Win an autographed copy of Chimamanda's Half of a Yellow Sun

The first 3 winners to this year's BN Poetry Award will win an autographed copy of Chimamanda's Half of a Yellow Sun. Submit your poems to this year's BN Poetry Award, whose theme is MUSIC. You just have to be a Ugandan woman residing in Uganda. Send a maximum of 3 poems on this theme of Music to bnpoetryaward@mail.com. More details above on the banner.Deadline is 18th May 2012. I've read the book and met the author....

Photo credit: guardian.co.uk

Poetry award website it up

Did I mention that the website is now up...go to www.bnpoetryaward.co.ug and women, submit your poems, the theme is Music, deadline is 18th May. Check up at the banner for details..

This was a poetry training workshop at Rainbow International school last week. I loved it and so did the kids!!

Kwani? Open Mic Reloaded February 2012

New venue, new life..kesho it all goes down.

Open Mic is a monthly poetry and spoken word event held every first Tuesday of the month @ Club Soundd on Kaunda street from 7-9pm. We feature a poet / spoken word artist who has shown consistency and growth in performance and audience pull. Past features include Njeri Wangari, Ngwatilo Mawiyoo, Phyllis Muthoni, Winyo, Eko dydda, Just a band, Kenyan Poet, Uko Fulani Mau Mau and others. The rest of the evening is open for anyone to perform / read their work:
Sign-ups happen between 5-7pm. See you there!


Kwani? Open Mic Reloaded February 2012

Featured Poet: Benson Kimani (Winner 2011 Kwani? Open Mic Slam)
Featured Artist: Anto and Paragasha Band

MC: Cindy Ogana
Date: 7th February 2012
Time: 7 -9 pm
Venue: Insomnia Club (Eternity City), 3rd floor of the T-MALL (Off Langata Road-Mbagathi way roundabout)
Entry: 200 Ksh

In Memoriam ~ Wislawa Szymborska

Wislawa Szymborska

One of my favorite poets passed away this week ~ Wislawa Szymborska. Read about her here in the New York Times by clicking this link ~ Wislawa Szymborska, a gentle and reclusive Polish poet who won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature, died on Wednesday in Krakow, Poland. She was 88.

Lot's Wife

by Wislawa Szymborska


They say I looked back out of curiosity,

but I could have had other reasons.

I looked back mourning my silver bowl.

Carelessly, while tying my sandal strap.

So I wouldn’t have to keep staring at the righteous nape

Of my husband Lot’s neck.

From the sudden conviction that if I dropped dead

He wouldn’t so much as hesitate.

From the disobedience of the meek.

Checking for pursuers.

Struck by the silence, hoping God had changed his mind.

---

Read three other poems from last March on East West Poetry:  Lost and Found, Birthday, and, one of my favorites, Under A Certain Star.