East Africa Poetic Hour Battle 2022 #Africities Edition

East Africa Poetic Hour Battle is a yearly gathering of Poets from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania at the shore of Lake Victoria in Kisumu City – Kenya, to celebrate East Africa’s Poets and Poetic Culture. This is an exciting and highly energized performance event that showcases the artistic prowess and creativity of poets on stage giving an exclusive experience through audience engagement and live music performance at interludes.

East Africa Poetic Hour Battle was inaugurated in 2014 at Alliance Française de Kisumu as a one hour (Poetic Hour) Poetry Show, seeking to create a free platform for Poets in Kisumu County to gather, learn from each other, develop and showcase their poetry to the Kisumu audience on the weekly staged shows.

In 2017, Poetic Hour opened up its doors to the poets beyond Kisumu, as we staged the first Poetic Hour Battle. This competition saw a large turnout of competitors from all over Kenya registering to participate in the Battle. The 2017 edition was staged at Anga Media – Kisumu, the chief guest being the Kisumu County Governor Hon. Prof. Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, accompanied by Kisumu County Senator Hon. Fred Outa. The winner of the battle was Briggedia Poet.

The year 2018 saw a further opening of the gates to the East Africa Community hence the rebrand of the event to East Africa Poetic Hour Battle.

Total submission of 60 was received from Kenya and Uganda, with 15 poets being shortlisted to participate in the glamorous gala staged at Acacia Premier Hotel on the 7^th of April 2018. The Winner, Willie Oeba from Nakuru (Kenya) took home a cash prize of KShs 100,000, Ras Godisoh (late) also from Kisumu Kenya came in at number two and Daphine Arinda of Uganda closed the top 3 brackets.

East Africa Poetic Hour Battle 2022

The 2022 East Africa Poetic Hour Battle is themed ‘POETRY FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE’ and is set to take place on 20^th May 2022 at VICTORIA COMFORT INN – Kisumu, Kenya. Using poetry and culture as a tool, the event brings onboard top poets from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania to perform in line with the theme and spark conversations on Poetry as a tool in Climate Justice in East Africa.

East Africa has suffered a great deal due to the climate change experienced all over the world, with perennial droughts, floods, extreme temperatures and even storms experienced on its coastline. Despite the fact that East African countries remain to be among the least carbon emitters, these effects have ravaged livelihoods in East Africa.

The conversation on Climate Change has remained to be a talk of the elite at the top of the social class. Fair, transparent and inclusive decision making in matters of climate change has been given a wide bath, with the talk of who bears the cost of climate change and the action to be taken to address it being swept under the carpet.

Based on this, East Africa Poetic Hour Battle is spearheading and creating the stage and space for conversation and championship for CLIMATE JUSTICE through POETRY as the tool of choice. The process will involve sensitization of the community through performing art and talks using various media platforms; social, electronic and print on CLIMATE JUSTICE and inclusivity in decision making. Through the process, we intend to integrate East Africa Community socially as a way of enhancing climate justice, human rights and peace and stability across the borders. The East Africa Poetic Hour Battle’s theme for this year is POETRY FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE.

The 2022 Battlers Include

KAMPALA – UGANDA

1. Afroetry The Unapologetic Poet
2. Irene A
3. Midnight Owl

LODWAR – KENYA

1. Salman Loa Peikine

KISII – KENYA

1. Talaa

KAKAMEGA – KENYA

1. Gleeh The Poet

KIGALI – RWANDA

1. Sylvestor Nsengimano
2. Bagirinka Zuhla

KISUMU – KENYA

1. Mudis
2. Simply Dysfunctional
3. Mbize The Poet
4. Mistari Za Wahenga

NAIROBI – KENYA

1. Lexas
2. Keith Malenga
3. Raff Mashairi