On January 7, 2020, CGDS Director Dr. Choman Hardi presented a talk and read poetry as part of the first Convention of the Gender, Justice and Security Hub which took place in Sri Lanka. The talk was part of a series of talks hosted by the University of Colombo. Dr. Hardi’s presentation was entitled “Poetry's Power to Speak the Unspeakable” in which a series of her poems were recited to an audience at the University of Colombo’s Department of English. The talk emphasized poetry’s ability to speak of traumas that are generally considered to be unspeakable. The focus was on the struggle of Kurdish women survivors of the Anfal genocide. Starting with Judith Herman’s idea that trauma disempowers and disconnects survivors from the rest of the community, Dr Hardi spoke of the way poetry can amplify those voices and create empathy and understanding. The talk was followed by a question and answer session where the audience exchanged their views and asked for further details about the poems.