These poets mean business: From us to you

Be Prepared To Be Misunderstood! Poets See The World Through The Lens Of Perception And Expression. Poetry Is Your Personal Journey Through Life. Find Your Voice And Rejoice.
Ife Piankhi, The Poet who Sings

Write a poem a day, or even just a line or a stanza. It makes writing poetry get easier and better with every new line. Write about what you feel, see, hear or imagine. Forget the poem you read for a minute and create your own words, your own world ~ and you'll achieve an originality that'll surprise you.
Harriet  Anena, author of A Nation in Labour

 Read widely around your art. Then write with out internal criticism. Then be open to feedback from writers of merit. 
Nick Makoha, Winner of 2015 Brunel University African Poetry Prize

A poem is a musical form - it's meant to move the air as well as sit on a page. Poems are not just about self-expression - your feelings have to become feelings for your readers for them to care.
Graham Mort, Center of Transcultural Writing, Lancaster

First, write, write and write some more. Then be a cruel editor: the scissors are as important as the pen, but you have to have something to cut first. When you're not writing or editing, read. Read what others have done, read eclectically. And don't forget to have a life! Live it to the full! You only get one! Don't waste it!

Reuben Woolley, Author and Creator of I am Not a Silent Poet

Treat all words with suspicion, use as few of them as you can. For those few, test them hard so they yield essence only. Else, write for beauty's sake.
Richard Ali, author of City of Memories, BN Poetry Board member

I write/read best/more when all of my senses are triggered and i am able to see, hear, smell, feel, touch beautiful things all at the same time...:-)

Sahro Ahmed Koshin, Founder Puntland Women Writers Association

 'Read what kind of books you want to write. Read, read, read. You can't know what's working and what's not except from intensive reading.'
Okwudili Nebeolisa, Poet

Give yourself a formal challenge when writing - organising lines, stanzas and overall poetic forms can help to keep your work tight and powerful,
Graham Mort, Center of Transcultural Writing, Lancaster

If a poem decides to dance, dance with it. If a poem decides to fly, then grab your wings, baby. When you’re done, re-write the poem beginning with the most exhilarating moments to the least and then chop out all the forgettable ones.
Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva, Writer


Poems work because of what is implied as well as what is directly said - give your poems depth and silence. Beware of explaining things in a poem - your reader is intelligent and aware so don't lead them by the hand.
Graham Mort, Center of Transcultural Writing, Lancaster

The process of creating could be painful sometimes. You have to write, erase sometimes, re-write, wait, erase everything, start again, and other times, leave. It's important to understand the place your words come from, to have an inner voice of reason and direction, to have connection with the place inside you that feels even the smallest emotion, so as to write boldly and naturally. You have to be yourself to write anything believable.

Eric Otieno Onyango, Kenyan Poet and Mara Mentor

Never rush your writing; if you do, you’ll struggle to make sense of it half the time, and your readers, whom you’ve been hoping would find delight in your creation, will certainly be denied that very delight. A poem doesn’t have to feel, or sound, complete once you’ve written it down or tuned it a bit a few times. A poem at first glance, I think, just wants to be left alone for a while. Don’t fret, but only give it some space and distance just long enough for it to simmer down and take a shape you never knew could be worth your while. –
Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, poet, short story writer and children’s novelist

Extraordinary poets dare to express what is perceived as inexpressible; they walk into the unknown and bring out words that seem ordinary yet unearthly to the world. Oh! Poets should always take their poems to the barber shop for a nice haircut.
Saddiq Dzukogi, Poet


To say so much in statements so short To sound so subtle in sentiments so strong To strike such rhythm in stanzas so lyrical To summon such imagery in scenarios so vivid Is to string words together into what they call poetry.
 Tom Jalio, BNPA 2014 winner (@tjalio)

"As the saying goes- "Habit trumps desire". If you are a writer, you have to be writing. Write everyday. Set targets and meet them. Keep reading, keep learning, keep growing. 

Do not try to be a person you are not. Great writing is genuine and true. Remember to have the time of your life while at it :-) "

Roxanna Aliba Kazibwe, author of  My Love is Not Afraid

A poem is equal to the speed of light and love. And so a poet should live with the speed of light and love. Put simply, as is lovemaking so is poetry. Feel everything within and outside the margins of your blue-paper-bed and your heart. Poetry is a gift just as the heart is; hence, poets give their hearts to other hearts. This is what lovemaking is, as I see and feel it.
David Ishaya Osu

Figurative language can be much more rewarding than straightforward description - metaphors and other allusive forms of language can create delight and deep engagement. Always be careful how you sign off at the end of a poem - don't tag on the 'message' of your poem - let the reader work it out.
Graham Mort, Center of Transcultural Writing, Lancaster


Read, read, and read, I can't emphasize that enough: there's no such thing as enough reading for a writer. It's the only way you will broaden your knowledge, imagination, creativity, and it goes a long way in helping you find your voice as a poet. 2. Write about small things, big things, important things, seemingly unimportant things, write about anything, in a fresh way, a way you would want a poem you were reading to sound. 3. Edit, rewrite, edit, rewrite; sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard. Just keep at it.
Lillian Aujo, BN Poetry winner, 2009, Jalada winner, 2015


Never forget the reader and try to put yourself in their position. Writing is re-writing - a poem should go through many drafts to reach final form. Read your poems aloud to test their rhythms, language and form. A poem on the page is a visual object and should appeal to a reader through its shape and form. Every word in a poem should earn its keep. Take risks - write the poem you didn't know you could write instead of the one you did. Read poetry - as much as possible from every era.
Graham Mort, Center of Transcultural Writing, Lancaster

#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