*LONG POST ALERT!* 🐞
These past few weeks/month(s) have been an emotional roller coaster - in a good way. Too many good things have been happening back to back and sometimes it feels too good to be true but I receive because last year was a mess!
I want to start off by thanking
@cambridge_ccw and
@cambridgeuniversity for the opportunity they afforded us with this prize. Thank you also ofcourse to the amazing judge, Bhanu Kapil as well, imagine guys she read MY piece and thought it deserving to be part of the 7 out of over 1,400 poems from all over the world 😭
Shout out to my fellow nominees, I know my stuff was fire. I can only imagine (and can't wait to see) what your pieces are. Truly honored to be seating at this table with you
@chiioganihu @elisahhhvet @rmlferrier @simran_singhxo @snehaskanta
I want to give a special shout out to the
@obsidianfoundation This piece started being developed during the workshops. They transformed me as a writer, as a creative, as a spiritual being. Through it, I realized exactly what my purpose is.
Many years ago, when the
@africanpoetrybookfund published me and I was working with
@kwame.dawes on editing, he said something to the effect of...'you can write well, but a lot of people can write well. You need to decide how serious of a writer you want to be'. At the Obsidian, over ten years later, I finally understood what Mr Dawes was talking about. Dr
@nick.makoha you spoke about integrity and I believe that’s exactly what Mr Dawes was talking about. I walk with your words, I wake up with your words. Thank you, you are doing amazing work for the Black community of storytellers and documenters. I hope you know this 💯💥
Finally, I want to talk about representation and how important it is. This signals to the Tanzanian poets and writers that we are nurturing in our creative writing NGO (Asusa) and poetry platform (Poetry255) that will be 10 years this year (we are so proud of this! Shout out to my homies and fellow poets
@zuhura_the_africanlioness @gervazlushaju @wordsbycharlottemakala ) that their poetic dreams can also be realized, that they are within their grasp if they decided to put in the work.
