WHAT IS IT: AfroWomenPoetry is a socio-cultural project whose goal is to open a window onto the women’s poetry coming from Sub-Saharan Africa. This is a way for women to tell their stories, their struggles and their hopes.
WHO: The project was founded by the journalist and videomaker Antonella Sinopoli, who is also editor-in-chief of the magazine Voci Globali.
Voci Globali, together with the namesake non-profit organization, is the editor of the project. VG deals with a wide range of topics, such as human rights, migrations, social issues, with a special focus on the African continent. AWP is one among many educational and cultural projects launched by the magazine.
WHY: We firmly believe that only by listening to others we can overcome ignorance, stereotypes and bias against Africa and African people. Also, the African art world is extremely diverse – slam and poetry in this particular case. And we think it should become known to a wider public.
HOW: To spread around AfroWomenPoetry we are using our multilingual website in English, French and Italian – and our Youtube channel. We are also making events, conferences, shows and workshops – we spoke at Radio CitiFM in Accra and at Radio Lomé, the radio of Togo.
The project has been promoted by newspapers, special interest magazines and news agencies. Besides, we had the chance to introduce the idea in several events: in the Town Hall of Padua, in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at University of Bologna, together with the project GRACE (Gender and Cultures of Equality in Europe). In Bologna we also held an event with Amilcar Cabral library and the Women’s House. We took part at the 2019 edition of the Internazional Festival of Civil Poetry in Vercelli.
WHERE WE ARE NOW: We started in Ghana, then we moved to Togo, Ivory Coast and Uganda. So far we have met and recorded eleven Ghanaian women poets (34 poems in total), nine Togolese women poets and slammers (28 poems), ten Ivorian poets and slammers (32 poems overall), thirteen Ugandan poets and spoken words artists (39 poems).
NEEDS AND GOALS: Our main goal is to promote AfroWomenPoetry, both in Italy and abroad, in collaboration with Voci Globali, starting a wide range of events with publishing houses, libraries, cultural institutions, women’s organizations, schools, universities, and newspapers.
We are also looking for any partnership willing to finance and expand our project.
We currently work together with “La Macchina Sognante – The Dreaming
Machine, writing and visual arts from the world“. “Ayzoh!“, photographic and participative reportages, realized a shord video for us. We are part of the project Words4link – Migrant writings for integration and we have a partnership with LetteraDonna, an Italian magazine focused on gender issues.