Poet takes her work to the people

Rising author and poet Vongai “Larrey” Masuka on Saturday hosts the second edition of Chitungwiza Poetry Convergence in St Marys, to promote social interaction through art.

Masuka said that the event will be held under the theme Promoting Social Interactions connects artists and the society at large.

“As an artist, who draws inspiration from society’s observation, I developed an understanding that society needs to be taught certain issues through art. This is what motivated me to come up with Chitungwiza Poetry Convergence,” she said.

“Chitungwiza Poetry Convergence brings together artists to share ideas and teach society certain issues through our artistic talents using words, voices and our bodies through dance.”

Masuka said she would be hosting similar events in the coming months.

“The success of the first edition held in February encouraged us to host the second edition of the Chitungwiza Poetry Convergence. We are trying to recognise talent not only focusing on poetry, but also on drama and music,” she said.

Masuka’s poems mainly focus on societal issues which affect women and teenagers.

“Through my poems I try to bring out how men neglect women soon after a child is born and also how religion has affected children as some teenagers are forced into early marriages because of religious practices,” she said.

With about seven years of writing experience, Masuka has been rewarded for her exploits by Impact7 Trust as Best Female Poet for the past seven years. She has also partnered other poets in an anthology titled Loud Thoughts launched in 2019.

Afro Poetry Times 

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Afro Poetry Times comes alive in April as poetry becomes the emblem for living

At times words aren't just words, they are a lifeline. They pamper the soul with hope, love, determination and comfort. 

That is exactly what makes poetry the emblem for living. Poetry is a lifestyle. 

The Afro Poetry Times has withstood the test of time, all for the love of poetry and the literary arts. 

Poetry exudes so much passion and with that in mind, the Afro Poetry Times April 2022 edition is the light at the end of the tunnel. 

This edition features:

* A Botswana poet whose taking center stage

* How a writer is tackling serious issues through warmth and humour 

* Heart touching short story 

* Some unpublished poems 

And lots more

Get your copy from the leading digital press distributor PressReader and allow poetry and the literary arts to soak up your thoughts. 

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/afro-poetry-times/20220401/

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Zimbabwean poet shines in Europe, urges aspiring poets not to give up

Poland based Zimbabwean poet and chief executive of Ubuntu Afro-Publishers, Methulisi “KingKG/KhuluGatsheni” Ndlovu says he felt honoured to be selected to represent the nation at the European Unionorganised youth forum held in Estonia recently.

Being the only African who attended the event, Ndlovu was rated among the best after reciting a poem titled Ubuntu The Raw Truth Unraveled off his third anthology of the same title.

“I was happy to be the only African to represent my country and the host nation, Poland, under the EU’s Erasmus Youth Programme that featured 20 countries,” he said.

Born in rural Plumtree, KingKG/KhuluGatsheni said he decided to use pen and paper to confront problems he faced growing up.

“The book Ubuntu The Raw Truth Unravelled is a 51-page long poem. This is my third book published by African Sketches Publishers in 2019 and it reflects on my humble upbringing,” he said.

“The poem is a daring piece of art that keeps haunting many dark forces. The first of its kind and longest epic poem in the history of local publications.”

The uniqueness of the poem has not gone unnoticed as it has earned KingKG/KhuluGatsheni an honorary literary award courtesy of the Global African Authors. It has also been cited as the longest poetic assertion of ubuntu in the history of southern African publishing records.

“The poem unravels important issues that are usually left unsaid by many. It touches on leadership, religion, education and spirituality,” he said.

KingKG/KhuluGatsheni added: “I write about hardcore issues, especially the socio-political and economic that are considered sacred. I believe in speaking truth to power.”

“The emancipation of humankind is a divine cause which we ought to embrace. I, therefore, find it spiritually uplifting and fulfilling to touch lives using pen and paper.”

KingKG/KhuluGatsheni encouraged aspiring writers to apply their capabilities to the arts.

“Aspiring authors or poets must tell their stories the way they feel they should be told; they should forget rules and unchain their creative madness.”

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Nyikadzino releases latest anthology - Fading Rainbows

Female poet Tanyaradzwa Tiffany Nyikadzino has said her latest anthology Fading Rainbows was motivated by what people experienced during the COVID-19-induced lockdowns.

Nyikadzino said the anthology, which carries 30 poems, looked at how people live and interact in society because of changes that came about as a result of the pandemic.

“I was inspired to write because we were all going through so much change during the COVID-19 lockdowns. These changes led to genderbased violence, abuse in the form of rape, broken relationships and depression,” she said.

“People also lost their jobs and had to find alternative ways to feed their families. It is through all these that I just found myself penning these emotions down into an anthology.”

She added: “The poems in the book centre on how we get depressed and the things that affect our happiness such as grief and broken relationships, among others.

“The continued lockdowns also affected the mental health of some individuals due to depression, bipolar, anxiety and loss of loved ones.” Nyikadzino said the anthology’s last chapter, called Love, centres on reclaiming the happiness for hope of a better future.

“At the end, I was reminded that one has to just accept and appreciate themselves as they are and that is how the book ends with a poem of realisation,” she said. Nyikadzino said although the journey had been bumpy, she defied odds and soldiered on.

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A call for submissions to Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry

Since its inception in 2017, the 20.35 Africa collective has annually published an electronic Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry. 

This anthology has sought, over the years, to reshape the existing view of what African poetry entails; to usher a rethink of the ways African poetry, like poetry from other regions of the world, uses language to portray the experiences and thoughts of the poets — a creative outline of how they view and interact with their internal self, their immediate environment and the world at large. 

The anthology series seeks to canonise African poetry, a project Phillipa Yaa de Villiers describes as “serious, strident, playful — a promising, powerful clutch from the next generation of greats”.

In its mission to be a resource institution for African poetry 20.35 Africa established two projects: the “Conversations” series and the “New Poets” series which assists further in giving visibility to living African poets and infusing new understanding into existing interpretations of African poetry.

Over the years, the anthology series has featured works both from poets living in the continent and in the diaspora, prominent and emerging voices in the scene, including Saddiq Dzukogi, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, JK Anowe, Megan Ross, Dalia Elhassan, Clifton Gachagua, Hiwot Adilow, Akosua Zimba-Afiriyie Hwedie, Nour Kamel, Rabha Ashry and Ernest Ogunyemi.

The fifth volume will be guest-edited by Sara Elkamel and Chibuihe Obi alongside the collective’s editors Ebenezer Agu, I.S. Jones, and Precious Okpechi.

Sara Elkamel is a poet and journalist living between Cairo and New York City. She holds an MA in arts journalism from Columbia University and an MFA in poetry from New York University. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Yale Review, MQR, Four Way Review, The Cincinnati Review, The Adroit Journal, Poet Lore, Poetry London, Best New Poets 2020, Best of the Net 2020, among others. She is the author of the chapbook Field of No Justice (African Poetry Book Fund & Akashic Books, 2021).

Chibuihe Obi Achimba grew up in south-eastern Nigeria. He is a poet, essayist, and founding editor of Dgëku Magazine. He served as the 2019 Harvard University Scholar At-Risk Fellow, a Visiting Poet in its English department, and the 2020 Summer Visiting Artist at the Oregon Institute for Creative Research. Chibuihe has been awarded grants by PEN America, PEN International, Freedom House, and St Botolph Club Foundation, which named him one of the 2021 Emerging Artists in New England. His writing has been published or forthcoming in The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Harvard Review, Poet Lore, Foreign Policy Magazine, Guernica Magazine, and several other prints and online journals. In August 2021, he was appointed to the editorial board of Transition Magazine at the Hutchins Center, Harvard. He is completing an MFA degree in Poetry at Brown University.

Submission Guidelines

1. The anthology is open to African poets who are between the ages of 20 (or who would be 20 by the time of publication) and 35.
2. Contributors published in the fourth volume are not eligible for this volume, but may submit for subsequent volumes.
3. Submissions can cut across different themes and each contributor may send three poems only. Please send us your best poems, properly edited.
4. The anthology is only for African poets. We define an African poet as someone born in Africa, or whose parents (at least one) are African, or someone who lives in Africa and has done so for at least 10 years.
5. Poets who have had a full-length book or a chapbook or pamphlet published in electronic or print format can submit. Poets who have not been published in any form or on any literary forum/outlet, and fall into the acceptable age bracket, are encouraged to submit as well.
6. Only poems written in English will be accepted. Works translated into English from any African language may be submitted, but they must be accompanied by their original.
7. There is no stipulation as to the content of submitted poems but no poem should exceed 40 lines in length.
8. Identifying information, including names of poets, addresses, phone numbers, publication histories, should not be included in the manuscript or in the body of the email. Submit through your personal email address and include the same email address on the last page of your manuscript. Submissions will be judged solely on merit.
9. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if any of your poems is accepted elsewhere.
10. All entries must be submitted in a single Word document, typed in Times New Roman, font 12, single spaced, and sent via email to the 20.35 Africa Team at submissions@2035africa.org.
11. The email subject should read “20.35 Africa submission”.
12. Submissions must be written in black ink. No colours.
13. Each poem must have a title.
14. Poems must be the original work of the contributor.
15. Deadline for submissions is midnight (UTC+01:00) of April 24 2022.
16. We hope to respond to every submission by July 2022. However, there may be delays in response time pending the editors’ final decision.
17. We will not entertain any inquiries concerning submission status until after July 2022.
18. Accepted contributors must be available at all times, for necessary editing of their works and correspondence that may follow.
19. All inquiries must be sent to info@2035africa.org. Inquiries sent to the submissions email address will not be read.
20. Except on proven cases of plagiarism or when a piece we have published violates any form of human rights, we do not take down works once they have been published in our anthology or on our website.
21. By submitting your work to us, you agree to give us first serial rights of said work, which shall revert to you upon publication. If your work is republished elsewhere, acknowledge that it first appeared on 20.35 Africa.

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