Poetrama Magazine Issue 2 April 2021 (2)

TZ: I don't think locally there's anyone or any organization
that can match yours and PPA's consistency in discovering
and nurturing young poets and organizing spoken word even
the way you do it, you are an inspiration. Let's talk about PPA
and the programs you are running right now and are
planning to run to assist poets in your organization and
others.
PS: With the coming of the pandemic we're pretty grateful
because it pushed us into the online space so much more
than before and it's opened up amazing avenues for us. In
April we are coming back with DigiPoems 3.0 this time we're
partnering with writing west Midlands UK ComExposed and
British council Zim and UK. We are working with 6 southern
Africa artists and 6 Uk poets and illustrators. This year we get
to be part of B. B. C. contains strong language festival in
September, all I can say is this , again God is doing it for us.
He is giving us shoe-ins in places that we could never
imagine as young as we are and with such a small
organization as we have we feel so much like a Gideon with
300 people. We are pretty excited about that because that’s
usually a huge event for us as we usually bring poets to Zim
and we host exchange programs where we take southern
African artists to the U. K. This program is rich we get them
to spend a week in the nation and just discover the culture
and soak it in so this year we are part of the cities of culture
and Coventry city has been chosen as the city of culture and
writing west Midlands is our partner down in the UK
connecting us with Coventry city. We have the showcase
event in April that we are hosting as PPA then we have a
round table that we are hosting in partnership with writing
west Midlands in June. We turned 4 on March 27th and we
are stoked. We have been doing celebratory events through
March, we started with the take over done by the resident
poets on Instagram. We then did women poets we love to
read on World poetry day and featured some female poets
we absolutely enjoy. We had Batsirai Chigama, Mercy
Dhliwayo and Tariro Ndoro making it a treat not only for our
audience but us too since it’s women's month we have to
celebrate women and PPA was birthed whilst celebrating
women. The theme of the month is iconic woman. We are
talking to different people young women that are doing the
most and remaining influential in their lane. We look
forward to our partnership with Moto Republik, Shoko
Festival, Intwasa and Kites for Peace as usual.
TZ: What would you say to someone who is just starting and
doubts if poetry or spoken word is for them?
Go through the process, try it out, find out. What
you're good at, what you're passionate about can
you do it if no one ever paid you to do it would
you still do it? If ever anyone asked you do it
without thinking would you still do it? Those are
some of the markers to something that you can do
with passion.. When you do it what do people say.
These are clues that will help you clarify and get
some precision on whether or not you need to do it
but above and beyond I would say. To thy own self
be true. If you don't feel that it's for you after doing
all that I've said then maybe you need to find that
place where you come alive. And grab that with
both hands and don't let it go. After all, you have
one life to live don’t waste time contemplating
whether or not to do something life will pass you
by. Get at it do it. You never know you might be
shocked, look at me I didn't plan this but it’s been a
beautiful surprise, goodness has come our of it I
hope that you can find that too.
Umind?! has done and continues to do so much for
the poetry and spoken word culture in Zimbabwe
and other countries around the world. From the
detailed experiences she has shared with us it's easy
to draw inspiration and knowledge from such an
individual. Her story deserves to be told over and
over again.
"To thy own self be
true. If you don't
feel that it's for
you after doing all
that I've said then
maybe you need to
find that place
PS: Well I think I would just say something very simple you
never know until you try. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
It's such a true saying, if you don't try it out you will never
know and sometimes some things take more time for others
than they do for some people so be comfortable in your skin
don't compare yourself with anyone else. Allow yourself to
be part of a story that is unique to you and just like a story is
written it's written word by word page by page until we get to
the finish line so allow yourself the process.
where you come
alive."
- Umind?!