Launched in Malta to a warm and highly participative audience on 30th December 2009, and subsequently in a number of cities in Europe, Asia and North America (including Rome, Paris, Madrid, Struga/Skopje, Seoul, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, and San Francisco), Passport is a poem of humanity, an open song of eroticism and friendship, yet at the same time, a lullaby for a long list of human rights crushed by the consequences of the discriminatory migratory policy of several governments. It is the lament of thousands of brothers and sisters, of flesh and blood, ever more frequently forced to suffer the absurdities and atrocities brought about by the static notion of nation state.

Passport is an anti-passport, valid for all peoples and for all landscapes. A declaration of universal citizenship, the vision of a world where the fear of barriers and frontiers has long been overcome. A world without customs and checkpoints, without border police out to snatch away the dawn, without the need for forms, documents, or biometric data… A world without the need to cross the desert barefoot, nor to float off on a raft, on an itinerary of hope all too quickly struck out by the realities of blackmail and exploitation. The modulating verses of the poem, the alliteration and anaphora, give force to a voice looking to quicken the planetary conscience of the listener.

Solidarity with migrants and refugees

In solidarity with all fellow citizens and villagers of the world who, with or without a passport, do not enjoy the fundamental right to leave or return to their country (Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), nor the fundamental right to request asylum from persecution (Article 14), the event also represents a call for action and participation. At each presentation of the Passport, members of the audience are invited to bring along their passports, or any other form of ID, in order to symbolically ‘renounce’ their nationalities during the recital. All documents are hung from a washing line on stage, and returned by hand at the end of the performance.

Donations from the sale of the Passport are passed on to local NGOs that provide assistance to refugees and asylum seekers. Donations have so far been received by the following collaborating associations: Konnect Kulturi – Integra Foundation (formerly Migrants’ Solidarity Movement) (Malta), AIM Giovani Senza Frontiere (Italy), CLAE (Luxembourg), Campagne contre le centre fermé au Findel (Luxembourg), Ecodesarrollo Gaia (Spain), PSCORE Korea, Asian Students Association (Hong Kong), Students for a Free Tibet (Bangalore, India), Comité d’Aide Aux Réfugiés (Paris), Liridona-Réseau Éducation Sans Frontières (Lozère, France), Collectif amiénois des sans-papiers (Amiens, France), & East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (Berkeley, USA).

  Yours
  this passport
  for all peoples,
  with a rainbow flag, and the emblem of a migratory goose encircling the globe,
  in all the languages you want, official or dialect,
  in ocean blue, or dried blood red, or coal black ready for burning, the choice is yours,
  take it where you will, your passage is safe and unobstructed, the door unscrewed from the jambs,
  you can enter and leave without fear, there is no one to stop you,
  no one to jump you in the queue, or send you to the back, there’s no need to wait,
  no one to say Ihre Papiere Bitte!, quickening your heartbeat with the pallour of his finger,
  no one to squint or glare at you according to the gross domestic product per capita of the nation you’ve left behind,
  no one to brand you stranger, alien, criminal, illegal immigrant, or extra-communautaire, nobody is extra, …

As of November 2012, the Passport poem is available in 8 languages (in order of publication):

Malti – (it-tieni edizzjoni)
Italiano – adattato da Biagio Lieti & Antoine Cassar (3ª edizione)
Français – adapté par Elizabeth Grech (6ème édition)
English – adapted by Albert Gatt & Antoine Cassar (3rd edition)
Lëtzebuergesch – adapted by Francis Kirps (zweet Editioun)
Español – adaptado por Carmen Herrera & Antoine Cassar (2ª edición)
Deutsch – adapted by Francis Kirps (zweite Ausgabe)
македонски – adapted by Iva Georgieva (второ издание)

Passeport, sur France 3 tv

http://www.educationsansfrontieres.org/article38597.html

La version française du Passeport a été adaptée en spectacle musicale et poétique par la compagnie D’Autres Cordes (Franck Vigroux & Jean-Marc Bourg).
Télécharger ici le dossier de presse.

Festival Bruits Blancs 2011, Arcueil, Paris

Écouter ici d’autres extraits sonores du Passeport adapté par Franck Vigroux & Jean-Marc Bourg.

Reading of Passport in Maltese and English, in tandem with Matt Gonzalez
San Francisco International Poetry Festival, 27.7.2012