The International Cities of Refuge Network is an association of cities and regions around the world dedicated to the value of Freedom of Expression.
Protection
ICORN Cities offer persecuted writers a safe haven where they can live and work without fear of being censored or silenced.
Promotion
ICORN supports the artistic endeavours of its guest writers and promotes new spaces for intercultural dialogues worldwide.
Creative Resistance - An Intersecting Networks Approach
July 2010 Saved to Network News
From July 10-15 ICORN participated at a gathering of leaders from the human rigts sector, art spaces, and artists' and culture workers' mobility networks from around the world meeting in Canada . 'This was a unique opportunity to get to know and work with other networks who's work is related to what we do.' says ICORN's Programme Director Elisabeth Dyvik. The meeting was called by freeDimensional .
Committee to Protect Journalists releases Survey on Journalists in Exile
June 2010 Saved to Network News
At least 85 journalists fled their homes in the past year because of attacks, threats and possible imprisonment, with especially high exile rates in Iran, Somalia and Ethiopia, says the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in its annual survey. Since 2001, more than 500 journalists have fled their homes, and 454 remain in exile today. But life in exile is precarious and only the beginning of a new set of struggles.
ICORN Guest Writer Philo Ikonya published in Germany
June 2010 Saved to Network News
Judging by the catalogs from travel agents, Kenya is a safe destination that offers great holiday adventures. Philo Ikonya's latest collection of poetry, Aus dem Gefängnis - Liebesgesänge (Out of prison - Lovesongs) points out that this image is not the whole truth.
Visit Shahrazad!
Welcome to the Shahrazad website, a free space in Europe for writers from all over the world to tell their stories and to be heard.
Six ICORN cities are taking part in the Shahrazad project: Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Norwich, Stockholm and Stavanger. But writers from every corner of the world are invited to contribute words.
The Shahrazad project will set in motion a transnational dynamic of sharing and exchanging new stories. It will reach out specifically to individuals and groups unfamiliar with traditional literary and cultural activities. It will focus especially on children and young people who, through educational programmes, creative workshops and digital story production, will experience both the receiving and production ends of the Stories for Life chain of communication.
Ultimately, the Shahrazad project aims to provide Europe with new, more open and sustainable narratives about itself. By opening up to human and artistic impulses from ‘outside', Europe can regain and revitalise some of its capital values: freedom, democracy and solidarity.
Shahrazad is a European Union Culture 2007: multi-annual co-operation project
ICORN cities
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