So happy to have this done!! Look out for more cool poemy things… share your thoughts, Love and Thanks to Tom Vandas who shot and directed “Two Clocks,” and “The Crew” (mugshots on the way!) that helped put this together.

By the way, you can find “Two Clocks” and lots of other lovely poems in  ”Blue Mothertongue.” – Do you have your copy? Get it.

One.

The poet’s first relationship is with the page; it is where the idea that birthed the poem is worked out, each word chosen and each line crafted. The page is the first performance space. Each move must be tight and flow with the next as in a dance. Is it possible for a second or third person read the text as you intend? That level of care and attention impacts what the work looks and sounds like as a performed piece. It’s common for a poet in performance to impose performative notions that are unnatural and uncalled for based on the text. How can we honor our texts and listen to how they move and what they say? As an aside, the poet’s capacity to produce new and imaginative pieces that grow with their work impacts their efforts to develop their brand, their market, and a community around their work.

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This FREE workshop is designed to heighten an awareness in poets of the words and ideas we weave together, with a view to increase their effectiveness on the page and in performance. We will pay very close attention to particular texts, looking at the particular elements that make a piece effective and those that do not, and how one may craft a performance or presentation. Space is limited to ten persons. Please send particular pieces you would like workshoped to nmawiyoo[at]gmail[dot]com at least 3 days before the workshop, if possible.

This workshop is sponsored by WAPI, A British Council Initiative. Skill Factory Workshops are part of the kaleidoscope of WAPI events, they’re intended to be spaces where practitioners from various disciplines can share their skills with others.

Come to the British Council in Upper Hill this Saturday September 20th 2008. We start at 11am, and will run for about 90min. (phew!)

I have news: henceforth, this portion of the ngwatilo.com site shall feature poem and song kernals, and ramblings that are trying to grow up into the stuff of poems and songs.

This portion of the site also invites your thoughts, your poem kernals, comments and discussions raised from the various threads. It is one portion of this grand plan I am working on, that may take some time to effect – such is this particular moment of my life. At the same time, this particular moment of my life is willing itself to make things happen. so expect the unexpected.

today, I would like to teach you how to pronounce NGWATILO. I should first tell you tht it is not an English word. It is a Bantu word, that I’m told should properly occur as Ng’watilo. Pronounced as NGWA-TI-LO. N in “Ngwa” is one syllable, like “Ngombe” – that sort of sound. It means “to hold on to”

Who are you, what do you “hold to” or believe? Why?

This is Ngwatilo.com, and you are live, use the comment section until further notice

One.

It’s 5.11am. Well before sunrise. I am awake. www.Ngwatilo.com is awake; we are here. It’s not long before sunrise I said. The cock that recently and magically appeared among my father’s hens is doing something I’d rather shout in your ear than attempt to notate: It would be deflated, and I suspect you don’t know how to read it yet.

It’s 5.14am, sunrise is a little closer; look out, you won’t know when it happens, except that suddenly I’ll be visible and you’ll be visible, and I’ll look up at you like I’ve been awake for some time, waiting for you to get some light in your eye, and see me, yes, but see your arm, and your feet and torso also. Then you might say stuff like, “I look grey today,” or “Lookie! biggest goosebumps Ever!” I won’t make you spell “grey” and betray your teacher, or tutors. I will be glad that you looked at yourself some; I’m kinda tired of hearing, “I feel like …” Naturally, I’ll be glad you see me – Ngwatilo, after all, means “to hold on to.” You wouldn’t nullify my name, and therefore me, by refusing to hold me, well, call it www.ngwatilo.com?

…

It’s 5.19am. I’m making an strategic plan with which to meet visibility; what are you going to do when the sun rises?

NB: Ngwatilo.com live’s baby. We LIVE!
Sincerely,

Ngwatilo