A celebration of cultural heritage

The inaugural class of Narratio Fellows presented poetry and dialogue at the Met on July 31.

On July 31, Andrews McMeel executives were thrilled to be invited guests at Intertwined Journeys: Poems by the Narratio Fellows, an event held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City that celebrated the stories and experiences of resettled refugee writers and artists from around the globe.

According to the Narratio Fellowship website, the event was a culmination of the four-week intensive storytelling and leadership program aimed at providing resettled refugee youth with the opportunities and tools to share their stories and creative works locally and on the world stage.

Ahmed Badr, currently a junior at Wesleyan University, created Narratio as a platform for youth to share their stories through the publishing of poetry, photography, art and narrative. Badr came to the United States as a refugee originally from Baghdad and began writing poetry as a means to inspire and empower others. Narratio has been recognized by NPR, United Nations, We Are Family Foundation, SAP, Instagram and many others.

Kirsty Melville, AMP President and Publisher, with Ahmed Badr, founder of the Narratio Fellowship.

“My son, who attends Wesleyan University with this remarkable young man, told me about his work, and I had to meet him,” said President and Publisher Kirsty Melville. “Once I read his poetry, I knew we wanted to help bring his unique perspective to the world.”

Andrews McMeel Publishing will release Badr’s first poetry collection, tentatively titled Rewriting Tragedy, in June 2020.

“Kirsty is so connected to what’s going on in the world around us,” said Susan Johnson, Chief People and Communications Officer, who attended the event with Melville. “This is a great example of how she and her team are able to discover and share unique, relevant voices to new and diverse audiences.”

Drawing inspiration from objects in the Met’s collection, the inaugural class of Narratio Fellows — 10 young writers and artists from Somalia, Syria, Bangladesh and Iraq — engaged questions surrounding cultural heritage, belonging, displacement and many other topics through poetry and dialogue.