SET ME FREE - Jalal Mahamede (poetry) and Keyna Wilkins (piano)
"Set Me Free" is the title track from the SET ME FREE album collaboration between poet - artist Jalal Mahamede and composer-musician Keyna Wilkins with many special guest musicians. Jalal has been in prison for 9 years because he arrived in Australia by boat and asked for protection, including 6 years on Nauru and is currently held in a Brisbane detention centre. This is his story set to music, recorded via zoom from his prison cell and set to music. More info: https://www.keynawilkins.com/set-me-f... https://www.jalalmahamede.com/ https://www.keynawilkins.com/ Jalal Mahamede is an Ahwazi Arab poet and artist in exile, who draws from his personal experience to express his moods, feelings and visions through art and language, influenced by his late father Kazem Mahamede, a renowned travelling poet and photographer. The region of Ahwaz has significantly diminished in recent times due to land seizures by the Iranian government. Ahwaz people are a persecuted minority and continue to be subjected to many forms of discrimination. A book of his illustrated poetry published by Tangerine Books and an album of his spoken poetry set to the music of Australian Art Music Award Finalist Keyna Wilkins will be released late 2021. In 2021, Jalal has been in detention in Australia for 9 years. This has included 6 years on Nauru and 7 months on Christmas Island. He is a victim of one of Australia’s crimes against humanity, namely the indefinite imprisonment of refugees who have arrived in Australia by boat. Doctors Without Borders described conditions in the Nauru refugee camps as “beyond desperate”. During his long-term confinement, in often horrific concentration camp-like conditions, Jalal has experienced serious physical and mental health issues, as well as suffering a vicious attack on Nauru. Jalal is a refugee who has committed no crime, but he remains in limbo, with no time frame, end date or guarantee of release. During his immensely painful, long-term incarceration, Jalal has nevertheless managed to create this series of heartbreakingly haunting, evocative, sorrowful, yet beautiful words and drawings inspired by his detention experience. The work reveals the depths of his heart and mind, and his vision of humanity. Jalal hopes that sharing his art and poetry will reveal to people a glimpse of his suffering, through which they may understand that despite his situation, Jalal continues his struggle to be free and to make his family proud. Everyone who knows Jalal and is involved with his projects hopes he will be released soon and be allowed to live a normal life, as he is a peaceful, kind and compassionate person with so much to offer the world.
