A dinner in Port Moody focusing on refugees through music and poetry will mark the 71st anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
The annual fundraising dinner, to be held Dec. 10 and hosted by members of Tri-Cities Amnesty International, will feature the Vancouver Kurdish Music Ensemble and refugee poet Lozan Yamolky, as well as a video outlining the history of human rights.
“The Tri-Cities is now home for hundreds of refugees from many different countries,” Amnesty member Hazel Postma said in a press release. “Lozan’s poems evoke the sense of loss, as well as the hope, many of them must feel as they come to terms with their new reality.”
Yamolky was born in Iraq of Kurdish descent and, as a young adult, sought asylum in Turkey where she worked as an interpreter for the UN and the Canadian embassy. She moved with her family to Canada in 1995. Her poems reflect the anguish and suffering experienced by refugees. She says her purpose is to “wake up our conscience."
The dinner, hosted by the Coquitlam restaurant Pasta Polo, takes place at The Old Mill Boathouse, 2715 Esplanade Ave., Port Moody. Tickets are $25 a person and include music, poetry, dinner, dessert and a silent auction. To reserve, go to eventbrite.com/e/80185686547.
