A Poetry of Migration

03/01/2026
60 min
[video_views]

Poets Annie Freud, Stephen Duncan, and Jennifer Langer, chaired by Monica Bohm-Duchen, explore German-Jewish heritage in the UK. Using poetry, they reflect on exile, Weimar culture, memory, and identity, considering what the Second Generation inherits from their parents’ emigration, the Holocaust, and the cultural richness of pre-war Germany, and how it shapes their sense of being British today. This event blends readings and discussion, examining how literature can illuminate complex legacies, negotiate trauma, and celebrate the enduring vitality of cultural memory across generations.

About the speakers

Jennifer Langer

Jennifer Langer is a poet, editor and founding director of Exiled Writers Ink, the organisation working with refugee and migrant writers.Her poetry collection The Search explores the complexity of her German Jewish English identity. She has edited five anthologies of exiled literature and holds a PhD from SOAS in exile and cultural memory.

Annie Freud

Annie Freud is a poet, artist, teacher and editor. She has four poetry collections in print with Picador: The Best Man that Ever Was – 2007  The Mirabelles – 2010 (shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize) The Remains – 2015 Hiddensee – 2020.  She was included in 2014 Next Generation Poets and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She is a 2025 […]

Stephen Duncan

Stephen Duncan is an award winning artist and poet with poetry exploring his German heritage. He is also the editor for his late mother, the poet Beata Duncan, celebrated for her poetry collections on her life in the Weimar period, emigration from Berlin to London and her experience of the London Blitz. 

Monica Bohm-Duchen

Monica Bohm-Duchen is a London-based art historian and the founding director of Insiders/Outsiders, an ongoing celebration of the contribution made by refugees from Nazi Europe to British culture. The project also gives voice to the responses of the ‘second generation’ – and beyond – to their families’ complex histories.

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A Poetry of Migration

03/01/2026
|
60 min

Speaker

Jennifer Langer

Jennifer Langer is a poet, editor and founding director of Exiled Writers Ink, the organisation working with refugee and migrant writers.Her poetry collection The...

Annie Freud

Annie Freud is a poet, artist, teacher and editor. She has four poetry collections in print with Picador: The Best Man that Ever Was...

Stephen Duncan

Stephen Duncan is an award winning artist and poet with poetry exploring his German heritage. He is also the editor for his late mother,...

Monica Bohm-Duchen

Monica Bohm-Duchen is a London-based art historian and the founding director of Insiders/Outsiders, an ongoing celebration of the contribution made by refugees from Nazi...