Ava Homa: Haunting Tales from Iranian Prison
March 7, 2011 – 9:30 am
The usually vocal crowd inside of Milk Coffee Bar was eerily quiet on March 3, while Ava Homa read excerpts from her book, Echoes from the Other Land. The book is a work of fiction but the haunting stories inside expose oppression, censorship and struggles that Iranians face throughout their lives. Tales of torture were interspersed with song clips and moments of silence that drove powerful messages home.
Ava Homa reads from Echoes from the Other Land. Photo by Sanja Frkovic
A writer-in-exile, Homa moved to Canada in 2007 after a series of events forced her to consider her future and leave her home and teaching career behind. She came to Windsor on a student visa and now works in Toronto as an English teacher and writer-in-residence. Homa was in town to speak at Milk’s “Freedom to Read” event and spent the next day speaking with University of Windsor students.
After Homa’s moving reading the audience was invited to share works from other writers who were in prison or exiled. Each participant took a different approach to sharing the tales through song, through powerful speech, through quiet reflection.
In this video, Len Wallace plays “Your Daughters & Your Sons”, Victoria Cross reads from Emma Goldman, and Floyd Cortis and friend, Irene read from Václav Havel’s Charter 77.
You can see the full videos at OurWindsor.ca’s YouTube Channel.
You can also listen to audio clips from the evening:
- Ava Homa reads a story from Echoes from the Other Land (8:23)
- Ava Homa answers audience questions about life in Iran (4:43)
- David Light sings the final 3 stanzas of Oscar Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol (1:51)
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