two years in Ithaca with his family. While in Ithaca, he will write about Chinese culture, literature, and politics, and write poetry, plays, and novels — as well as translate and teach part-time in the Cornell University Asian Studies department… To read the entire story, click here.

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