Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Warsan Shire: Brave Girl Rising

Inspired by her long-distance friendship with Nasro, a young refugee living in a Kenyan camp, Warsan Shire has written and reads five poems about her and the experience of exile.

Inspired by her long-distance friendship with Nasro, a young refugee living in a Kenyan camp, Warsan Shire has written and reads five poems about her and the experience of exile. The much admired Somali/British poet has become the laureate of displaced persons - her own family fled Somalia when she was very young.

Warsan Shire's first collection of poetry, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, established her reputation. Her contribution of poems to Beyonc茅's 2016 visual album Lemonade, made her internationally famous.

Warsan gives very few interviews so we are delighted to feature some of her thoughts about writing, visiting Somalia, her own family and what poetry can achieve.

The poems for Nasro were written to accompany a film, Brave Girl Rising, that highlights the plight of young women refugees and the vital importance for them of education.

A Just Radio production for 大象传媒 Radio 4

Release date:

29 minutes

Featured in...

Nazanin and the mystery of a decades old tank debt

Nazanin and the mystery of a decades old tank debt

Has an old tank debt with Iran cost Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe her freedom?

Seriously... Archive

Even more seriously interesting documentaries from Radio 4.

Seriously... Reads

Read more about some of the amazing stories in Seriously...

Podcast