Paul Wamo

Jul 3, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Chantal Spitz |Paul Wamo |Lia Galvan Lisker

Poet Virginie Hoifua Te Matagi Tafilagi of Wallis and Futuna celebrates Pacific peoples and their age-old history of transoceanic voyaging. Wallis and Futuna IslandsTravelHistoryHeritageIslands To the immortal Hōkūle’aA shore, a call,In secret accordThe coast quickens to the windIts mute response.  A bird sings loud and longAlights amid the daysWhen marriage terms are setAnd soil and rock contested.

Jul 2, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Paul Wamo |Kristian Lundberg |Déwé Gorodé |Lia Galvan Lisker

Paul Wamo Reads “Blue Rebirth.” Being Black with My Own NightFour texts from a series titled “Black Fear” about my relationship with otherness during my stay in France as a black-skinned person, 2014–2019. I See HimI see him walking, he stops, he walks again, he doesn’t walk the way he did just before, it looks as though he’s sweating, he’s in a hurry, he passes by us, he sits down for a moment, his face is telling us something, what? what?

Jul 1, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Déwé Gorodé |Sinan Antoon |Paul Wamo |Lia Galvan Lisker

Frida had just two weeks left at home, before she had to leave the island to continue her training, when her great friend Lenka introduced her to Albert, known as Ali, a worker on a barge at the port. After several drinks and hours of hot, slow dances where they melted into each other, he offered to take her home.