Empty place at the table

Empty place at the table consists of six independent graphic stories dealing with the topic of refugeeism.
The authors of picture book:
Malgorzata MAUKO Korczak, Joanna Ambrozja Lewandowska, Marta Tomiak, 
Dasza Voronina, Ada Augustyniak, Karolina Jeske
Advisors: 
Iwona Chmielewska, Joanna Concejo- also creator of the cover, Magdalena Sikorska, Justyna Bargielska
The book is a joint result of Empathetic Picturebook Project, (a part of The Alternative Lublin Project). The project was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage in Poland. Here you can see more illustrations and read more about the process.

Stanisław Barańczak 
If porcelain, then only the kind

If porcelain, then only the kind 
you won’t miss under the shoe of a mover or the tread of a tank; 
if a chair, then not too comfortable, lest 
there be regret in getting up and leaving; 
if clothing, then just so much as can fit in a suitcase, 
if books, then those which can be carried in the memory, 
if plans, then those which can be overlooked 
when the time comes for the next move 
to another street, continent, historical period 
or world: 
who told you that you were permitted to settle in? 
who told you that this or that would last forever? 
did no one ever tell you that you will never 
in the world 
feel at home in the world? 

Translated from the Polish by Frank Kujawinski

Poem by Stanisław Barańczak If porcelain, then only the kind has landed in this book in a specific way, supposedly by chance but certainly not casually. The house with poetry mural is real. This tenement house is located by busy crossing in my home town. People come to a stop for a moment, sometimes longer, and sometimes they rush unconcerned in haste to their own affairs.
I believe that there are words searching for images and there are images searching for words. It is possible that in this book I managed to make them feel at home for some time.