Mahogany L. Browne

United States No Comments

The Cave Canem Fellow is the author of several books including Swag & Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out On-line, recommended by Small Press Distribution & listed as About.com Best Poetry Books of 2010.

She has released five LPs including the live album Sheroshima. As co-founder of the Off Broadway poetry production, Jam On It, and co-producer of NYC’s 1st Performance Poetry Festival: SoundBites Poetry Festival, Mahogany bridges the gap between lyrical poets and literary emcee.Browne has toured Germany, Amsterdam, England, Canada and recently Australia as 1/3 of the cultural arts exchange project Global Poetics.

Her journalism work has been published in magazines Uptown, KING, XXL, The Source, Canada’s The Word and UK’s MOBO. Her poetry has been published in literary journals Pluck, Literary Bohemian, Bestiary Brown Girl Love and Up The Staircase. She is an Urban Word NYC mentor, as seen on HBO’s Brave New Voices and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country.

She is the publisher of Penmanship Books, a small press for performance artists and owns PoetCD.Com, an on-line marketing and distribution company for poets. Mahogany is currently host and curator of the Friday Night Slam at the famous Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

Maakomele Manaka

South Africa No Comments

Maakomele Manaka , was born in Diepkloof zone 6, Soweto in 1983. The first of two boys born to artistic parents. Mak, as he is widely known is the son of the late Matsemela Manaka a well known visual artist, poet, play write and black consciousness activist . His mother, Nomsa Kupi Manaka is a pioneer of African dance, an established dancer,choreographer, and actress in South Africa. With a natural artistic gift as a poet and writer and a strong artistic heritage , Mak was destined to be an artist.

South African icon Don Mattera says, “If genius can be genetically connected and if it flows from generation to generation, then Mak Manaka is the epitome of it. He comes from a dynasty of talented, creative and gifted people Nomsa and Matsemela”.

At the age of 5, he received a Young Artist Award at the once famous Funda Arts Center in Soweto . He started writing poetry at 14 yrs old , just two years after his near fatal accident which left him in a wheelchair for a year and a half. He started performing at the age of 15 on crutches, debuting in 1998 in Lugano, Switzerland at a tribute for his late father.

In 1999, he performed at the Windybrow Arts Theater with British poet Benjamin Zephaniah and South African poet Dr Don Mattera. In 2000 he performed for Arnold Shwaznager on his visit to South Africa at the Takalani Home for the mentally Handicapped school.

In 2001, he performed at Horror Café in a show called Urban Voices with Grammy award winning American poets Sarah Jones and Steve Coleman along with other young and aspiring South African poets. This was to become a milestone poetic performance for Mak – as it formerly introduced him as an integral part of the local spoken word scene .

In 2002 he performed for the former president of South Africa Mr. Thabo Mbeki at the SABC in a live program called In conversation with the President hosted by Tim Modise and during that year he compiled all his works for publication of a poetry book, If Only. During the subsequent years he become a sought after poet as well as headliner for various festivals and events including the annual international Urban Voices Poetry Festival which took place nationally in SA. Over the years on various Urban Voices stages he has performed with international and locally acclaimed poets including the likes of Mutabaruka, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Saul Williams, the Last Poets, Ursula Rucker, Lesego Rampolokeng , Keorapetse Kgositsile and various other poetic icons.He was commissioned to perform for the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela at the launch of a primary school in Soweto. Later that year, Mak toured Cuba and Jamaica with poets Don Mattera and Lebo Mashile representing South Africa in celebrating 10 years of democracy. .

In the 2004 he was nominated for The Daimler Chrysler Poet of the Year 2005 Award. This year also saw Mak Performing in Holland, at the Crossing Borders Festival.

In February 2005 he spent a month in Germany on an island called Sylt and performed in Hamburg and Berlin. Later that year he played a character also called Mak and who was facing disability issues in the children’s television program Soul Buddies on SABC.

In June 2006 he performed at schools around Soweto as part of the campaign for the We Remember June 16. In the same year, he performed in Germany, Berlin for the
heads of state at the closing ceremony of the 2006 World Cup. In Kohln he shared the stage with talented poets, Lebo Mashile and Gcina Mhlophe, He also shared the stage with some of South Africa’s legendary artists, Johnny Clegg, Jabu Khanyile, HHP and
Freshly Ground.

In 2008, in pursuance of this goal, Mak launched his debut cd entitled Word Sound Power!!.  Word Sound Power!!  an album of quality music and Conscious lyrics, was certainly a milestone album for spoken word in South Africa. Produced by Melody Muzik Sound Productions, the music reflects a deep range of reggae rhythms together with hip hop and jazz. International and local musicians have contributed and collaborate on Word Sound Power!! including The Royal Kushite Philharmonic Orchestra featuring L Michell, H Izachaar, L Beckett and mixed by K M Tafari

In 2009 Manaka launched his second anthology In Time, in Italy at a Literature festival in Mantova. The anthology sold out months after its release.

In 2010 he performed at the Zwakala Festival for deaf children, and he also performed at the annual languages awards, The Pen-Salb Awards. He also launched a writers program in the same year to encourage self-esteem in young people

In 2011 He performed at the MNET awards, the Television awards for Good (TAG).

In 2012, Mak performed in Padova, Italy at the Porsche Live Festival. In June 2012, Mak represented South Africa at the 18th Genoa International Poetry Festival in Italy. In the same month he performed at the Listros Gallery in Berlin, Manaka also facilitated workshops at the prestigious Humboldt University called Poetry 101 with Mak Manaka. He also performed at The Moving Poets in Berlin with an installation of a Berlin based South African visual artist, Liz Crowley. He also performed at Badilisha Poetry X-change’s 100 Thousand Poets for Change.

Mzi Mahola

South Africa No Comments

Mzi Mahola was born in 1949 as Mzikayise Winston Mahola. Mzi Mahola is his nom de plume. He started writing while he was at school. The Special Branch confiscated his first poetry manuscript in 1976 (That year, South African students rebelled against the government, which cracked down without restraint. Read more about the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Ed.) and he lost interest in writing for twelve years. After this period he started writing again, submitting work successfully to national and international journals, magazines and publications. His work has been published in more than eight anthologies.

His first book with poems is titled Strange Things and was published in 1994 by Snail Press. This volume received positive reviewing and was amongst those to represent South Africa in Geneva in a World Book fare in 1995. There was interest in translating the book into German and Danish, but this has not materialised to date.

His second volume When Rain Comes was published in 2000 by Carapace and won the Olive Schreiner Book prize.

At the moment he is editing and finalizing a semi-biographical novel called The Broken Link.

He has presented papers and given speeches at the National Arts Festival and at other venues for school children. He gives poetry readings for University groups and community projects. Now and then he runs poetry workshops for interested groups of writers.

Mwila Mambwe

DRC No Comments

Mwila Mambwe sought refuge in South Africa, after fleeing the war-ravaged country of his birth. Originally from Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, his personal journey of strife and overcoming adversity finds expression in his poetry, most notably in the compilation Coming from the Struggle.

Mutombo Da Poet

Ghana No Comments

Mutombo Da Poet, a spoken word artist, emerged on the burgeoning alternative scene in 2006. This Ghanaian has since earned his stripes as an insightful, humorous and captivating performer across the nation. His new spoken word album is called Photosenteces.

Mukoma Wa Ngugi

Kenya No Comments

Novelist, poet, and essayist Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of Nairobi Heat (Penguin, SA 2009), an anthology of poetry titled Hurling Words at Consciousness (AWP, 2006) and is a political columnist for the BBC’s Focus on Africa Magazine. He was short listed for the Caine Prize for African writing in 2009. He has also been short listed for the 2010 Penguin Prize for African Writing for his novel manuscript, The First and Second Books of Transition.

A former co-editor of Pambazuka News, his columns have appeared in the Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Chimurenga, Los Angeles Times, South African Labour Bulletin, and Business Daily Africa, and he has been a guest on Democracy Now, Al Jazeera and the BBC World Service. His essays have appeared in the World Literature Review, the Black Commentator, Progressive Magazine and Radical History Review. His short stories have been published in Wasafiri, Kenyon Review and St. Petersburg Review and poems in the New York Quarterly, Brick Magazine, Kwani?, Chimurenga and Tin House Magazine amongst other places.

Mukoma was born in 1971 in Evanston, Illinois and grew up in Kenya before returning to the United States for his undergraduate and graduate education. He is currently based in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the son of World-renowned African writer, Ngugi wa Thiong’o.

Mufasa

Kenya No Comments

Mufasa is a spoken word artist, actor and singer born and raised in Kenya. He popped into the spoken word scene after winning a spoken word slam competition. Since then Mufasa has been performing in all major poetry events in Kenya. Raised by a single mother, Mufasa is a passionate performer on stage and hides no emotions when he speaks about his life and disturbing issues in the society.

Mr.rE

Ghana No Comments

Jesu Robert Crentsil aka Mr.rE is a passionate poet from Ghana. He is the founder of mzOne (mOrality zOne), a poetic group/movement in his hometown.

MP Mkhize Da Bee

South Africa No Comments

MP Mkhize Da Bee is a poet based in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. This young poet has extensive writing and performance experience. Highlights of his career have been performing with veteran South African storyteller Gcina Mhlophe, performing at the Africa Cup of Nations and at the ANC’s 101 Years Celebration.

Morongwa Matsau

Botswana No Comments

Known on stage as Messenger, Morongwa is a 30 year old  born in Maun, Botswana. He is a trained and professional accountant. Messenger’s interest in poetry started in the year 2000. However, the realisation of becoming a full-fleshed writer and performer began 9 years later when he joined Poetavango Spoken Word Poetry.

Messenger’s influence comes from everything he sees, touches and smells. He derives inspiration from the creatures he meets – in reality and in dreams and the sounds and voices he hears.

He has performed at all installations of the Maun international Poetry Festival. He also took part in the 100 Thousand Poets for Change, Maun 2012.

Morongwa Matsau is currently working on a collection of short stories and a novel manuscript.

Michael Mabwe

Zimbabwe No Comments

From the mining town of Kadoma in Zimbabwe, Michael Mabwe is a human rights activist who uses the arts especially poetry as a weapon of mass instruction. He has been instrumental in steering the growth of slam poetry in Zimbabwe, taking charge of the House of Hunger Poetry slam. He is also the founder and coordinator of the Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights (ZPHR) which advocates for the recognition, respect and restoration for human rights in Zimbabwe. Michael’s poetry touches on issues such as HIV and AIDS, politics, black consciousness and tolerance.

Memory Chirere

Zimbabwe No Comments

Memory Chirere has been writing poetry since his boyhood in the Zimbabwean countryside.  His poems were first published in Tipeiwo Dariro (1994). He has also published three short story books in English and Shona. His short-short stories estimate the delicate midway between prose and poetry. He has read his poems at festivals and conferences in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Malawi and Germany. He lives in Harare where he teaches Creative Writing at the University of Zimbabwe.

Mbongeni Nomkonwana

South Africa No Comments

Mbongeni Nomkonwana is an actor, playwright, theatre director, poet and sometimes standup comedian who has performed at the former Vodacom Funny Festival (2007) now Jive Funny Festival.

This multi-talented performer is always willing to try new things and has special gift with words. He started his performing, writing and directing career at Sophumelela Theatre Group where he still is to date. He holds a performing Arts Certificate from New Africa Theatre Academy (2007). He has written and directed four plays for them which one of them Bendingazi was performed at the 2009 National Arts Festival.

He has acted in two international films alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Hakim Kae Kazeem, he has done some local cameo roles with penguin films. He has done children’s theatre with Arepp Theatre for Life (2010-2011) touring the Eastern Cape and is now working for Okuhle Media doing educational school roadshows.

Winner of Cape Town DFL LOVER+ ANOTHER poetry challenge, he has since then performed at OFF THE WALL poetry sessions and Inzync Poetry by Stellenbosch University, 2012 HEAIDS Conference at UCT, Jam That Session, Brand House Marketing Campaign and Last Poet’s: Rhythm Poetry1.

Co-Founder of a Cape Town based poetry and music movement, Lingua Franca. In 2013 he teamed up with Lwanda Sindaphi to coordinate the Poetry for the annual Zabalaza Theatre Festival at Baxter Theatre.

He also teamed with Linda Kaoma to coordinate the 2013 DFL Lover+Another Poetry Challenge.

Mbali Vilakazi

South Africa No Comments

Mbali Vilakazi is a child of the city by the sea, who came into being under the watchful eye of a silent mountain. She is born on the 9th day of the 9th sign. The Archer.

She is Nona’s daughter, Mzamo’s sister and Avumiles aunt. A woman who holds the gaze and the spectator in her own life.

Tracing her beginnings as a patient journey into herself, she holds the dream of a youth that rises to assume both its relevance and place. Touched by the wisdom in children, she remembers that it is always the little things.

Soul Activist, Poet, Flower. She is a Fairy. And the Queen in exile. With pen as sceptre and her throne a cloud. On a mission to answer the call.

She hears voices, sees in the dark and when she gows up, she wants to be Sade.

Mark Espin

South Africa No Comments

Mark Espin was born in Cape Town in 1964. He is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of the Western Cape. His first volume of poems, Falling from Sleep, was published by Botsotso Publishing in 2007.

Mariska Taylor-Darko

Ghana No Comments

Mariska Taylor-Darko is a widow with two sons. She is a writer, poet and motivational speaker. She is one of the Directors of Ghana Organisation for Learning and Development, (GOLD) a registered Charity in the U.K. aiming to assist women and children in the rural areas of Ghana. She is the founder of Yes Group Ghana, a motivational group involved in empowering the youth.

Mariska’s poems have been featured on www.oneghanaonevoice.com, which is an online poetry site several times and she has also been published, in Jambo, an East African magazine. She has also been featured on radio chat shows on Yfm and Citi fm and on TV with Viasat 1 on the One Show and has read her poetry in London at the Find your Voice motivational event. She has published her first motivational book, The Secret to Detoxifying your life and love , a collection of poems in a book called Rhythms of Poetry in Motion and is in the process of writing one film script, one novel and a collection of children’s stories. Recently she gave a reading of her book which is soon to be published called A Widow must not Speak at the Goethe Institute organised by the Writers Project of Ghana.

Marí Peté

South Africa No Comments

Durban poet Marí Peté writes in Afrikaans and English. Marí was born and schooled in the Mpumalanga province in South Africa.

Marí wrote her Street Poems Collection while driving to and from various campuses of the Durban University of Technology where she has worked as an e-Learning specialist for almost twenty years. During Poetry Africa 2010, the Mail and Guardian described Marí’s performance of the poem Durban Taxi (a conglomeration of taxi names) as “a delicious success”. The poem Warwick Junction was shortlisted for the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award in 2012.

Various tensions and juxtapositions arise from Marí’s Cambridge Poetry Collection, which could be ascribed to the fact that the poems were originally written in Afrikaans, during the year before South Africa’s first democratic elections. Halfronde / north and south was written upon receiving the news of the death of Chris Hani.

Marí has published two bilingual poetry collections namely Amytis (2007) and Begin (2002). With Bianca Bothma, Marí was editor of Art for Humanity’s book Women Artists and Poets Advocate Children’s Rights.

Mandlenkosi Bewuzana

South Africa No Comments

Mandlenkosi Bewuzana is an artist, a poet, short story writer, novel writer, inspirational and general philosophy book writer based in Eastern Cape, South Africa. He contributed to Ingqaka Yesihobe published by Oxford University Press. He also contributed to Isingqi Sesihobe which is still to be published by Oxford University Press.

Malika Lueen Ndlovu

South Africa No Comments

Malika Lueen Ndlovu is a poet, playwright, performer, arts project manager and mother of three sons, with a wide range of experience in the Arts and Arts Management arena.

Malika is a founder-member of Cape Town-based women writers’ collective WEAVE, co-editor of their multi-genre anthology WEAVE’s Ink @ Boiling Point: A selection of 21st Century Black Women’s writing from the Southern Tip of Africa. In 2004 she initiated the And The Word Was Woman Ensemble of female performance poets and later that year joined The Mothertongue Project, a women performing artists, writers and visual artists collective.

Malika has four of her own poetry collections, besides her work being featured in several local and international publications, namely Born in Africa But , Womb to World: A Labour of Love, Truth is both Spirit and Flesh and Invisible Earthquake: a Woman’s Journal through Stillbirth a poetic memoir published by new South African Women’s press, Modjaji Books.

Her published plays include the award-winning drama A Coloured Place and most recently Sister Breyani.

In 2007 she co-curated The Africa Centre’s  5-day international poetry festival and is currently a presenter for BadilishaPoetry.com, an online poetry radio station podcasting Pan-African poets.

As an independent artist Malika operates under the brand New Moon Ventures, which is dedicated to creating indigenous, multi-media and collaborative works in line with her personal motto “healing through creativity.”

Madzitatiguru

Zimbabwe No Comments

Born Tendekai Tati, Madzitatiguru is a Zimbabwean bi-lingual spoken word poet who recites poetry in the English and Shona. His Shona Poetry is recited in a style which he terms Urban-Ancient Poetry that consists of a mixture Conventional Shona and Modern Urban Street Language and focuses on local experiences. His English Poetry focuses on issues that affect the globe as a whole.

He debuted in 2011 at the House of Hunger poetry slam at the Book cafe in Harare where he was crowned the slam champion, he also performed at  the Afro Slam and  Poetry Slam that was held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2011.

In 2012, Madzitatiguru performed during the Shoko festival . A month later, in the same year, he performed during Poetry Africa in Harare. He has also been featured at the Spoken word and Hip Hop event Mashoko and has twice appeared on local radio, Star Fm’s Wednesday Poetry sessions.

The poems Skeletons, Speaker and Nhau dzePadare are found on collection of Performance poems titled NhauDzePadare that are part of his performance arsenal.

Nina Femme

South Africa No Comments

Nina Femme is a poet-feminist who is trying to master writing, protesting and finding balance in the pursuit of love and justice. Flowers and Feminism, a personally inspired poem, earned her second place in the national Drama for Life Lover and Another poetry competition in 2013. “I wrote my first piece ten years ago, but it never gets easier because the issues never get easier.” When she isn’t in an existential state, she contests her title as “the worst pool player in the Westrand”.

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Ngoma Hill

United States No Comments

Ngoma is a performance poet, multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and paradigm shifter, residing in Harlem, New York. For over 40 years, he has used culture as a tool to raise sociopolitical and spiritual consciousness through work that encourages critical thought.

His poetry has been widely published including in African Voices Magazine, Long Shot Anthology, The Underwood Review, Signifyin’ Harlem Review, Bum Rush The Page/Def Poetry Jam Anthology and Poems On The Road To Peace (Volumes 1,2&3) Yale Press. He was featured in the PBS Spoken Word Documentary, The Apro-Poets with Allen Ginsberg.

Ngoma has also hosted the slam at the Dr. Martin Luther King Festival of Social and Environmental Justice Festival (Yale University-New Haven, CT) for the past 14 years. His CD Reflections (1964-2006) pays tribute to some of the activist and cultural workers whose shining example served as a beacon for his work as an artist.

His latest C.D. State of Emergency (The Essential Ngoma) is available on CDBaby.com and iTunes.com.

Nduta Kariuki

Kenya No Comments

Nduta Kariuki is an artist working and studying in Nairobi, Kenya. She paints primarily, in a personal style that is derived from pop art, but dabbles extensively and has working knowledge of most art forms.

Nduta is currently a fourth year Fine Arts student at Kenyatta University. She is a freelance artist and has worked with Samsung and various high schools for the annual Music and Drama festivals. She enjoys writing, as it allows her to express her quirky sense of humor, and has performed at the Slam Africa, Word Up Live, St. Andrew’s Eve of Poetry and Wamathai events.

Her work has been shown in the following venues: The Michael Joseph Centre, Kenya Railways Museum Gallery, the National Museum, Paa ya Paa Gallery, The Kenyatta University’s Culture and Career weeks, International School of Kenya.

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Native Son

Canada No Comments

Marvin Trimm aka (Native Son) is a writer, poet, spoken word artist, motivational speaker and musician. He has been engaged in the world of literary and performance art for 20 years. It is this passion for the arts that has led him to be showcased globally in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Caribbean.

A native of the small island of Bermuda, it was there that he honed and developed his craft his craft. In the late 80’s he was able to write, produce and direct his 1st one man show entitled “Life Signs on Planet Earth” a collection of monologues depicting real life characters in social situations.

Today, he continues in the capacity as a writer of performance poetry/spoken word, which he performs at various venues such as spoken word series, poetry slams, music festivals, community events, conferences, universities and prisons. Marvin describes his poetic literary speech as spontaneously truthful. A self pro-claimed “Empowerment Poet”, he often writes about self development, self awareness and self improvement. Marvin is a charismatic storyteller that combines history , social, political issues to enlighten and bring new perspectives about the world we live in.

Natalia Molebatsi

South Africa No Comments

Natalia Molebatsi is a writer, performance poet, workshop facilitator and programme director who has presented shows such as An Evening with Alice Walker, Urban Voices International Spoken Word Festival, and an evening with the father of Ehio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke.

The Tembisa-born and raised Natalia has performed in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Holland, Italy, Nigeria, Senegal, Arzerbaijan and England. She is founding member of the South African/Italian band Soul Making.

Nandi Nothando Mabel Khumalo

South Africa No Comments

Nandi Nothando Mabel Khumalo became a poet under the teachings of Mr Edmund Mhlongo of Ekhaya Multi Arts Company in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.

In 2008 she performed at the IIC for the former President Thabo Mbeki sharing the stage with the famous Lady Smith Black Mambazo, and also appeared on SABC1’s SHIFT, Street Journal by Night and on Izwi Labantu.

During 2010-2013 she coordinated for Durban International Film Festival.

During the FIFA world Cup 2010 South Africa Nandi was one of the program directors for the Durban North Beach Fan Park.

She owns her own company called Legends of Purpose which promotes artists in her province.

Nana Nyarko Boateng

Ghana No Comments

Ghana based Nana Nyarko Boateng feels gratifyingly functional when she writes. Essentially, she doesn’t know any other way to live. The greatest influence on her poetry and writing career is her heartbeat. She admires and feels indebted to many more poets than five but if she has to name five; Kamaria Muntu, Jacqui Johnson, Kofi Anyidoho, Alice Walker and Audre Lorde.

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Nana Agyemang Ofosu

Ghana No Comments

Ghana based poet Nana Agyemang Ofosu saw the skies in 1985 on the third day of February. He has labored through the rudiments of school and bears a BSc Civil Engineering Certificate from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He has grown to believe more in a world created by the ink of a writer than that seen by the eyes of men.

Naledi Raba

South Africa No Comments

Naledi Raba is a 21 year old poet from Nyanga, a township in Cape Town, South Africa.

She first performed in New York in 2008 and has since been performing in various places in Cape Town. Naledi won the Slam Poetry Competition at University of Cape Town in 2012 and in 2013 she won the national DFL Lover + Another Poetry Challenge in 2013.

Njeri Wangare

Kenya No Comments

Njeri Wangare is a multi talented Kenyan poet and performer, IT specialist and arts blogger whose collection of poetry was recently published under the title Mines & Mind Fields; My Spoken Words. The 114 paged book contains over 40 poems that explore themes on Urban Blues, Love, Identity, Traditions, Cultural changes, Exploitation and Politics among others. Though most of the poems are in English, there are a few in Kiswahili, and Sheng

“She is one of the most respected female poets in Nairobi today”, The Sunday Nation writer Joseph Ngunjiri says of Njeri, “Njeri Wangari has a powerful voice, and she knows how to put it to good use. Whenever she takes to the podium to recite a poem, she has her enthusiastic audience applauding all the way.”

Njeri’s love for the arts began at an early age through her appreciation of African culture. This, she found to be well expressed in many of the books that she started reading while still young and they have shaped the person she has now become.

The year 2004 is when she penned down her first poem and 3 years later she made her first attempt in front of an audience to start performing her poems. She has now among some of the most talented Kenyan poets.
She has been running her blog, www.kenyanpoet.com since 2005,a project that she initially started in order to publishing her poetry online. It has since grown to incorporate other forms of art as well as host other poets. She has contributed immensely to the promotion of Kenyan Poetry not only on stage but also through the internet through her reviews on art performances and by encouraging up and coming poets to start blogs and eventually share their work through performance. She is currently part of the Global Voices Online-An online portal for citizen journalists, as a writer on African Arts.

Njeri has come to be known as the voice of reason and change in the Kenyan poetry circles due to the content and theme of her poems which range from culture, religion, human rights, technology and everyday challenges in the Kenyan society.

She performs regularly at various poetry spots in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi as well as in institutions and companies where she is invited from time to time.

Njeri is currently working on her 2nd poetry collection.

Ngwatilo Mawiyoo

Kenya No Comments

Drawing from her musical background and her work as an actress, Ngwatilo Mawiyoo is acclaimed as “a priest of the art of performed poetry.” She has performed in venues in East Africa, Europe and North America, recently performing at the 2009 13th Stockholm Poetry Festival.

An undisputed young master of the written word, Ngwatilo’s first collection of poems Blue Mothertongue (2010) is “crafted with beautiful pace and intelligence,” “a worthy testament of her times.”

Her poems may also be found in literary journals around the world including Kwani? published by The Kwani Trust and The Literary Review published by Farleigh & Dickinson University.”

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