Poetry, freedom, censorship: 1215.today round-up

Hello. My name is Shey Hargreaves. I’m a writer and storyteller from East Anglia in the UK and for four weeks I’ll be blogging as Digital Poet in Residence for the Poetry School and 1215.today. (It’s the residency that’s digital, not me. I’m real. Really.)

1215.today is a ‘virtual house of culture’ built to host artistic projects and stimulate debate arising from the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. This week I’ve been scribbling about freedom of expression around the world, touching on topics including hate speech, censorship and the imprisonment of those who express opinions that do not abide by the rules.

Read my introductory blog post about it all here: http://1215today.com/debate/scribble-2-shey-hargreaves-free-speech-freedom-of-opinion/

Below I’ve included links to articles and poets of interest that I have come across during my research:

• Ashraf Fayadh’s poems
• PEN International’s caselist of persecuted writers
  
• Iranian censorship – interview with Sepideh Jodeyri
  

And here are some links to some poets and artists whose work I’ve been looking at / discovering/ re-experiencing this week whilst researching the blog:

• Jess Green on the importance of expression and the ability of everybody to tell stories
  
• Daniel Sluman
• Extracts from a blog by Saudi writer Raif Badawi
• Interview with poet Choman Hardi (from the Poetry School website)
  
• Mohammed al Ajami’s ‘Poem from a Prison Cell’

What do you think? If you’d like to share your thoughts on this you can leave a comment on this page or tweet @1215.today.