The Desired and the Divine
Several threads weave our lives together in this world, and their commonality makes them integral to our existence. I refer
Guest Editors: Sarah Lubala and Logan February
Cover Design by Tochi Itanyi
As a writer and poet who calls themselves spiritual and maintains spiritual practices I hereby declare with outstretched arms, forehead to the belly of mother earth and wind as my ancestors that the literary bread of this work is ancestrally communal. The breadth, the ballad, the sonic structure of 20.35 Africa: Anthology of Contemporary Poetry Vol. VIII spans generations and defiantly plants itself in rich soiled pastures of won and lost kinship. Portals elevate rabbits to goddesses and cancers slow deaths to afterlives. Each poem kneels at the presence of heartbreak, severed umbilical cords or the knowing that can only be felt in the crux of a haibun’s prayer. Ase’. Every poem an intentional beaded work threaded by an omnipresent spell of words.
– Anastacia-Renee, Side Notes from the Archivist
Several threads weave our lives together in this world, and their commonality makes them integral to our existence. I refer
To write from the continent today is to stand at a crossroads – where memory meets imagination, where elegy and
At 20.35 Africa, we seek to build towards the future of African letters that our readers, contributors, and staff deserve – one that uplifts living African poets from all over the continent and the diaspora. This effort is sustained by a committed team whose work is mostly pro bono. 20.35 Africa has thus thrived over the years through the sheer passion of its members, who share an understanding of the imperative position of their work. The other half of that work is you and we hope you will help us continue building into the future with your contributions.
Your generous support helps us pay for the administrative and general operating costs of running this organization. We want to thank you in advance for supporting living African poets and the pursuit of crafting a new contemporary voice, a collection of voices. Our publications remain free and open to the public for consumption. Your generosity and continuous support make all of this possible.