AJAR and Literature Across Frontiers are pleased to introduce the series of online events Ù Ơ | SUO: A Poetry Showcase, the result of a virtual residency and workshop programme which brought together ten female/non-binary poets and artists from Vietnam and Wales over a period of three months. The project was initiated by Ajar Press and Literature Across Frontiers and is supported by the British Council.

“Ù Ơ | SUO (Vietnamese - Welsh) the familiar sounds of lullabies sung by grandmothers and mothers, was the starting point for a collective reflection on the origins of poetic language and life itself.

From the exercises of translating oneself and translating others, various stories and dialogues have opened: on sounds, colours, tastes, spaces, private and collective memories. The individual works and the collaborations emerged and formed, troubling the borders of languages and established genres. Poems in response to poems, interwoven trilingual texts in English, Vietnamese and Welsh, painting-poems, video poems, and the practises that go beyond the conventional genres.

With multimedia explorations of words, images, and sounds, and experimentation with various translation methods, Ù Ơ | SUO suggests a fresh approach to poetry and questions the (im)possibilities of translation:poems expand in space, become autonomous beings—lively and uncertain and move between art genres, languages, and cultures.

The programme also included a conversation with two guests, the well known authors Tran Thi NgH. and Menna Elfyn, which, in looking back at their creative journeys, opened up new perspectives on writing and living as (female) writers.

Together the poets and artists, editors and the project team have constructed a space for sharing, for contemplation, and for poetry to sing their voices. With the week-long online presentation, Ù Ơ | SUO hopes to open its space to new encounters with poetry readers and audiences, bringing fresh reflections on poetry and encounters between cultures and languages.

And, beyond the fruits displayed in the showcase, there are ideas lying in the drafts and our drawers, waiting for more. With Vietnamese and Welsh, and English. With sounds and images. And a promise to meet again.

For more information, please click here.