'Over the Edge' and Amnesty International are to co-host an evening of poetry by Guantanamo camp detainees later this month.

Leading poets/writers Rita Ann Higgins, Mary O'Malley, Elaine Feeney (winner of Cúirt Slam), Sheikh Khaled (Iman of Galway Mosque), performance poet Stephen Murray, American poet Charlene Speeren and others will read poems written by the Guantanamo detainees to highlight International Day Against Torture on Thursday 26 June in Amnesty International Freedom Shop/Cafe, 2 Middle Street at 7pm. Poet/writer Kevin Higgins will MC the event.

'Poems from Guantanamo – The Detainees Speak' describes the reality experienced by young boys and men detained in Guantanamo.

According to the organisers, since 2002, at least 775 men have been held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. And they say, according to Department of Defense data, fewer than half of them are accused of committing any hostile act against the United States or its allies. In hundreds of cases, even the circumstances of their initial detainment are questionable.

Amnesty says that US authorities had long sought to suppress the voices of the individuals they are holding in illegal detention, with many of the detainees not allowed regular use of pen or paper. Some of the original verses to be read at the reading were written in toothpaste and some scratched into Styrofoam cups with pebbles.

That any survived at all is an amazing feat, they say; much of the writing is likely to never see the light of day because the US military refuse to declassify it for circulation outside the camp.

However, a number of the poems that have been cleared for release have been compiled in this book by the defence lawyer, Marc Falkoff, who has represented 17 Guantanamo detainees. These poems allow the thoughts and feelings of Guantanamo detainees, many of who remain in the detention camp, to finally be told in their own words.

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