On the Grass of Exile
An outdoor audio poetry installation created in partnership with the Poetry Foundation and located at the American Riad. The project invites visitors to lie in the grass and experience poems of exile in their original languages alongside English translations, creating a space for reflection, gathering and connection through poetry.
Art by Ricardo Tomás.
This installation gets its name from the poem by Nada Al Khawwam, whose work is featured alongside nine other poets in “Broken Lines: A Gathering of Exiled Poets,” a special folio published in the July/August 2026 issue of POETRY Magazine. Curated by City of Asylum/Detroit Founding Executive Director Laura Kraftowitz and Founding Artistic Director Edward Salem, the folio brings together work by poets whose lives and practices have been shaped by exile, displacement and migration.“
“I’m sipping the cups of time drifting away
on the grass of exile”
—Nada Al Khawwam
“On the Grass of Exile” soft launches a space that will be developed by City of Asylum/Detroit as an Exile Reading Garden envisioned as both a community gathering spot and an art installation. The garden will interweave Michigan native species with plants that originate around the world but thrive in Detroit. Eastern prickly pear, Himalayan primrose, and Ethiopian love grass will bloom alongside Michigan lilies and Northern honeysuckle, with audio poems emerging from the ground.
Featuring
Ashraf Fayadh
Aaiún Nin
Sarah Mkhonza
Kerima Tariman
Hussein Al-Dahir
Tareq Hajjaj
Raafat Hekmat
Irakli Kakabadze
Nada Al Khawwam
Mariam Ala Amjadi
Visit “On the Grass of Exile”
Location: American Riad, 920 E. Euclid St. Detroit, MI 48211
Hours: 10-6 daily
Free and open to the public
This project is supported by the Poetry Foundation and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Public Spaces Community Places program.
