Upcoming: Waves + Lines

The ultraconservative regime of the Taliban has meant that the lives of Afghan women are largely invisible to the outside world. Landays, poems comprising a single rhyming couplet on subjects like love, grief, home and war, offer a surprising and vivid glimpse into this secret world.

Gemma Peacocke- Composer of Waves + Lines

Waves and Lines is a multimedia song cycle for soprano, electronics and chamber ensemble by Princeton-based composer Gemma Peacocke (NZ/USA). The story behind Waves + Lines draws on an award-winning collection of poetry by Afghan women, translated by American poet and journalist Eliza Griswold. Eliza journeyed to Afghanistan with photographer Seamus Murphy after learning the story of a teenage girl who was forbidden to write poems and set herself on fire in protest. In ‘I Am the Beggar of the World’, Eliza gathered poems that portray the Pashtun women who span the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan - expressing rage, longing, love of homeland, a call to arms and more.

Eliza Griswold- Author of ‘I Am the Beggar of the World’.