Poetry Comes to Our Rescue

In an Arts Cabinet editorial in May 2025, Choman Hardi and Rachel Kerr discussed how poetry can act as a tool for witnessing and reimagining gendered violence in contexts of war and genocide. Drawing on the Visual and Embodied Methodologies (VEM), they reflect on the process of transforming court transcripts that contain testimonies from survivors and witnesses of wartime sexual violence during the Bosnian genocide, into poetic works. Together, they consider the ethical and creative dimensions of this process, the intentions behind turning testimony into art, and how this practice connects to the broader aims of their collaborative project. The conversation concludes with a reflection on what defines ‘good’ research poetry and the role poetry can play in deepening our understanding of trauma, justice, and representation.