Update

Hi

What it is?

This is to thank you very very much for joining us at the previous meets and to give you a little insight into the Lantern Meet of Poets.

The Lantern Meet of Poets is a society of young writers with the major objective of restoring to Africa the era of Great Literary legends.
In effort to begin this journey, The Lantern Meet set out by inviting the public to enjoy poetry written by...who else but themselves.

African culture, like many great traditions of the past, was very rich in poetry that was expressed through song, verse and rhyme by which the history of
tribes, stories of the heroism of legendary warriors and society’s norms were passed on. It was also used by famous poets like Okot p’Bitek to tackle
several burning issues during the days of Africa’s self-rediscovery after independence.

It is a paradox, therefore, that there seems to be a great aversion for poetry especially within the current generation’s educated bracket of Africans.
This problem can be traced to secondary school level where poetry is often presented to students as a very complicated form of
Self expression/communication, rather than as ‘the art of communication that involves use of the best words in the best order.’
This makes most students- including even many Literature students- avoid it altogether. The result is that most people do not get to discover and/or
develop their talent for poetry. The few individuals with a real appreciation of the art find themselves isolated, with no one to share their passion.
They too eventually give it up. Thus the Lantern Meet of Poets.

The Lantern Meet of Poets has staged two (2) public poetry recitals that took place on the 16th of August, 2008 in the CICP room and on the 30th of January,
2009 in the main auditorium both at the National Theatre. We plan to have our third public recital in August 2009. The specific date will be communicated.

The Lantern Meet of Poets meets once a fortnight at the national theatre from 3pm to 6pm (when people keep time...please keep time). We request the poet to have their poems typed out and their name (author’s name) left out. This is done to minimise biases during the critic.

We have two kinds of meets. The themed and non-themed (open) poetry meets. During themed poetry meets, a theme is communicated to the members who are challenged to write towards that particular theme in whatever perspective they choose.
It so happens that the next meet (3rd May 2009) will be themed and the theme is ‘child abuse’. Please remember that we do not restrict you from thinking outside the box. You may play Devils advocate or Gods light!
During the non-themed poetry meets, the poets bring whatever mix of poetry they choose to.


Again, we would like to thank you for attending our meets and hope to see you again at our next meet on Sunday 3rd May 2009 from 3pm-6pm.


For more details you can contact the following:
Guy Mambo-0782451218
Jason Sabiiti Ntaro-0712815895
Pasi-0711163492
Ojakol Raymond-0752447509