#evolutionarypoems

The 100 poems by Ethiopian writer and artist Mihret Kebede in #evolutionarypoems are rhythmic and direct reactions to contemporary political events. These poems turn over hard questions about protest and power with an attention to everyday life that is woven inside political witness. #evolutionarypoems shows how revolution is not linear and how a deep connection to homeland lives inside of critique. The book is Kebede’s first published in English and Amharic.

The book #evolutionarypoems is a collaboration between Kebede and the writer and translator Anna Moschovakis. The two met in Addis Ababa in 2009. A decade later, they came together to translate these poems from Amharic into English, meeting throughout the pandemic to discuss the poems, their context, and how to transport them into English. The result is a bilingual book that is also a living conversation between friends, contexts, and languages.

About the book, Uljana Wolf writes, “At once archive of the present and activation of silenced histories, Mihret Kebede’s #evolutionarypoems powerfully ignites an imaginary of resistance in order to change the rules of the game: “let me become flame / I am the people ... not fuel, nor tool.” In this first English edition, Anna Moschovakis’s superbly energizing translation from the Amharic—document of sustained friendship and dialogue—is an expansion of that collective imaginary.”