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Poet

Ribka Sibhatu

Ribka Sibhatu

Ribka Sibhatu

(Eritrea, 1962)
Biography

 

inside the theatre,
women dressed in black
sit on red velvet seats
with bombs in their laps.
 
This Eritrean poet and activist knows how to sum up razor-sharp what it is like to live as a migrant in Europe. Ribka Sibhatu was born in Asmara. After being unjustly imprisoned for a year in 1979, she fled the country shortly after her release. In 1985, she migrated to Europe where she has lived in Italy ever since. She writes poetry in Italian and in Tigrinya. She has published several books of poetry, including a collection of poetic retellings of Eritrean fairy tales. Her best-known, most lyrical collection, Aulò, is compared in Italy to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, an extraordinary work rooted in the Eritrean oral tradition. She has also published sociological work, writing critically, for example, about the way the Italian media portrays migrant communities. In addition to her poetry, she has worked for the city of Rome and for the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. She currently works as an interpreter and consultant within the Italian legal system. 

 

Poems
Poems of Ribka Sibhatu
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère