Efe Murad
(Istanbul, 1987) studied philosophy at Princeton and is working towards his Ph.D. in Ottoman History and Arabic Philosophy and Theology at Harvard. He has published five books of poetry and five books of translations from the Iranian poets M. Azad and Fereydoon-e Moshiri and from the American poets C.K. Williams, Susan Howe and Lyn Hejinian in Turkish. Together with Sidney Wade, he prepared a selection from the uvre of Turkish poet Melih Cevdet Anday. His poems, writings and translations in English have appeared in a wide range of journals, such as Guernica, Jacket, Five Points, and The American Reader, and in exhibitions including the 13th Istanbul Bienniale. He is currently working on the complete Turkish translation of Ezra Pound's Cantos. He published Matter-Poetry Manifesto together with Cem Kurtuluş in 2004, and his new work combines paleography, Islamic manuscript tradition, found footage and soundscapes.
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Archive available for: Efe Murad
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World Storytelling in ISS
With: Çağlar Köseoğlu, Efe Murad, Kees Biekart, Magda Cârneci, Mira Feticu
Listen to stories from near and far. They were told by African, Latin American and Asian students from the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, as well as by four Winternachten festival guests: poets Efe Murad (Turkey), Magda Cârneci (Romania), Mira Feticu (Netherlands) and Çaglar Köseoglu (Netherlands) who contributed with stories about writing poems in revolutionary times. Kees Biekart, Associate Professor in Political Sociology at ISS, hosted the conversations. English spoken.
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Closer to Poets - Speakers' Corner Haagse Hogeschool
With: Efe Murad, Ghayath Almadhoun, Hassnae Bouazza, Maarten van der Graaff, Sanam Sheriff
The 23rd Winternachten international literature festival-edition took place from Thursday 18 January up till and including Sunday 21 January. Over 80 writers, poets and musicians from The Netherlands and abroad this time not only came to festival locations Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag, but will also visit schools and perform in The Hague neighbourhoods.
The festival, known for its scintillating mix of declamation, readings, conversations about topical subjects, musical performances and film programme, has no less then eight locations this edition. From 18-21 January, central festival locations are Theater aan het Spui and Filmhuis Den Haag.
Additionally, the festival presents free entry writers' performances at the Speakers' Corner of the Haagse Hogeschoo, at the International Institute of Social Studies, at Theater Dakota, at public library Schilderswijk and public library Nieuw Waldeck.
The Lighthouse, centre for debate, culture and innovation of the Haagse Hogeschool and Winternachten festival present, Thursday 18 January, at the Speakers' Corner the programme 'Dichterbij Dichters' (Close up to Poets) featuring poetry-slam talent Sanam Sheriff from India, poets Efe Murad (Turkey) and Ghayath Almadhoun (Sweden), and writer-poet Maarten van der Graaff from the Netherlands: Writers Unlimited introduces a new international literary generation. Participants read from their own work and Hassnae Bouazza discusses the expressiveness of poetry with the poets and the public.
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Book of my Life: Efe Murad
Writers talks about their favourite book - the book that inspires or moves them; the book that formed their aristic, moral or intellectual compass; the book that they would recommend to anyone.
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The streets of Istanbul: Resistance and Poetry
During the Gezi-protest of 2013, the streets and squares of Istanbul were places of resistance against authoritarian politics and ruthless market forces. It was an attempt to trigger change in Turkish politics.
Five years on, how does the young poet, essayist and critic Efe Murad see the situation in his country? And what does the literary map of Istanbul look like right now? Murad talks about the city, wanders through it and reads from his work, including poems from Kapital Öldürür!, written with his generational cohorts Sinan Özdemir and Ismail Aslan, which constitutes one of the most direct confrontations with the Turkey of recent years.
Poet Çaglar Köseoglu looks at Istanbul from The Netherlands thus enlarging the map. His poetry alters the history of the Republic of Turkey and the situation in The Netherlands towards something new, showing how violence, language and geography alternate.
During this short performance, Irina Baldini follows an improvised dance trajectory across the map of Istanbul across streets, along skyscrapers and luxury condominium towers; while moving, she reminisces about the search for clearings in a city where the state has taken over the public space.
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Ode to Joy
Schiller's idealistic poem about Europe and humanity, adapted to the here and now! Writers Unlimited asked seven writers and poets each to write their own Ode to Joy. This evening they presented their newly written works.
Participants at this Odes 2.0 were Nino Haratischwili, Magda Cârneci, Sanam Sheriff, Efe Murad, Grazyna Plebanek, Gustaaf Peek. Ghayath Almadhoun and Charlotte Van den Broeck. They recited their work in their mother tongues, with simultaneous projections of Dutch and/or English translations. Classical accordionist Oleg Lysenko, Cellist Elisabeth Sturtewagen and soprano Jole De Baerdemaeker provided musical accompaniment.
Originally written in 1785, Schiller's Ode to Joy lives on because Ludwig van Beethoven added one of its stanzas to the finale (for choir and soloists) of his Ninth Symphony. In 1985, the European Union Chose this particular segment - albeit in wordless form - as the official hymn of the EU. In the poem, Schiller transmits the ideal of a world in which all people live in brotherhood.
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Fraternité! The Forgotten Value of Brotherhood
The longing for a strong collective feeling has once again become a source of social movements around the world. That "we"-feeling feeds passionate new emancipation and indentity groups. It also causes social fragmentation and conflict.
Brotherhood, the third pillar of democracy from the French Revolution, has long been viewed as a less inflammatory societal value compared with Freedom and Equality. But the comeback of a strong collective feeling is connected to high levels of polarization and conflict in society.
Bas Heijne, winner of the P.C. Hooft Prize for his essays and a prominent NRC newspaper columnist, investigated why the power of a longing for Brotherhood is underestimated, with the help of Flemish cultural historian and writer David Van Reybrouck, Turkish poet and philosopher Efe Murad, German novelist Fatma Aydemir and Polish novelist and journalist Grazyna Plebanek. Together they looked for the contemporary words to express a sense of collective bonding.
The conversations were accompanied by performances of poetry slam-talent Sanam Sheriff (India), by live drawn illustrations by Gerda Dendooven (Belgium) and by music performed by classical accordionist Oleg Lysenko (Netherlands) and soprano Elisabeth Sturtewagen (Belgium).
