Deported Rohingya Poets Join Poetry Event in Yangon

Bahan — Three Rohingya young poets who were deported from their homeland to survive in the world’s largest refugee camp joined in a poetry event at the heart of Myanmar through Skype.

Shahida @ Win Win Maw, Azad Mohammed and Mayu Ali e-attended the Poetry for Humanity event held on January 25, 2020 at Geothe Institute, Bahan Township of Yangon and read their poetries. Two other poets also took part the event through video reading.

Mayu Ali read 3 poems ‘My Words’ in Burmese, ‘Combat Boots’ in English and ‘Dokin or Aalu’ in Rohingya.

Ali in his twenties looks young but he started writing poetries one decade ago, as he said “Since I was 14, I started writing poetry in Burmese. The older I grew, the more I happened to believe in poetries. In my family, poetry or story is the daily routine.”

In 2018, Ali and his friends established an online platform called “the Art Garden Rohingya” that gives Rohingya young writers chance to share their heartbeats in form of poems, proses and others.

“So far, we have published over 500 poems in Burmese and English. Now, we have around 200 Rohingya young poets including 8 poetesses.”

Mayu Ali authored two books “The Blossom” and “Exodus”. His articles have also featured in Al Jazeera, Dhaka Tribune, and on CNN and the Financial Times.

In Poetry for Humanity, around 40 poets from different communities of Myanmar including 6 from Rohingya participated.