CELEBRATING WORLD POETRY DAY IN KABALE #BABISHAIEXPERIENCE

 

On 16th March, a group of East African poets from Babishai Niwe Foundation, will hold a massive celebration in Kabale, to commemorate World Poetry Day. This will also coincide with Kabale University Language Day. Being the first ever to initiate Kabale Poetry Day celebrations, the BN Poetry Foundation team will speak before hundreds of youth and adults, sharing about spoken word, verse, poetry, hip hop and oral narratives, to embrace poetry at a much larger scale across social and political landscapes in Africa.

This is the first of many Poetry Days across Africa. Every World Poetry Day, the BN Poetry Foundation will visit a town in an African country until the entire continent is immersed in poetry.

For details to participate in the #babishaiexperience, email bnpoetryaward@bnpoetryaward.co.ug

Sincerely,

The Team.

PRESS RELEASE: POETRYGANZA-JANUARY TO JANUARY

PRESS RELEASE- 11 FEBRUARY 2015
A YEAR OF POETRYGANZA.


On behalf of the board of the BN Poetry Foundation, I am pleased to share some of our literary and creative poetry events in the next few weeks. We invite you to be a part. The Babishai Niwe (BN) Poetry Foundation is an establishment that coordinates annual poetry competitions for African poets, publishers work of African poets, organizes literary festivals and uses a unique toolkit called Poetricks, to make poetry possible for children.
We invite you for our reading on Friday 13th February 2015 for a reading based on the theme, Love, Romance nebigenderako mu Kampala. We expect poems, spoken word and stories on the issues of Love, specific to Kampala City. It will take place from 10:30am to 12:30pm at 32° East | Ugandan Arts Trust in Kansanga, opposite Bank of Baroda. On that day, we’ll also sell what reviewers have termed the most dynamic anthology of African poetry to date; A Thousand Voices Rising, we’ll hold a mini launch of A Nation in Labour, a poetry collection by Harriet Anena and in partnership with Poetry-in-session, give the participants an early Valentine’s surprise.

From 15 January to 15 May, we’ll be receiving submissions for the BN Poetry Award. The details are on the website at www.bnpoetryaward.co.ug. Our judges this year are Antjie Krog is a poet, writer, journalist and Extraordinary professor at the University of the Western Cape. She has published twelve volumes of poetry in Afrikaans and three non-fiction books in English:Country of my Skull, on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission; A Change of Tongue about the transformation in South Africa after ten years and recently Begging to be Black about the different ethical frameworks operating in the country’s democracy. Her works have been translated into English, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, Swedish, Serbian and Arabic.

Krog has been awarded most of the prestigious South African awards for non-fiction and poetry in both Afrikaans and English. International recognition came through the award of the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture (2000); Open Society Prize (2006) from the Central European University (previous winners Jürgen Habermas and Vaclav Havel);Research fellowship at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin 2007/2008 and an Honorary Doctorate from the Tavistock Clinic of the University of East London UK.
Mildred Barya:
Mildred Kiconco Barya, a Ugandan doctorate fellow at The University of Denver. She holds a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Syracuse University and a Masters Degree in Organisational Psychology from Makerere University.

She is the author of three award-winning poetry collections, namely:-
Give Me Room to Move My Feet, published in 2009 by Amalion Press in Senegal, The Price of Memory after the Tsunami, published by Mallory Publishers in UK and Men love Chocolates But They Don’t Say, self-published collection in 2002. Mildred serves on the advisory board of African Writers Trust where she is also a founding member. She is devoted to social change through creative works and blogs regularly at mildredbarya.com.

Richard Ali:
Richard Ali is a lawyer, author and poet born in Kano, Nigeria. Author of the warmly received 2012 novel, City of Memories, Richard is also Editor-in-Chief of the Sentinel Nigeria Magazine and was a runner-up at the 2008 John la Rose Short Story Competition. He edits the quarterly Sentinel Nigeria Magazine and serves as Publicity Secretary [North] on the Association of Nigerian Authors. Richard completed a 6-week Residency at the Ebedi Writers Residency Program in 2012, attended the Chimamanda Adichie-led Farafina Workshop in 2012 and was a Guest at the 2013 Ake Book and Arts Festival, Abeokuta. He lives in Abuja where he practices law and runs the northern office of Parrésia Publishers Ltd where he serves as Chief Operating Officer. He is unmarried and enjoys chess, reading and travelling. He is working on his debut collection of poems, The Divan.

In March, we’ll be holding a mini poetry festival in Kabale. This coincides with the Kabale University Language Day. We’ll hold readings, share the stage with the students in spoken word and donate books towards their library.

In May, we head to Nakuru with a delegation of poets for the inaugural Nakuru based Storymoja Festival. The BN Poetry Foundation sent the first ever Ugandan poets to the Storymoja Festival in 2012 and the partnership has grown ever since.

In July, we will announce the shortlisted poets of the BN Poetry Award and in August, hold a poetry festival in Kampala, as we announce the 2015 winner.

September, together with Bayimba Foundation, we’ll launch the first ever poetry anthology on the theme of Kampala City, during the Bayimba Festival.
We look forward to sharing more this Friday at the Love, Romance reading.

Beverley Nambozo
Founder, BN Poetry Foundation
Tel: +256 751 703226

                     

The Careless Cook, published in A Thousand Voices Rising, order your copy from www.bnpoetryaward.co.ug

THE CARELESS COOK
The pot is boiling, boiling
And boiling to spill over
But you don’t know
Because you are a careless cook.

James Dwalu, Liberia

When PBS NewsHour Visited Kiwatule

Top photo: Emmanuel Nsengiyunva, Victoria Fleischer, BNN and Jason

Courtesy photo.

It’s been so noisy and overwhelming the past couple of months. When my eyes couldn’t stay open, my hands felt the way for me and when my feet were so bruised and worn, my instinct trudged on. Even after letting go of so much excess weight in my personal life, I just felt heavier. And then PBS NewsHour called.

I still don’t understand fully why PBS NewsHour came home to interview my family and I. I didn’t know who they were until I asked a few friends and family in America. I still haven’t had time to feel honoured. The 4 hour interview was engaging and fun and I saw a lot about myself that I had never probed to understand. Usually when I sit to lay my plans and map out where I want to go, there are places I pretend I never travelled to and people I pretend never meant much to me even though they did. Even the steps I walked which were insignificant and lacked direction, the people I dismissed and the ones whose words weighed like wet wood.

There has been no time yet to process or feel because instead of living one life, I’m living many lives right now. I’m a mother of two, Coordinator of the BN Poetry Award, wife (very very sexy wife), cook, cleaner, entrepreneur, daughter, sister, friend. I have to smile and be perky when people call and ask if they can still submit poems to the BN Poetry Award, even a week after the dead-line. I have to smile as I politely say No, because the Judges already have the poems. I manage many other Arts projects which pop up in the most unlikely of places. A friend of a friend who recommended me or who read about me in the papers who wants me to teach her fifteen year old son how to write a novel. Or a Manager that does not have any money wants me to write his book and says I will become rich from the sales. There is so much noise. Everyone is shouting at once.

So, PBS came. Victoria and Jason are nothing but charming. I would invite them home for tea or for a movie or just to talk about books. Emma, my husband was dressed and sharp, more eager than I was. Our girls were at their best, especially when Victoria told them to scribble on the walls so that they could capture a normal day at home. I wanted to tell them everything I could about myself, my projects and my parents, how everything changed when I became a mother and that mothers don’t have to stop with their careers and that could even be when their careers began, as it did for me. Nothing significant happened in my career until I had a baby. And when I become a grandmother, I know that more will happen.

As soon as the PBS crew drove in, I was immediately at ease. There was no need to feel guilty about not buying new curtains or furniture for the huge media house. The interview began almost at once.

I breathed.

I started the poetry award because I knew there was so much more to life than being in an office. And when my daughter turned 4 months and I quit my job to be at home with her, I knew that I was going to pursue poets and poetry until I became breathless. I’ve been doing so for six years now. Every year I feel like giving up because fundraising for poetry projects is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do, that and labour pain. Each year though, things happen and more things happen. I’ve met some of the most magnificent friends I could have ever hoped for in a life-time in the past few years. There are people who are celebrated at such wide international scales but whose humility in reaching to me, makes me feel like the most blest person in the Universe. There are some who I always want to boast about, the kind of boasting where I want the world to know that I have visited and inhabited true friendship, the type that is mashed up until the colours blend into one. The type of friendship where it doesn’t need to be publicized because the evidence of its power is evident in the privacy of contentment. Friendships that grow every time they are shared selflessly. Have you made that friend? Whichever way certain friendships may go, I will know that because I did the right thing with my life, I have held one of life’s most potent gifts, friendship.

I thank poetry for that. Thank you, Poetry. Thank you, Poetry for PBS NewsHour and for journalists and development partners and people who sit and trust that I am the woman for the job. Thanks Poetry, for the Ambassadorial role in being the BBC Commonwealth Poet from Uganda.

I have been spending lots of time with positive thinkers who were part of my first writing days, people whose journeys have spread so far that when we sit and talk, it’s not so much about what could have been but more about, Where we are is so much better than we could have ever dreamed!

Interviews like PBS that use the keen eyes of the heart, mind and intellect are good for us to see into ourselves. They helped me see how I actually do care a lot about women and girls and love to travel as often as I can. They helped me see myself through stunning eyes, instead of eyes that are judgemental and bigoted.

I am learning that it’s okay to feel sexy and brave and hot when others are stifling in luke-warmness. Sometimes the best help I can give a flailing friend is not to step back and reach for them but to show them the way by walking at my fullest height.

I look forward to when PBS will air the interview. I look forward more, to how the interview has answered many questions about myself and shown me how to walk the many unused paths of my life.

REGINA ASINDE'S FRAGRANCE WINS HER SECOND PLACE

The BNPA team is profiling past winners of the award since 2009. Here is Regina Asinde, who emerged second in 2010.

Courtesy photo.

1. What is your name, profession and how would you describe yourself?

My name is Regina Asinde. I am a business lady. I describe myself as mature, candid and a firm believer in integrity. Every day I work to improve myself and my skills—that’s part of becoming better at what I do.

2. What year did you receive the award? What was your position and title of your poem? Mention the theme of the award that year.

I received the award in 2010 and was in the second position with the poem “Fragrance”. The theme for the award that year was Money and Culture.

3. What was the writing process of this poem like?

Surprisingly, “Fragrance” was one of my “brilliant idea-put on paper” poems! When I saw the call for submissions, it was just about three days to deadline. I got thinking that I should submit a poem and even if it would not win, there was really no harm in trying and so I went home and flipped through my draft book that lovingly embraced my poems. I was searching for poems I had written whose overlaying theme was money. To my dismay, I had none even remotely hinting at that theme! So I had to go back to pen and paper and draft out something. It was during the great scandal of Temangalo land and Global Funds. As I heard a couple of neighbors discuss the scandal, wondered what could make one do what the key players in that scandal did and it suddenly hit me that it was nothing else but Money and not just the sight of it but the smell of it. And there I had the poem.

4. How did the award money and the other prizes you received, change your outlook towards writing?

They made me realize that one could actually make a living out of writing in Uganda! Earlier on, I had believed that writing as a profession that earned one an income was only possible in the western world and some other few African countries. But with this, my belief changed and I was inspired into thinking about a career in writing. Unfortunately, I’m yet to realize that dream.

5. What do you think of the BNPA, now targeting Africa and including men?

It is okay, though personally I would have loved to keep it Ugandan and strictly for women. There are so many literary awards open to all Africans and everyone which I believe others can submit their poems to. The average Ugandan woman would feel challenged to submit, particularly the upcoming poets who are not yet so confident in their artistic skills. However, when it is Ugandan only and females only, more women would be encouraged to submit.

6. BNPA is starting a Scholarship Fund for female poets in primary schools in Uganda. How do you think this will influence their poetry?

This is great. It would help them develop and grow artistically from an early age and will give them a chance to learn the necessary skills and training that would make them become better poets as they grow. I love this idea.

7. What are you working on now, artistically?

Right now, I’m writing some nonfiction book and also working on some short stories. Of course I still write poems, they are my punching bag.

8. Any final thoughts?

Hmmm----nah!

Her poem can be read on the website http://bnpoetryaward.co.ug, under, Winning Poems 2010.

Thank you Regina

BN Poetry Foundation Sends Heartfelt Wishes and News

Hello BNPA Friend,

As we enter mid-year, I hope it ends with fulfilled dreams and unexpected goodness for you. Lots has been happening in 2014 and as someone who has been dear to us, we would like to let you know that your good wishes, kindness, support and trust, have honed us further.

Introducing the new team:

On April 23rd, there was a strategic meeting for the BN Poetry Foundation with a new team of six.

Mona Nsiime, who is a recent graduate of Economics and in charge of data collection and documentation.

Ivan Okuda, a Student of Law at Makerere University, journalist and writer by talent and the Chief Executive Officer of House of Words Consult as well as Editor in Chief, of First Class Magazine.

Rosey Sembatya, poet and writer and the Founder and Coordinator of Malaika Educare, an Education Consultancy.

Peterson Iglesias, a spoken word artist, scientist, computer whizz and passionate wordsmith.

Andrew Ssebaggala, The Director of House of Talent East Africa, performer, producer and Arts Manager.

Flavia Kabuye Zalwango, a Chemist, artist and third place winner of the 2011 BN Poetry Award for the poem, Beads of Hope.

During the Strategic meeting, we identified new ways of branding, marketing, widening the scope to include the entire continent, making ourselves relevant in schools and tertiary institutions, plans for the BN Poetry award 2014 Ceremony, the launch of the poetry anthology and how to involve our Government.

We intend to b active in more areas of career guidance, offering training services, schools’ outreach, media appearances and promotions using various available companies.

We also want to work closely with Arts Therapy Foundation, run by Beatrice Lamwaka, to coordinate Poetry camps in Gulu.

Coupled to that, there are 3 days left to the close of submissions to the 2014 BN Poetry Award after which Judges Joanne Arnott, a Canadian/Metis award-winning poet, Richard Ali, poet and Publicity Secretary of Association of Nigerian Authors and Kgafela oa Magogodi, poet, musician, producer and author of the Book of Rebelations, will begin their work.

More news: The BN Poetry award winners from 2009, along with a few other notable poets from Uganda will feature in Prairie Schooner magazine, one of the world’s leading literary magazines. This Prairie Schooner 2015 FUSION project is being coordinated in collaboration with Echwalu Soyinka, one of Uganda’s leading photographers.

Later in the year, the BN Poetry Foundation, together with Deyu African, managed by Sophie Alal and National Book Trust of Uganda, will launch the first mobile library in Kampala City. BN Poetry Foundation and several other partners will also open the first Poetry Library in Kampala and as soon as the books arrive, details of this will follow.

Under the BN brand, is the BN Leadership Academy for Women and Girls in Africa, which is built on seven pillars, one of them being Leadership Through Readership. Operations will begin in 2015.

Thank you very much for the financial contributions to our mobile money campaign. Much appreciation. Looking forward to sharing and being a part of more Literary Festivals and events later on in the year like Bayimba, Writivism, Open Mic , Poetry –in-Session and many more.

We will be profiling the winners of BNPA from 2009 to 2013 on the website from next week (5th to 9th May), blog and facebook page, to find out what they are doing, their writing, how their poetry has shaped and to learn much more from them. Many perform regularly in Kampala and Nairobi, run workshops, have been published and have great aspirations.

I,BNN, was also selected as the 2014 Commonwealth Games Poet, representing Uganda, and the poem, Lake Nalubaale, will be broadcast during the Games.

Best Wishes and a special rest of the year. You may follow us on the facebook page, Babishai Niwe.

-- Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva