At 20.35 Africa, we remain enthralled by the fresh poetic voices springing out of the continent and its diaspora. This symphony of diverse poets employs a broad range of style and form in their work, and according to Phillipa Yaa de Villiers “explore and expand English to resonate the multiplicity of African voices.” In August 2020, we officially began the Conversation Series in a bid to have a real sense of contemporary African poetics. Beginning with a conversation between Cheswayo Mphanza & Nkateko Masinga, the Series has brought together poets from across the continent and beyond to discuss contemporary African poetry. Central to these conversations is the question: what is contemporary African poetry, and what does it mean for us all in this age? The Conversation Series has hosted a cross-section of poets who, through in-depth conversations, define their craft, tell their stories, and infuse novel understanding into the still-evolving oeuvre of contemporary African poetry. Variegated themes cropping up from such conversations include linguistic innovation, rewriting faith, the body as a landscape of memory, poetry as healing, and contemporary African poetics, among others.
In continuing the conversation about contemporary African poetry with the view of understanding its craft and poetics, 20.35 Africa is announcing the launch of the Interview Series. This Series aims to contribute to the development of critical discussions on poetic inventiveness and creativity in contemporary African poetry. It envisions a literary and creative African space where poetry is taken out of the books and libraries and made alive, fresh, and accessible to the growing numbers of stakeholders in contemporary African literature. To achieve this vision, the Interview Series will center precisely on what literary creatives and other stakeholders say about their own work. We take it as a given that what writers say about their craft is an indispensable first-stop to understanding contemporary African poetry. Alongside poets, the Series will feature literary scholars, editors, curators, and organizers of poetry prizes, among other stakeholders of contemporary African poetry.
With no orientation on what contemporary African poetry means to us all in this age, we remain ungrounded as readers and scholars. As such, 20.35 Africa’s Interview Series will provide an engaging space for stakeholders of contemporary African poetry to help shape the production of a relevant body of knowledge on the criticism of African poetry. We look forward to publishing our first interview with writer and founder of Writers Project Ghana, Martin Egblewogbe, in July 2022.