Literaturfest: »STIMMEN DER FREIHEIT« YIRGALEM FISSEHA MEBRAHTU, YASSIN AL-HAJ SALEH, MERAL ŞIMŞEK

In the organizer's words:

How do persecution, imprisonment and torture change one's own thinking and language? And how can a new public sphere be found in exile?

Eritrean journalist and poet Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu (* 1981) spent six years in Mai Serwa military prison, without charge, without trial. She was able to flee Eritrea in 2018 and now lives in Munich. In her poems, she bears witness to her struggle for freedom and words, and in 2023 she received the Bavarian Art Prize for Literature ("Ich bin am Leben", AfrikAWunderhorn).

The Syrian author, essayist and physician Yassin Al-Haj Saleh (*1961) was arrested in 1980 and imprisoned for 16 years - including in the notorious Tadmur prison. In his brilliant essays (including "Hannah Arendt in Syria", Matthes & Seitz), he examines all aspects of evil with captivating clarity - based on his own biography.

Charged with "membership of a terrorist organization" in 2021, the Turkish-Kurdish poet Meral Şimşek (* 1980) was able to flee to Germany in July 2022, two days before a trial date. She has set poems to music especially for the 2026 Literature Festival under the title "Songs of Freedom", which she will perform together with musician friends.

Three voices, three fates, one theme: Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu, Yassin Al-Haj Saleh and Meral Şimşek talk about prison, flight and political exile. They show that it can be life-threatening to write and that literature and music are also acts of resistance.