Charis welcomes Fariha Róisín in conversation with Dr. Banah Ghadbian for a discussion of Survival Takes a Wild Imagination: Poems. In the powerful follow up to her critically acclaimed debut collection, poet and activist Fariha Róisín is writing, praying, clawing, and scratching her way out of the grips of generational trauma on the search for the freedom her mother never received and the kindness she couldn’t give.

This collection of poetry asks a kaleidoscope of questions: Who is my family? My father? How do I love a mother no longer here? Can I see myself? What does it mean to be Bangladeshi? What is a border? Innately hopeful and resolutely strong, Fariha's voice turns to the optimism and beauty inherent in rebuilding the self, and in turn, the world that the self moves through. Ubiquitous to the human experience, Survival Takes a Wild Imagination is an illuminating breath of fresh air from a powerful poetic voice.

Fariha Róisín is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Ontario, Canada. She was raised in Sydney, Australia, and is based in Los Angeles, California. As a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, she is interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. Her work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam, and queer identities. Róisín is the author of How To Cure A Ghost, Like A Bird, Who Is Wellness For? An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who it Leaves Behind, and her second book of poetry, Survival Takes A Wild Imagination.

Dr. Banah Ghadbian (they/them) is a Syrian poet and professor of Comparative Women’s Studies at Spelman College. They hold a PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego, a Masters in Ethnic Studies, and a BA in Comparative Women’s Studies and Sociology from Spelman College. As an undergrad they founded the Students for Justice in Palestine at Spelman. Dr. Ghadbian has worked around the world with Syrian and Palestinian refugee youth including as a translator with Palestinian Youth Movement in refugee camps in Greece and as a teacher at the Syrian Women’s Association in Amman, Jordan. Dr. Ghadbian co-founded an arts-based healing space for Syrian and Palestinian refugee youth called Arab Youth Collective (now the Majdal Center) in El Cajon, California. Dr. Ghadbian is the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from Faculty Women of Color in the Academy (FWCA). They won the Diverse Voices Prize from Dzanc Books for their first collection of poetry, La Syrena: Visions of a Syrian Mermaid From Space. Dr. Ghadbian is a member of Palestinian Feminist Collective and Demilitarize Atlanta to Palestine. You can read their work in Mizna, Poetry Northwest, Bahr Mag, the Journal of Middle Eastern Women’s Studies, the Women’s Review of Books, and more. Their research is on the creative work Syrian and Palestinian women conjure during revolution and war.

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Survival Takes a Wild Imagination: Fariha Roisin in conversation with Dr. Banah Ghadbian