Nothing in my work as a community artist has been more precious than the time I have spent with people whose paths would never otherwise have crossed mine. I remember more of them than I can count, not always faces or even names (I’m not good at either) but moments shared, things they taught me, and connections deeper than words. Many have become friends, people I can turn to in need and who, I believe, know that they can always call on me. Mostly, those friendships are personal, and don’t belong in the public discussion of my work. But sometimes, the boundary is porous, and I have sometimes written about their work. Since I closed my other websites, that writing has vanished, so I decided to make a home for some of it here. It’s about art rather than co-creation, but I hope it may still be of interest.
Mohan Rana
Mohan Rana is among the most admired Hindi poets of his generation. Originally from Delhi, he now lives in England, but only a small proportion of his work has been translated in English. It is quite unlike any other poetry I know, and a few years ago, when a collection of his work was published by the Poetry Translation Centre, I tried to explain why in a short text for a seminar held in South Africa. You can read about it here, and also download a text that I wrote about Mohan when I was working on Bread and Salt, where two of his poems also appear.
Bill Ming
To come
François Matarasso 