an emerging voice in the face of oppression.

Poet, Author, Essayist, Dramatist, Human Rights Activist and Educator,Chenjerai Hove (pronounced chen-jeh-rye, hoe-ve) does everything in his creative arsenal to reign down the struggles that are bleeding his native Zimbabwe’s true beauty.

He has made it his life’s work to write and educate the world about his beloved homeland and bring to light the shadowy corruption, abuse and torture by the country’s despotic government. “A country,” he writes, “which is now run by a group of thuggish military generals and bands of youth militias spread throughout the country that are spitting on its people and plundering all of Zimbabwe’s beauty”.

Hove is a founder of the Zimbabwe Writers Union, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (Zimrights) and a co-founder of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, serving on its board for nearly 10 years. He has lectured on the craft of writing as well as social justice at major universities across the globe and has received the highest prize in literature given on the African Continent (the NOMA award) for his novel Bones in 1988. Furthermore, his essays on social justice earned him the German-Africa prize in 2001 for his collection of articles entitled, Palaver Finish. His has been a journey of creative success but also of heartache.

For over thirty years Hove wrote from his native country unafraid of the risks involved in writing about the ugliness of his government. As time went on his work became an increasingly political target of attack and so, after endless bribes and countless death threats, Hove finally fled into exile in 2001. He has led a migrant’s life around Europe since then lecturing and presenting the issues alive in his heart-wrenching stories. Today he is in Miami as a writer-in-residence for the Miami: City of Refuge, a project coordinated by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College with the generous financial support of the Knight Foundation. He is here to share in solidarity his story of exile with students and the people of Miami, and to talk and write about the issues of political repression and social justice in Zimbabwe.

The International Cities of Refuge Network is an association of cities around the world dedicated to the value of Freedom of Expression. Writers have consistently been targets of politically motivated threats and persecution, and the network believes it is necessary for the international community to formulate and implement an appropriate response.

Each ICORN city focuses on one writer at a time, each writer representing the countless others in hiding, in prison or silenced forever. By providing a Guest Writer with a safe place to stay and economic security for a standard term of two years, ICORN cities make an important, practical contribution to the promotion of Freedom of Expression.

[Thursday, September 15, 2011 | 6:30 p.m.]

A Reflection on the Heartbreak of Banned Books
Miami: City of Refuge writer-in-residence, Chenjerai Hove, discusses his personal history with banned books and the effects censorship has on literature and culture.
Free and open to the public.

Miami Dade Public Library System, Main Branch, 101 West Flagler Street, Miami

[Thursday, October 13, 2011 | 4 p.m.]

Teen Read Week: The Poetry of Social and Civic Engagement
Miami: City of Refuge writer-in-residence, Chenjerai Hove, presents a vivid discussion on the power of poetry to reveal social injustice. Students are encouraged to bring their own poetry and share in the discussion as well.
Free and open to the public.

Miami Dade Public Library System, West Kendall Branch, 10201 Hammocks Boulevard, Miami

[Tuesday, October 25, 2011 | 4 p.m.]

The Impact of Colonization and Apartheid in Southern Africa
Miami: City of Refuge writer-in-residence, Chenjerai Hove, presents a personal history of colonization and apartheid and the effects it had on him and the people of his native homeland.
Free and open to the public.

Miami Dade Public Library System, West Kendall Branch, 10201 Hammocks Boulevard, Miami

[Tuesday, December 8, 2011 | 7 p.m.]

Dialects of Africa: The Evolution of the Various African Dialects
Miami: City of Refuge writer-in-residence, Chenjerai Hove, discusses the evolution of languages in his native homeland and discuss the future of his country and the hope of his own return home.
Free and open to the public.

Miami Dade Public Library System, Miami Beach Regional Library, 227 22 Street, Miami Beach