Workshop Translating Queer Poetry

Translating poetry presents various challenges and obstacles. Some texts are sensitive or involve slang that does not translate very easily into another language. How does it work when you want to translate work by poets who are strongly rooted in the queer community and who use a lot of queer terminology in their work? During this translation workshop, Zaïre Krieger, spoken word artist and translator of Amanda Gorman's The Hill We Climb, will show you the considerations involved in translating queer poetry. You will work on the translation during the workshop. In preparation, you may choose poems of your own from queer poets you would like to work with during the workshop and bring them with you on June 8th. Watch for interesting translation challenges in the text!  

Zaïre writes out of necessity, love, principles and for the greater good. With her art, Zaïre shares her world, her perspective. Willing to stand up for people and disrupt the status quo. Rhyming she maneuvers through systems, opinionating she sets aside her own comfort and with custom-made spoken word-pieces she creates a safe environment in unsafe worlds.  

She does all this as a spoken word artist, voice-over actor, translator and with sporadic opinions. Zaïre translated Amanda Gormans' The Hill We Climb, was featured as a voice-over artist for Women INC, Actionaid and De Volkskrant, among others, and wrote razor-sharp opinions for Dipsauce, interviewed for OneWorld and VARAGids, among others.  

The words she uses, she chooses carefully. Inspired by various rappers such as Kendrick Lamar and MF Doom, Zaïre puzzles until her rhyme schemes are inimitable. She presents her perspective to society, hoping to use it to inspire people, crack systems, change environments and challenge minds. Leaning on collectivity, she remains herself at all times; an artist with a strong sense of justice and the need to inspire people.