BABISHAI2017 POETRY FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

                                                            THE BABISHAI 2017 POETRY FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Monday 31 July 2017  
5:30pm to 7:30pm
Femrite offices, Kamwokya
Discussion of the Babishai 2017 shortlisted haikus, led by Isaac Tibasiima, literary critic and scholar from Makerere University.
Open entry

Wednesday 2 August 2017
8:00pm – 8:45pm Uganda Time
Facebook live chat with Phillipa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa
From her face book page.


Friday 4 August 2017
Poetry@Mabira
Departure from 7:30am in Kampala for Najjembe Eastern Uganda
Trek across Mabira, lunch, poetry performances.
Fee: Two Hundred Thousand Shillings (200,000/-)
Payabale by Monday 31 July to George Kiwanuka on +256 703147862


Saturday 5 August 2017
10:00am to 11:00am
Re-Launch of the African Poetry Library
32 Degrees East/Ugandan Art Trust in Kansanga, opposite Bank of Baroda


Saturday 5 August 11:30am to 1:30pm
Poetry seminar for youth from 19-29 years,  by Mbizo Chirasha of Zimbabwe
Free entry
Register for workshops by sending 100 word bio and photo to babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com
Participants will be certified.

Saturday 5 August 2:00pm to 6:00pm
Poetry performance by leading Ghanaian poet from Ghana, Oswald Okaitei
Maisha Garden in Buziga. He will be joined by Rap Poet, Rashida Namulondo, Kitaka Alex, Caesar Obong and Wake the Poet.
Entry fee: 20,000/-




 
Sunday 6 August 2017  11:00am to 3:00pm
Launch of children’s poetry anthology
Children’s performances
Babishai champions
Uganda Museum Main Hall
Free entry

Sunday 6 August 11:30am to 1:30pm
Workshop on the craft of the spoken word, by Oswald Okaitei, The 2016 Spoken word artiste of the year, in Ghana.
Register for workshops by sending 100 word bio and photo to babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com
Participants will be certified.


Sunday 6 August 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Workshop by Kagayi Peter, leading poet, performer and trainer from Uganda
Uganda Museum
Register for workshops by sending 100 word bio and photo to babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com
Participants will be certified.

Sunday 6 August 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Babishai 2017 poetry festival sumptuous meal with sumptuous poetry
Humura Resort Kitante Close
Dinner cards at 40,000/-
Call George Kiwanuka on +256 703147862 for your card.

JOIN US FOR POETRY AT MABIRA ON FRIDAY 4 AUGUST 2017

Haven't you desired to recapture the wonder of Eden?
Have you ever looked above 74,000 hectares of green perfection?

We all need time away from the insanity of our daily work lives, to free ourselves by replenishing our spirits with nature.

Mabira Forest is all that. Home to Uganda's largest forest, Mabira is an experience for the curious, adventurous and unafraid. On Friday 4 August, The Babishai Poetry Festival team launches their third festival with a trek across Mabira Forest.Poetry and nature are the perfect remedy after a long week at work. We will explore new terrains, roots and trees of thousands of years in age, be part of a chorus of birds that will not be found anywhere else and relive perfection.

The team will depart at 7:30am on Friday 4 August for Najjembe, Mabira. During the journey, we will begin shooting a documentary. There are those arriving from Eastern Uganda and Nairobi, whose arrangements will be detailed to them. Email babishainiwe@babishainiwe for specific information.

On arrival, an expert tour guide will meet us, take us on this dauntless trek, where we will stop for poetry breaks and refreshments. The documentary will continue.

After the trip, there will be a large buffet spread, during which the poetry performances will begin.

We will return to Kampala not later than 6:00pm.

We all need this!
The minimal investment is Two Hundred Thousand (200,000/-), payable by Monday 31 July 2017 to George Kiwanuka.
Call him on +256 703 147862.

Poetry@Mabira is your chance to explore, become enraptured and empower yourself again.



The Babishai Poetry Festival covers three days from 4-6 August.
Follow us on Twitter @BNPoetryAward

REGISTER FOR OUR THREE BABISHAI 2017 POETRY FESTIVAL WORKSHOPS

We have three #Babishai2017 poetry festival workshops, that require registration by 31 July 2017. You will receive certificates afterwards.

Date: Saturday 5 August 2017
Time: 11:30am to 1:30pm
Trainer: Mbizo Chirasha, leading poet from Zimbabwe, conducting a poetry seminar for 19-29 year-olds. Entry is free
Venue: 32 Degrees East/Kansanga, opposite Bank of Baroda

Date: Sunday 6 August
Time: 11:30am to 1:30pm
Trainer: Mbizo Chirasha, leading poet from Zimbabwe, conducting a poetry seminar for 30 years and above
Venue: The Uganda Museum
Fee: 5,000/-


Date: Sunday 6 August
Time: 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Trainer: Kagayi Peter, Ugandan performer, published poet and trainer, conducting a poetry workshop for 16+
Venue: The Uganda Museum
Fee: Free entry



Register by sending a 100 word bio and photo to babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com by 31 July. You may attend more than one workshop.

INTERVIEW WITH MUGABI BYENKYA; PRE-FESTIVAL

The #Babishai2017 poetry festival team is conducting a series of intervies of interviews towards the festival, scheduled from 4-6 August in Uganda. During that time, we will conduct several interviews with poets and writers. This interview was first published in Brittle paper.

Mugabi Byenkya, author of Dear Philomena. 

Interviewer

What were some of the pivotal moments that shaped your path to the arts?

Mugabi Byenkya

The year was 1994. I vividly remember running up to my siblings after lunch, super excited to play. To my dismay, my siblings were all curled up on chairs in the sitting room reading. Reading. I was like "Lets play!" And my siblings replied, "No we're reading." Reading. What the heck was this reading thing that it could more fun than playing with me? I thought I was the greatest thing since sliced bread and couldn't fathom anything being preferable to playing with me. So I went to my mom and asked her to teach me how to read.

Several months later, after slogging through numerous intense reading lessons, I discovered the one thing that was indeed superior to playing with me. Reading. After months of more intense lessons, I discovered the one thing that was superior to reading. Writing.

Interviewer

Is Dear Philomena an extraction of your biography?

Mugabi Byenkya

Dear Philomena is not an extraction of my biography in the literal sense. It is the story of one year of my life but it is not told conventionally. The novel employs magical realism to tell the story and therefore cannot be fully interpreted as a direct extraction of my biography.

Interviewer

What were some of your most rewarding moments when writing the book?

Mugabi Byenkya

Catharsis. The book was incredibly difficult to write as I share some of my most vulnerable moments and deepest fears. I had just been through one of the worst years of my life when I started writing the book. The writing process was a way to process all the pain I had experienced and putting all that pain to paper was an incredibly catharthic experience.

Interviewer

What were some of your most challenging moments when writing the book?

Mugabi Byenkya

While initially writing Dear Philomena, I could barely write for fifteen minutes every other day. Fifteen minutes of writing on alternate days would induce violent seizures and migraines. I often wondered if it was worth it. Now that I've built up my strength and endurance, now that I could write a whole book, now that I could share my vulnerability and story with the world, I honestly still don't think it was worth all it put me through. However, at least I got something of substance and meaning out of it that has impacted so many people and causing the start of so many important conversations on vulnerability. 

Interviewer

What are your thoughts on art for social change?

Mugabi Byenkya

I believe that art is part of a multifaceted approach for social change. I can’t speak to the relative importance of art versus other mediums for social change such as politics, economics, science and the inherent/intertwined art within these mediums. Art has always been political and a medium for social change; nonetheless, not all art is overtly political. Not all art should be analyzed through the lens of social change.  

Interviewer

What are some of the most encouraging comments on your book?

Mugabi Byenkya

Some people who have read my book have cried several times while reading it. The fact that my writing elicited such a visceral reaction touched me more than they know.

Interviewer

What have most readers misunderstood about your work?

Mugabi Byenkya

Most readers haven’t necessarily misunderstood but have had varying interpretations of the character of Philomena. This is what I had hoped for, as I deliberately left her to be ambiguous.

Interviewer

What are three things your book mostly wants to portray?

Mugabi Byenkya

That Vulnerability is strength. That some things can never be surmounted. That it’s okay not to be okay.

Interviewer

Is writing and completing a well-received book, everything you dreamed it would be?

Mugabi Byenkya

I’ve been dreaming of writing and completing a well-received book for 21 years. Even writing down the fact that it was well-received feels strange because a part of me is still in a state of disbelief. The other part of me has ingrained Baganda modesty inherited from my mother and is cringing over the admission that my book has been well-received. It honestly still feels surreal and hasn’t fully sunk in. I don’t know if it ever fully will but I do know that it is an even more sensational feeling than I dreamed it would be.

Interviewer

Who are some of the writers whose works you admire?

Mugabi Byenkya

Isabel Allende; Louis Sachar; Brian Michael Bendis; Chris Claremont; Stan Lee; G. Willow Wilson; John Keats; Doreen Baingana; Oscar Wilde; Neil Simon; Bell Hooks; Nasir Jones; Fatimah Warner and Victor Byenkya.

Interviewer 

At what age should creative writing be introduced in a child?

Mugabi Byenkya

As early as humanly possible .

Interviewer

How can Ugandan writers become more relevant to the global market?

Mugabi Byenkya

Eish. That’s a tough question. I’m honestly not sure of how Ugandan writers can become more relevant to the global market, save by telling a good story in an original way and not being afraid to experiment. I feel like writers who carry any sort of "ethnic" label are burdened by the struggles and stories of their people and feel a need to represent on behalf of their people that a lot of Western white writers don’t feel. Don’t be afraid to experiment with things labeled "stereotypically un-African" like science fiction. Tell a good story, tell it well, market it well, promote it well and sell it well.

Interviewer

Should we blame our Government for the limited literary infrastructures in our country?

Mugabi Byenkya

I’m not the best person to answer this question as I have spent the majority of my life not living in Uganda.

Interviewer

If you had unlimited resources for a day, how would you use it?

Mugabi Byenkya

Pay off the education and medical debts my family has accrued as well as the debts of everyone I possibly could. This may lead to economic issues down the line but the burden of debt is crushing and the ability to provide some relief to that would be amazing.

Interviewer

If your book were a drink, what would it be?

Mugabi Byenkya

A shot of whiskey neat mixed with Tabasco sauce.

Interviewer

Any parting remarks?

Mugabi Byenkya

“Be who you want to be, not who you are.” Many thanks.

PRESS RELEASE -THE POTENCY OF POETRY; BABISHAI POETRY FESTIVAL ,4-6 AUGUST

5 JUNE 2017

PRESS RELEASE -THE POTENCY OF POETRY

The Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation is holding the third Babishai Poetry Festival in Uganda. It's a three-day poetry buffet from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th August in Uganda. Poets, poetry publishers, poetry performers, poetry teachers and poetry admirers, will converge in various locations across Uganda to conduct workshops and transform young minds.

In their signature style, the #Babishaipoetrynatureseries launches phase two. The team, with adventurous artists across the region, will trek across Mabira Forest on Friday 4^th August. After the success of the 2016 Poetry on Rwenzori Mountain excursion, this year there will be another trek across the green enchantment of Mabira forest.

Poets from all over the region are encouraged to participate and cultivate the practice of orature in organic spaces.

On Saturday 5 August, Tontoma Poetry Jazz will orchestrate traditional poetry performances and at the same venue,32° East/Ugandan Arts Trust, there will be a relaunch of the African Poetry Book Fund Library. Published poets are invited to read from their work and donate their books towards the enrichment of reading poetry. Maisha Moto will host spoken word performers and storytellers across the older generation to a much younger one later on that day from 2:00pm.

There will be a full children's day at the Uganda Museum on the final day, Sunday 6 August, master-classes to groom older poets and finally to close the festival, an award-giving dinner within the city at Humura Resort. Dinner cards are on sale at 40,000/-.

If you're a published poet, distributor of poetry, or bookseller of poetry, come and exhibit and market your work. Uganda needs you.

For more information on the festival, dinner cards or book exhibition, please contact

The Festival Coordinator

George Kiwanuka

Tel:+256 703147862

Email: babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com

Website: www.babishainiwe.com

Twitter: @BNPoetryAward

What the 'hell' is Christian writing?

What the 'hell' is Christian writing?

Every artistic work deserves a home; not to be discarded like an orphan. Where though, do we place Christian writing? If it's written by a Ugandan, does it fall under 'Self help books by Africans ?' Or rather, in order to be politically correct, do we place it under religious creative non-fiction, just next to the bibles?'

During the #Babishai2016 poetry festival, we held a session on Christian writing, with Paul Kisakye, author of Prodigal Love and Roxanna Aliba Kazibwe, author of My Love is Not Afraid.

What comes to mind when we speak of Christian writing? Paul Kisakye says that Joyce Meyer and Creflo Dollar's inspirational material are popular. Furthermore, Christian literature illuminates Christian values and beliefs. It's a type of writing that voices Christianity.

Paul Kisakye's book, Prodigal Love, is sold mainly to the Christian market and for him, he would never produce art for art's sake.

Courtesy photo

Roxanna Kazibwe's poetry collection, My Love is Not Afraid, evokes a feeling of restoration and hope and through that, she's certain to have received the purpose of being a Christian writer. 

A Christian book emits certain values. Another great example, Roxanna says, is Chronicles of Narnia. 

Roxanna at the 2015 Storymoja Festival 

The Chronicles of Narnia,  fantasy book, heightens the Christian experience by engaging values like forgiveness, loyalty, prayer and faith. 

The Da Vinci Code, on the other hand, tackles the church and religion but because it's not a portrayal of Christian values, is not categorised as such.

During the conversation, audience members suggested that Christian writing is just a label used in order to gain an edge over other literary markets.

The #Babishai2017 poetry festival is scheduled for 4-6 August, beginning with a trek across Mabira Forest; Poetry@Mabira.

Follow us on Twitter @BNPoetryAward.

MARIA KAKINDA BIRUNGI; INTROVERT AND EXPLORER OF LITERATURE

MARIA KAKINDA BIRUNG  is an unabashed lover of literature. Her poem, 'I am not sorry anymore,' was amongst the Top five in the #Babishai2016 poetry competition. Here, we explore more about her literary life.

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If you had a choice of only one sentence in the world to describe yourself, what would it be?

A selectively curious girl who revels in introversion and sporadically explores literature.

What are some of your sources of inspiration?

Experiences, not necessarily my own but other peoples’. University has so far been a pool of encounters. My interaction with more people has been helpful especially since people have varying versions of what they consider to be reality. Sometimes the versions are not dramatically contrasting but are often revealing.

When it’s difficult for me to write, I try to read books especially fiction. I have a habit of re-reading parts of books that strike me the most. I do that a lot with ‘The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah’ and ‘Tar Baby’ by Toni Morrison.

In your #Babishai2016 shortlisted poem entitled, ‘I am not sorry anymore’, you express, through the persona, an unveiled discontent at the hypocritical and changing worldviews towards women. Why was this poem important to you?

There’s a certain pressure that comes with youth. For women, it is to look and act in a certain way. Apparently there is a norm to which we must submit and even then our response should be measured.

But I think deep down each of us is struggling with some existential reality to which its ultimate fulfilment eludes us. And I always think about how amazing it is that sometimes you look across the street and see a lady or gentleman, very well put together. Even I, am a culprit. I am not saying that there is no need to apply reason for sanity’s sake but we should recognise that within each of us there is a storm. My professor calls it dialectics; that even when one is still, the respiratory and circulatory system are in motion. Perhaps Nikitta Gill’s quote can best summarise what I am trying to say; ‘Whilst somewhere the water is calm, in another place in the very same ocean, there is a colossal storm.’

Is it important for poets to always have an angle, as they write?

I think it is mostly important when we embark on a deliberate journey to address a specific issue, when we are aspiring to be agents of change. But there are times when poets are writing to discover themselves, to find answers within themselves to questions which they have constructed. And even then, the questions are never definite.

What are some of your favourite poems?

In no particular order;

Five Stations for Various-Richard Ali

Take over-Melissa Kiguwa.

The Kingdom of Gravity-Nick Makoha.

Quarantine with Abdelhalim Hafez-SafiaElhillo.

The poems in ‘Salt’- NayyirahWaheed.

What do you think a poet should do, when readers respond violently to their work?

I think that a poet in writing not only aims to express him/herself but also to illicit some sort of emotion from the reader. The poet’s control is and should only be confined to what is written and how it is moulded. The greater adversity would therefore be no response than any response at all. A non-response may presuppose that one’s work is detached/pretentious, you name it. A violent response on the other hand may reflect truths and what is a greater aspiration than truths’ revelation?

As poets, how can we separate our work from our personal lives?

I think our personal lives inform our poetry and as a result our poetry is more honest. But if we must separate our work from our personal lives, we could immerse ourselves entirely in the events of our lives. What I mean is that we would have to be ‘entirely where we are’, making a deliberate choice to fully experience something. If we must say words or do actions or respond to certain things at those precise moments, then we should. Because poetry is very reflective and sometimes when we write, it is in response to what I would like to call a ‘subsequent reaction’. We are going back in time and saying, “This happened and I did this but I would have liked to do that.”  Or “I felt like this but I should have felt like that.”

This would then be accompanied by editing the poetry and extracting those things that we think we’d not like the whole world to know.

Our third Babishai poetry festival runs from 4-6 August, starting with a poetry trek across Mabira Forest, Poetry@Mabira. Will you join us?

It would be lovely to join you and I hope to be there.

How best can poetry be celebrated for those who find it elitist?

I think that people who find poetry elitist should first recognise that writers are human and not superhuman. Sometimes the expectations of the public on the writers is superficial. That because one is a writer (poet), one should always be reasonable and very, very dignified. Yet poets struggle with the same things as you. From personal crises to ‘simple’ things like vocabulary. But I think that perhaps it is a cycle. That sometimes the writers also sub-consciously emulate these expectations. So personal, ‘face to face’ interaction with the poets would be ideal.

In Uganda, one cannot fail to recognise that there has been a re-emerging focus on poetry in our indigenous languages, almost like a shift back to those days of folk-lore and storytelling. This has helped poetry become more relatable and encourages a wider group of people to come up with their own creative ways of poetry.

Any parting remarks?

I would like to thank the team of Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation for giving an opportunity to African emerging poets to interact and learn from each other.

Thank you Maria

I AM NOT SORRY ANYMORE.

 I am not sorry anymore, world.

The internet you shoved down my throat

And the grotesque knowledge you dropped

Onto my stunting spine taught me that

To be a woman, my forte would be,

Not a sharp mind but a sharp tongue.

That I had to spit-

Lewd and rude from pretty lips with lipstick mounted on them.

It is you,

You who taught me that-

Woman was acronym for; War Over Males ANew!

That we had adopted new tactics against men.

The strength of womanhood placed on a weighing scale,

Would be measured by the kilogrammes of

How many pillows I had lain on

And how many men’s mattresses had dipped with the weight of my body.

That the coveted for trophy would be presented to me,

With the measure of how many drops of tears my cup of vanity had collected,

And how many hearts my overgrown fingernails had scoured.

Isn’t it you who taught me-

To scrub the melanin off my skin?

For the fire in me would be revealed

Through the beauty of my newly acquired light skin.

Isn’t it you who whispered

That my femininity was evidenced by

The number of Instagram followers

Who unlike the disciples to Jesus, would hang onto the gospel…

Of the edges and curves of my body

And the wit of a sexually induced mind?

How dare you change your mind then?

And tell me that the price of femininity had changed…

That I had to grow the branches of a discerning mind and heart…

That ladies like Maya Angelou and Malala Yousafzai…

Had taken the mantra from the hands of women

Whose nudity and sexuality was weightlessly carried through

The air for all to see….

How dare you turn your back on me

Seeking to un-teach all the things;

That you had buttressed into my being?   

Kakinda Maria Birungi

Uganda

CALL FOR BABISHAI HAIKU 2017 SUBMISSIONS