Dear Jens,
It’s so nice to hear from you. I loved watching The Bremen Town Musicians of The Brothers Grimm. Thanks so much for sending that.
I look forward to learning about the literature scene in Bremen especially the Bremen Literature Week as we do not have anything like that. We do have a book week later in the year usually organised by Uganda Women Writers’ Association (Femrite) and it would be nice to see how different it is from the Bremen Literature Week.
Femrite is an organisation you are going to hear me talk about quite a bit. The most consistent activity that happens in Kampala is the Monday Readers/Writers Club that is organised by Femrite and happens at their offices. Every Monday. Rain or sun shine. Readers and writers gather together to critique pieces of writing that are submitted anonymously. Once every month they also host an author that people get to interact with and learn from. I often attend these and will send some more photos and videos from the Club this month.
The other event I am excited to share with you is the Lantern Meet of Poet’s recital. The Lantern Meet of Poets is a community of poets that has been around for seven years and they have put up some of the most thought-provoking recitals in Kampala. I have seen them on stage but I have been curious about how they put the recitals together and I will attend their rehearsals and will tell you all about it. I did a collaboration with them for my blog, please read about it here: #SoooManyLanterns: A Lantern Meet of Poets and Sooo Many Stories collaboration
I will attend some book launches and I am sure to run into some writers and poets that I will be glad to tell you about!
I am also very excited to tell you about a Creative Writing Workshop that I will be facilitating with another Ugandan writer. I have never been on the teaching side of a creative writing class. I have shared what I know on a one-on-one basis as an editor but never to an entire class. So I am excited but I have moments when I occasionally freak out about it. I know you have taught creative writing at the University of Bremen, any tips for me as I prepare?
Talk soon!
Betty Kaigo
Dear Nyana, please forgive the wrongfully inserted comment above (I hope the admins will be kind and remove it). It is great to hear that writing has rolled its sleeves up and is eager to push, keep it up and steaming! Of course, all of us will be happy to know which experiences stick to your heart during the Writing Workshop, do let us know
Proud to be associated with those poets!
Good stuff Nyana, looking forward…
I am excited about this potential writing project (if realized) between Uganda and Deutschland. I hope a writers’ conference is held in Kampala to encourage upcoming writers like myself.
I hope this is the beginning of the journey to creating and motivating capable writers in Uganda.
Hey Josiah, it seems there is a Kampala writers festival in 2015: http://kahini.org/africa/
Hi Josiah,
The Writivism Festival will take place in June this year and it is wonderful place to meet writers. Please look for them on Facebook so that you can get updates. But rather than wait for a big conference, why not try out the Femrite Readers/Writers Club? It is open to men as well. You will meet like-minded people who will be very happy to critique your work. Try them.
Oh yeah Femrite, Lantern Meet of Poets; there is so much going on on the Kampala Literary scene and so much exploration by Ugandan writers.
The Lantern Meet of Poets community seems both impressive and outstriking to me. From my German perspective and experience, poetry tends to be the forgotten child of literature: in school, in urban landscapes of literature events, and in bookshops poetry receives only marginal attention.
In my city (Bremen), poetry disappears mostly in public, although poetry slams, which push mainly a certain type of poetry, and two annual festivals, called “poetry on the road” and “zwiesprache lyrik” (two-tongued poetry), take place. In most bookshops I find only classical poetry anthologies, squeezed into one shelf. And when I remember my years in school, dealing with poetry meant to find as many stylistic devices as possible in a baroque or classical poem. Discovering the diversity of recent poetry, which is essential to me as a poetry-loving and poetry-writing person, mostly depends on my individual research.
With this background, I would love to hear more of the projects of the “Lantern Meet of Poets”. The interview on your blog tells of a successful “poetry-education” and empowerment work with student writers.
Would it be possible to read some examples of this young poetry?
Now, as you made us curious, would some of these poet like to share their texts with as by posting “some of the most thought-provoking” poetry here?
Hi Katharina,
I agree with you. Poetry is often forgotten. And that classical poetry somehow makes/made poetry seem inaccessible. When you tell people that rap and riddles are poetry, that is when it seems accessible. Publishing of poetry is still a problem here, as is prose. I will be writing more about the poetry scene in Kampala, do look out for it.
I have published a couple of poems by the Lantern Meet of Poets. Here are the links:
http://somanystories.ug/features/poems/2014/12/ghosts-coming-anisha-nakimuli-sooomanylanterns
http://somanystories.ug/features/poems/2014/10/ear-hear-joel-benjamin-ntwatwa
http://somanystories.ug/features/poems/2014/08/ask-raymond-mujuni-qatahar
http://somanystories.ug/features/poems/2014/09/becoming-man-joel-benjamin-ntwatwa
Hello Katharina,
I guess, you´re right – it´s not easy for poetry in public. But, by the way: Both winners of the Bremer literature price are poets and they will read their poems on Sunday evening in the Glocke.