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Date Posted: 2005-06-30 13:24:47
Author: annette
Hi Rebecca:
I began visiting Villawood detention center way back in 2002 where I met Mohsen Soltany Zand. My parter is a poet/recording artist and at the time I was a literary agent working in Sydney. There was absolutely no support for anything to do with the refugee issue back then, except for the few amazing individuals who spent their spare time and skills in trying to get asylum seekers out of detention.
We were fairly helpless in terms of having the skills necessary to help Mohsen`s case, but we were I hope able to help his mind and soul deal with the trauma of being indefinitely incarcerated.
We produced a CD of his poetry, by ourselves, with our own funds and tried our best to get some recognition for the project by donating all the funds raised to chillout (chilkdren out of detention). It attracted some press but we were terrified at the time that the press may adversely affect his release - he was in the middle of a high court appeal at the time. We took great care to liase with his legal team and his case worker at the time so that we didn`t end up at cross purposes.
Since his release, Mohsen has been working on his second album - this time composing his own music to go with the spoken word performances of his poetry. He has spent a great deal of time and energy helping Baxter inmates to prepare their cases for release.
Please get in touch if there is anyway he can be involved with your project. He has a great deal of literary world support, and may be able to add an extra creative voice in to your project.
Cheers,
Annette Hughes
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