The signature angst of our time was profoundly expressed in the poems submitted for WOMAWORDS Literary Press June 2020 edition, Imaging Life After COVID-19, offering women poets an opportunity to write about their experience of the pandemic and their vision of or for the future. The universal trauma wrought by this virus, invisible and silent and pouncing with madness and mendacity, brings us to a place we’d like to forget but never will. Our world is charged. Our lives are changed. We embrace with yearning the better memories from our past. We are trapped in the present, making the best of it. We find it hard to envision a future undominated by this moment. It was difficult to select just ten poems from among the many submitted. There was not one unworthy poem. I’m honored to read them, to read the bios and get introduced to some fine new-to-me poets (whether or not selected for publication here), and to be chosen by Mbizo Chirasha to edit this edition of his heart-child, WOMAWORDS Literary Press. The edition goes up late. I offer my apologies to poets, to readers, and to Mbizo. The honor of this work came at a complex time for me. I had another zine to publish and also found myself dealing with a hospital stay and debilitating complications from chronic and catastrophic lung-and-heart health issues. Having said that there is nothing like poetry to help us heal the trauma of the catastrophic illnesses we may suffer individually or from the shared trauma of the current pandemic.
Iconic Activist Chifamba has mastered the Art of Girl Child Empowerment .
The name EKENIA T.CHIFAMBA is a name that somewhat rattles the bone and marrow of unrepentant , evil and dare-daring barbarians perpetuating sexual violence and emotional abuse onto the lives of innocent and vulnerable young women and girls in both rural and urban settings. In realizing the plight of the GIRLCHILD in all sectors of life , political , social , moral and economical. The resilient Ekenia Chifamba established SHAMWARI YEMWANASIKANA organization .True to it ,the girlchild rights Maestro Chifamba is blessing and heartily friend of the GIRLCHILD in Zimbabwe , Africa and Abroad . For the past tiring six years , she has relentlessly exposed rape cases across the country, weeded out evil off our vulnerable communities .Chifamba embraced vulnerable/abused young girls and rehabilitated their emotions and consciences into lives worth living . A lot of community interventions are being done in Zimbabwes various settings of the country to heal girls from emotional hate and moral decadence perpetuated by crude cruel killers of innocence . Since the resumption of her organization , Chifamba has been received with mixed feelings and contempt by a society use political and pseudo cultural vintage in covering up sin and vile for so many years . That did deter her to stop effecting her CALLING positively in touching the souls of weak and the traumatized . Young women and girls’ deplorable plight was savagely neglected .Ekenia Chifamba became the answer to a lot of unanswered questions and has ridden on the impossible, defying all odds and human obstacles to relieve the girlchild from the bondage of retrogression and unchain them from the yoke of sexual oppression , stigma, discrimination and emotional shattering . SHAMWARI YEMWANASIKANA promotes dialogue among victims , they promote education on girlchild rights in rural villages and down trodden settings, entrepreurship projects , arts and other sustainable projects. Despite a myriad of negative challenges , SHAMWARI YEMWANASIKANA has its own great success stories .Currently ,they are constructing a Girl Child Rehabilitation and Empowerment One Stop Centre . Alas ,the negating winds of the virulent , savaging , cantankerous COVID – 19 affected the completion of this great habitat , sooner or later the Centre will be launched. To honor her resilience , the immense contribution to vulnerable girls , victims of abuse and their communities , I have decided to feature the profiles and activities of SHAMWARI YEMWANASIKANA Organization and its Founder /Executive Director Madame Ekenia T.Chifamba. Chifamba is an Award winning girlchild rights activist ,Philanthropist, Outstanding global girlchild Projects leader with a long , practical , active and reputable resume in field of girlchild rights and other areas of human development. This Feature Profile and Interview will be featured in AFRICA WRITERS CARAVAN , WOMAWORDS LITERARY PRESS , TIME OF THE POET REPUBLIC ,WORLDPULSE as a Special Journal .In my closing of this long but deserving blurb, I want to heartily say to Madame Ekenia T.Chifamba thank you profoundly for lighting the lanterns of peace ,for raising the flag of freedom and for speaking on behalf of the VULNERABLE and the VOICELESS-( Blurb by Mbizo CHIRASHA)
Tsopotsa s Poetry talks Identity, Belonging and African Spirituality
TSITSI TSOPOTSA is a Zimbabwean born storyteller, Poet, Writer, Advocate of the Girl child and a Cultural Arts Activist. She ushers in a rare but captivating poetry writing style. Her new poetry beverage soothes the mind of the reader as it carefully flows with blood and warms the African readers soul. It is soul food to the audience. Tsopotsa poetry speaks belonging, identity and African spirituality. Her new form of poetry is extraordinary in form and content. Reason and rhythm are special ingredients to this rare but sweet poetic refreshment. WOMAWORDS celebrates dexterity, reason and diversity with Poet Tsitsi Tsopotsa. Aluta Continua- WOMAWORDS eDitor.
POET LAUREATE JAMIE DEDES CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS.
“The WOMAWORDS press June Edition is to be edited by our Poet Laureate and USA Associate to the WOMAWORDS Hall of Fame, Jamie Dedes.“The call is open to women poets from May 20 through June 20.“Ten poems and poets will be selected from the submissions, which should include a short third-person bio of thirty-to-sixty words and your photograph.“Submissions to be forwarded to BOTH Mbizo Chirasha womawordpress@gmail.com and cc’d Jamie Dedes at thepoetbyday@gmail.com”.G JAMIE DEDES is a Lebanese-American poet and free-lance writer. She is the founder and curator of The Poet by Day, info hub for poets and writers, and the founder of The Bardo Group, publishers of The BeZine, of which she was the founding editor and currently a co-manager editor with Michael Dickel. Ms. Dedes is the Poet Laureate of WOMAWORDS Press 2020 and U.S associate to that press as well. Her debut collection, “The Damask Garden,” is due out fall 2020 from Blue Dolphin Press.
INSIDE # Candid Talk Studio with African Poetic Tigress Nancy Ndeke.
It is befitting to name tag NANCY NDEKE as the African Poetic Tigress. The wealth in her poetic narratives and hybrid writing resemble a honeycomb clad with the earthly jacket of pure honey. The mind scorching metaphors are glued together social fabric matters and then stitched with humor concocted political vibe. Ndeke is a princess of rain and the daughter of the road. Her poetic footprints traverse from African foothills, through crevices and caves of great mountains of Kirinyaga into the mist clad mighty Kilimanjaro and the valleys yonder our human rich. The Poetic Tigress in Nancy Ndeke roars with the zeal to see the world dancing in spiritual glory, celebrating abundance and jiving to the gift of the sun and its kindred the moon. Exclusive. The lioness carved into the soul cave of this great literary combatant hunts for her twin sister PEACE in nooks, crevices and thickets of the world. Pen her torch and her poetry is her unfading light. Her literary eyes are oxblood because of the day and night search for her cousin Freedom. Ndeke is a prolific Kenyan Wordsmith, Editor, Literary arts projects consultant and a distinguished writer. She involved in the WOMAWORDS and Brave Voices Poetry JOURNAL as an African Associate and Contributing Editor. WOMAWORDS present to you our beloved readers to the Iconic, prolific and globally decorated Poet, Nancy Ndeke, Aluta Continua- WOMAWORDS eDitor.