#WRITINGFORLIBERTY, RECAP AND RE-INVENT, APRIL 2015

Writers at the #writingforliberty Conference, 17 to 18 April 2015, Lancaster University (courtesy photos0

Veronique Tadjo, left. (courtesy photo)

BN Poetry Foundation board member, Graham Mort, shares the birth of the Transcultural Writing center at Lancaster University. It’s still a work in progress and so much can be celebrated from it. Lots of works around the world, schemes that promoted great writers from various regions of Africa, programmes for writers in other parts of the world and publications dated almost two decades ago are all products of the center.
During the two day Writing for Liberty Conference, keynote speaker Véronique Tadjo said that while freedom of expression is ideal and essential, we cannot forget that we still live in a world and our words have effect. Freedom too, changes over time and with different cultures. The more she spoke, the more she unearthed layers of complexities in freedom and democracies across the world. Citizens in certain countries, unlike others, fear for their lives during election period. Freedom, therefore, can never be one set concept.

The Writing for Liberty Conference was a synergy of so many authors, academics, opinions, researched truths, a melting pot of international and creative ideas. There were many highlights and a few of which I attended include Roger Bromley’s Body, Language, Resistance: the Unfinished Song of Bobby Sands. The writings of Irish political prisoner, Bobby Sands, as a physical act of freedom, as a deeper more emotional act and the other prisoners who participated in all forms of protests, finding ways of communicating on toilet paper and the more important impact of these struggles.
Not Stones But Birds: Translating Resistance and Reading Solidarity in the Contemporary Palestinian Poetry Anthology. This paper by Anna Ball identified how literature formed an important part of the Palestinian struggle but more so, how the poetic voice represented voices and ideals beyond Palestine. The anthology of poetry, edited by Henry Bell and Sarah Irving is translated into four languages namely English, Scots, Gaelic and Shetlandic. The conference ended with a performance from this ambitious work of art and recordings from the translations, affirming how music and rhythm are essential to poetry and raising interesting questions on translations.

Meg Vandermerwe highlighted the always important topic of writing for the other in her paper, The Ethics of Imagining the Other in Contemporary South African Writing. It’s contentious to imagine who has the right to write for the other. Her discussion brought up questions of authenticities and ownership of stories, subtleties of superiorities as authors super impose themselves over the other and so on.

It was daunting for me to speak on A Thousand Voices Rising, Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry, a BN poetry publication but very settling to Africas, its borders, safe spaces for expressions within Africa’s many countries and share about poetry’s power.
The Writing for Liberty conference was the start of many discussions, providing platforms for discourse in this ever-changing world and recognizing that liberty, freedom and authorities are changing landscapes.

Written by Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva.

Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva is a Ugandan poet, certified leadership trainer and founder and director of the Babishai Niwe (BN) Poetry Foundation for African poets. She is also the founder and director of the Babishai Niwe Leadership Academy for Women and Girls in Africa. She was Uganda’s 2014 BBC Commonwealth Games Poet for the poem, Lake Nalubaale. In 2013, she was long-listed for the Short Story Day Africa prize and shortlisted for the Poetry Foundation Ghana prize. In 2010, she was first runner-up in the international erbacce-press poetry competition and her poetry chapbook collection, Unjumping, was published by erbacce-press in the same year. In 2012, she received a Distinction in Masters in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. Her works have appeared in Wasafiri, Drumvoices Revue, Kwani? Postcolonial journal, Lawino Magazine, Short Story Day Africa, New Black Magazine and many others and translated into many languages.
She currently lives in Kampala with her husband and children and is working on her first novel, Elgona.

#BABISHAINIWE #WORLDPOETRYDAY EXPERIENCE, WRITTEN BY ROXANNA KAZIBWE

#babishainiwe experience in Kabale, #worldpoetryday
On Sunday 15th March,  Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation team leader Beverley, together with Kidron and I made a trip to Kabale in preparation for the Language day event and World Poetry day celebrations that were to take place at the Kabale University on Monday 16th March.
It was my first ever trip to Kabale and boy was I psyched. I’d been told of its winding steep roads; its cold weather and the abundance of Irish potatoes. I was looking forward to having my own experience of these. Beverley had also told me of a similar University outreach that they had done in Kibaale at African Rural University and the delight of sharing poetry and language with young minds pulled at me.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the spirit of the students at the Kabale University. Our contact was the Dean of the Institute of Languages, Lillian Tindyebwa (a warm, humble lady with great talent who I discovered she is the author of Recipe for Disaster, a book I read as a child). Anyway Lillian introduced us to the students who were already waiting in the tents on the school ground. The students had a profound respect for one another, cheering each other on as they made presentations in different styles and languages; songs in Runyakitara, rapping in Swahili, spoken word in French, poems in English, recitals in Rukonjo and Rukiga. I was so impressed by their confidence in expressing themselves and the way diversity in language was embraced and even welcomed.
During our break away sessions, I had a group of 31 students and we kicked off our session with a get-to-know game called the Cold wind blows. This game involves opening up about yourself and finding others who are like you. There were some articulate, eager to speak individuals (one of the outspoken people in my group was also standing for guild president at the University) and some reserved people who needed cajoling to speak. After we had loosened up we shared about writing and where we get our inspiration. This was just before I asked them to break into groups, come up with a group name and in seven minutes compose a chant, poem or song from what they had observed/experienced that day.
After the performances, I ended our session with an exhortation to them to write and write some more as it is one of the best ways to influence the world and leave a legacy.
For me, it was all a breath of fresh air; the students’ confidence yet absence of airs, the people we met during our tour- Pam, a painter in her fifties who has life and laughter springing out of her she looks thirty, Eric, a rasta in his twenties who has the knowledge of a sixty year old professor and the kindness of one’s kinsman, Mama Francis the quiet lady with a small restaurant that offers a good service, Iga Zinunula, the entrepreneur/poet/farmer who is generous and wise. And lastly but definitely not least, the lake; Lake Bunyonyi, beautiful,calm, serene.
I look forward to more poetry initiatives with the BN Poetry Foundation and I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity.


Written by Roxanna Kazibwe.
Note: World Poetry Day is globally celebrated on 21st March every year and the BN Team will be organizing poetry excursions all over the continent, to celebrate World Poetry Day.

FEW SNAPSHOTS OF WORLD POETRY DAY CELEBRATIONS IN KABALE

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.

Launching Poetricks at Kampala Parents School-20th February 2015

On 20th February, we'll officially launched Poetricks at Kampala Parents School. Poetricks is an adventure toolkit for children who read and write poetry.
It is an adventure guide with puzzles, games, building blocks and more, all in an attempt to introduce poetry to children from the age of four to eleven. The book can very well be used for older children and adults. It is a maze, a way of filling in that empty feeling when we feel defeated by poetry.This is the start of  a continent-wide launch of the toolkit. Other launched will take place in each of the East African countries later in the year.

We have a target to sell thousands of copies annually. Once a child has a hold of it, the rest will ignite with need and passion.

Launching

#LOVEROMANCENEGIBENDERAKO MU KAMPALA -READING AND LOVE 13TH FEBRUARY 2015

#loveromancen’ebigenderakomuKampala

Were you there for the Babishai Niwe Poetry Day Time Series? Well, on 13th February, Valentine’s eve, if we may add, #Loveromancen’ebigendeerakomuKampala happened. Love, Romance and the things that follow in Kampala. The first poetry reading event of its kind, held from 10:30am and 12:30pm at 32° East | Ugandan Arts Trust.
25 of us settled down to a good session on poetry, based on exactly that, Love doveyness of romance in Kampala. It was difficult to know how the session would run. There were copies of poetry books on sale, A Nation in Labour and A Thousand Voices Rising, delicious chocolate and vanilla Wordy Cakes, roses to pick from and a sweet-smelling aroma of love. Paul Kisakye, owner of Wordy Cakes, rendered us helpless with his poem, Missing You,
Missing You
missing you
like a terminal disease
that one endures
but can't get used to

 first published here: http://paulkisakye.blogspot.com/2012/05/missing-you.html
Roshan Karmali, moderator and host of Poetry in session revealed her forthcoming collection, one we’re all looking forward to, a collection which unfolds in two parts, Angels and Demons. Rosh poetically submitted  us into another spiritual experience. For her, the entire reading was such a refreshing experience that she felt she was with long-lost friends at a brunch. How’s that for poetry.
Farida Bagallaliwo read one of Derek Walcott’s famous love poems. Her own interpretation, well portrayed through the melody in the recital brought us into an even deeper surrounding of #loveromancen’bigenderako. As an activist, Farida was particularly pleased that the event began and ended on time, as advertised.
The reading, supported by Poetry in Session, Femrite and 32° East | Ugandan Arts Trust was warming up at this point and there were still quite a number of poets to go. Joel Nevender, blogger and poet, read a parody, of 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter in the Holy Bible. His rendition was entitled, 1 Valentine’s 13. This also highlights unrealistic views of love and romance on Valentine’s. This changed the narrative with symbols of the absurdities of Kampala City, most of which we laud, amongst them, the recent sex-tape scandals. His two other poems were, The Ones that Don’t get caught and Daisy. The Ones That Don't Get Caught talks about the hypocrisy of society as regards sexual immorality.
Daisy talks about a dream girl that will always be a dream, never a reality.

Caesar Obong, a poet from Northern Uganda, led the readers into a mystical and narrative view of lust and erotica, including the landscapes of love and society amongst various social groups. Roxanna Aliba, a love poet, read from her forthcoming collection which will be released mid this year. Hers is one we should definitely aspire towards.
Half-way the reading we held a mini-launch of Harriet Anena’s A Nation of Labour, a selection of poetry about the irrationality of governance in Kampala, as well as unimaginable pictures of sex at an entirely new scale. Her concise messages remain imprinted and it was a pleasure to have her. Harriet’s book inspired another member to write her own collection. Her poems, Hemline cop, V-Day and We are on heat. Hemline cop is an excellent version of the hypocrisy of the state of governance in Uganda. Further, in Anena’s words:
“The event was a great start in the right poetic direction and I look forward to seeing similar events organized for not just Valentine’s Day but other key days on the Calendar.”
Christine Ssempebwa is a poet whose truths and convictions lie in the verse. Quite new to the poetry scene, she proved herself wrong by calling herself a non-poet. The rhythm and message were everything poetic.
Edith Nakku, a writer and member of the weekly readers-writers club, said of the event said she enjoyed the event and this is what she said,
“I was able to meet people of like and different mind and be inspired by their words, to hear truth spoken in new beautiful ways. Amazing. The time of the meeting was great. No hurry, no hassle.”
Roshan Karmali said,
“It was an insight into loving and living in Kampala from the sex tape to the heartbreak and everything inbetween and a reflection of Love from multiple angles.”
What is love and romance without music? Bosco, a regular at Poetry in session, got out his guitar and sang an all time favourite, How does it feel to be the one that I love? It’s a soft and deep masterpiece, whose lyrics tug at a listener’s heart-strings.
Susanne Aniku, jazz musician and singer brought down the house with two songs. One was written by famous composer George Gershwin in the late 1920s, entitled The Man I Love. It is about a woman longing and dreaming about the man she loves. The second, Susanne’s own song, called Thank you, is a song of gratitude to someone that rescued her when she was down. Both songs will appear in her forthcoming jazz album. Her own poem, Your eyes also reflects her own ability to be soul deep and unapologetically in touch with her emotions.
Heritage Ddamba, a spoken word performer, emotionally took us on a roller-coaster of  a love target in a man’s life. Beverley Nambozo, BN Poetry Foundation founder,  ended the day with her poem, Dear Doctor. A poem about the unsafe spaces of love in Pentecostal churches, of a strong Christian woman, affected by HIV by her god-fearing husband, and having to show gratitude for all he’s done for her.
Many thanks to Moses Serugo for Youtube videos, Dilman Dila for photographs, Fred Batale for the organization, Lamaro Jennifer for the administrative work and to the many that came. And for the twenty or so who thought it was a night-time event, we’ll see what we can do about that next time. Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation is committed to more poetry and more of you.
#BNP2015
#LOVEROMANCEN’EBIGENDERKOMUKAMPALA
Below are a few videos from the event, done by Moses Serugo and in case you missed it, Dr. Okaka Dokotum highlighted Ugandan women in the arts, raising the writing flag high.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAlyseIIHdM 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0J5IxNf4Cs&spfreload=10 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK4muZsRMFU 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fcjpk8UlIw 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aQoo3rnNM0&feature=youtu.be  

Note: BN Poetry Award submissions last year reached 1,500. If you want to participate, submit your poem. Follow the guidelines on our website www.bnpoetryaward.co.ug

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