Event

Dissidence: Exiled Writers on Resistance and Risk
Friday, September 16
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Event from 7-8:30pm
Trinosophes, 1464 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit
Reception to follow, celebrating the release of Three Fold’s Fall Issue 

City of Asylum Detroit kicks off the first ever Cities of Asylum Solidarity Tour, an annual panel of writers, artists, musicians, and journalists who have been attacked, imprisoned, and censored because of their work. This year’s theme is “Dissidence: Exiled Writers on Resistance and Risk.”

Cities of Asylum, a safe haven network to protect writers’ freedom of expression and physical safety, was inspired by Salman Rushdie, who suffered an attempted assassination last month. City of Asylum Detroit is the newest of four branches in the US. Since opening our doors in 2020, we’ve brought feminist Burmese poet Pencilio, queer Nigerian novelist Pwaangulongii Dauod, Haitian photojournalist Dieu-Nalio Chery and Haitian videographer Mathide Chery Debel to safety in our city, where they are thriving and contributing to Detroit’s cultural life.

Dissidence panelists include essayist Pwaangulongii Dauod, who received death threats for writing about queer culture in Nigeria; poet Dmitry Bykov, who nearly died in a poisoning, then was banned from teaching or appearing on Russian TV; political cartoonist Pedro X. Molina, who watched Nicaraguan state forces jail his colleagues and occupy his newspaper's offices; and novelist Anouar Rahmani, who was threatened with imprisonment for writing about human rights in Algeria.

All four were forced to flee their homelands, and all four found safe haven in a City of Asylum in the United States.

The attack on Rushdie is a brutal reminder of the importance of the mission of City of Asylum Detroit and the values we will continue to defend. Come hear the stories of dissident writers who have found safety thanks to his work, and learn about their commitment to free creative expression at this evening of readings and lively conversation.

Dissidence: Exiled Writers on Resistance and Risk is supported by a grant from Cornell University’s Migrations Global Grand Challenge and the Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative.








Founded in 2020, Three Fold is an independent quarterly based in Detroit that presents exploratory points of view on arts, culture, and society in addition to original works in various media, including visual art, literature, film and the performing arts. We solicit and commission contributions from artists, writers, and activists around the world. Three Fold is a publication of Trinosophes Projects, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in the historic Eastern Market neighborhood in downtown Detroit. Click here to check out Three Fold’s events page and view a schedule of the publication’s on-site activities.

Three Fold recognizes, supports, and advocates for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. We operate on occupied territories called Waawiiyaataanong, named by the Anishinaabeg and including the Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe (Chippewa), Odawa (Ottawa), and Bodewatomi (Potawatomi) peoples. We hold to commit to Indigenous communities in Waawiiyaataanong, their elders, both past and present, and future generations.