Funtunfunefu 'Synched' Book Launch
Entry Requirements: Over 18s only
The launch event of the first volume of the Adinkra Poetry Series Funtunfune Synched. With Live readings, Spoken Word and Music. Also a special book signing by the authors present.
“These evocative poems stir the heart to act, to reflect, to love well, and to stay free against all odds. The collaborative spirit that moves this collection of interweaving voices can serve as a model for future creative and scholarly work across continents, borders, and experiences. Every page houses a lyrical display of hope, honesty, sanity, and vision that nourishes my own courage to work for a more just, more vivid human future in our time.”
— David Gramling, Associate Professor of German Studies, University of Arizona / USA
“The Adinkra symbol Funtunfunefu represents two conjoined crocodiles fighting over the food these creatures are destined to share. In this new collection, Gameli Tordzro has assembled multiple poetic voices in response to such folly – suggesting alternatives to our persistent failure to acknowledge human interdependency. The poems are dynamic, written in transit, bridging gaps between languages, cultures and generations, breathing in and breathing out. They recount struggles, linger over silences, capture flashes of anger, transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Together, these texts constitute an elegy to those values and qualities whose importance we underestimate at our peril: gratitude, kindness, curiosity, faith, friendship, hope… Here, throughout these 101 poems, is a reflection on difference and sameness, on laughter and sorrow – on our entangled, synchronised lives.”
— Charles Forsdick, James Barrow Professor of French, University of Liverpool. AHRC Theme Leadership Fellow, 'Translating Cultures' Member of the Academy of Europe.