If I could hold back
the inevitable
and push the
unpredictable out
into the open …
If I could swallow
my qualms about fate
and blow bubbles
of spontaneity
from my wand of youth …
Then I would scream
clear into the night
and let the open
swallow me up whole.
Then I would shatter
the “windows to the world”
and reinvent them
when my youth says I’m ready.

Writer Unkown

Why can’t I be that girl? asked one young artist, Alysia, in her poem at the Philadelphia Regional Final of Brave New Voices, a show that was produced by Russell Simmons after a successful 6 seasons of Def Poetry.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In her poem, Alysia is confronting a boyfriend who wants her to remain in the shadows as ”his whore,’ for no one to know that “He holds her hand.” It is a pain filled poem about a problem many young people experience: giving in to a man’s sexual demands only to be branded a whore, for his friends and family to be unaware of her very existence. This powerful poem illustrates the power of the  spoken word.

Alysia and many other poets are using a new form of poetry to express their feelings on love: spoken word.

What is spoken word?

According to Wikipedia, Spoken Word is a phenomenon where poets speak their lyrics or poetry rather than singing them.  Spoken Word is related to “poetry slams” where spoken word artists  square off in cabaret-style duels. Although it has been popular in India for centuries, it only took shape in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the United States, slam poetry probably arose from rap music and rapper competitions. The common element is protest and a critical or corrective tone.

New HBO series

Brave New Voices is a new HBO series about teenagers using Spoken Word. It many young people picking up the pen and taking hold of the microphone with passion, intelligence, creativity, honesty and power. Youths express their thoughts and emotions in creative and often poignant ways.

The series has become a success mainly due to the involvement of Youth Speaks, an organization founded in 1996 which has been a leading nonprofit presenter of Spoken Word performance, education, and youth development programs in the country. In addition to hosting local and national youth poetry slams, festivals, reading series, and other events, Youth Speaks also offers a comprehensive slate of literary arts education programs during the school day and after-school. In total, Youth Speaks works with 45,000 teens per year in the Bay Area alone and has created partner programs in 36 cities across the United States.

I don’t love you

Below is a poem by one of the contestants in the Brave New World Slam poetry series, entitled, “I don’t love you.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

V is for virgin

Below is a performance from Brave New Voices by a young artist named George Watsky, called, “V is for Virgin.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

The power of the spoken word

Diego, a 16 years old spoken word poet featured on the HBO series, talks about his love for this new form of art. In his own performance, he compares his feelings about spoken word poetry to the love of a girlfriend.

Click here to view the embedded video.

First poetry sex slam

On May 16, 2007, the first ever Poetry Sex Slam was hosted by M.A.R.S., (Men Advocates for Responsible Sexuality), an organization that addresses the sexual and reproductive health concerns of incarcerated males age 13-25.

M.A.R.S. hosted the event in collaboration with the Corvallis poetry group, “Pints and Poetry.” Festivities took place at Iovinos Ristorante in Corvallis, and over 100 participants attended. Audience members judged poets delivering messages on safe sex, love, and sexuality in the form of spoken-word poetry.

On May 14 2008, MARS hosted the 2^nd annual Poetry Sex Slam at Cloud 9. This time, the audience more than doubled as over 200 people attended.

Sharing their experiences

Youth Action Network is another organization that has been using spoken word to reach out to others. Teens involved with the organization share their experiences of young people growing up in Canada.

As poetry changes in form and style, the way it affects young people has changed too. Young people are using this new form of poetry to let their brave new voices be heard.

Is theater a useful tool when it comes to teaching young people about sex and love?

Youth must be educated on love, relationships and sexuality. In this context, many countries are looking at ways in which they can approach these sensitive topics without seeming to condone and encourage young people to engage in sex at an early age.

Only a handful of film producers and playwrights have used this medium to demystify and educate the youth on these matters. Below are examples from different countries.

What is your opinion: Is theater a useful tool when it comes to teaching young people about sex? Please share your experience.

Keeping films for children and youth in focus

Lola Kenya Screen is an annual international audiovisual media movement that seeks to place production tools in the hands of children and youth for the advancement of literacy, gender equity, self expression and democracy. This year’s Lola Kenya Screen Festival (2009) presented films that addressed sexuality, self-determination, HIV/Aids, spirituality and friendship.

“Stupid words, deaf ears”

Of great note was the film “Palabras necias, oidos sordos”,  (“Stupid words, deaf ears”), a one-minute fictional film from Argentina:

Daniela asks her mother what sex education is, but her mother in an effort to avoid the topic pretends to be very busy preparing food for the family and refers Daniela to her dad for an answer.

Ends up getting gang-raped

“A crack in the wall”,  a film directed by Phillippe Talavera of Namibia. In this film Susan Njikata, a university student goes to a club with her friends where she ends up getting gang-raped.

A full review of the festival and the films showcased can be found here.

Love and incest

“Sex in the Summer in the City” is a series that was showing at the Black Ensemble Theatre under the direction of Jackie Taylor http://www.blackensembletheater.org/jackie_taylor.php whose mission is to eradicate racism and its damaging effects upon our society through the utilization of theater arts.

The mission of Black Ensemble Theater is to showcase the history of African American people, while reaching out to a cross-cultural audience and serving disenfranchised communities. All plays in the series are directed by Daryl Brooks, and each introduces audience members to a different playwright, with a perspective on sexuality.

The series begins with Wendell Etherly’s “A Love Misplaced,” which dives right in and tackles incest, revolving around the role that sexuality plays in family life. Etherly, an Illinois Arts Fellowship Award-winning playwright, depicts the painful mourning process of a man who has recently lost his wife and who realizes that he has neglected his daughter, a girl who tries to find love in all the wrong places.

Ignoring youth

“Youth…can be an instrumental force in promoting social change, yet they are largely ignored and stifled”

The quote is from Cynthia Burdyshaw, who is the founder of IMAGES (formerly New Image Teen Theatre), a group that has been presenting original performances created by and for adolescents and young adults. Each year, a cast of eight teenagers of varying ethnic, socio-economic, and academic background backgrounds, ages 16 to 19, are chosen to participate in the program. They dedicate most of their summer and free time to prepare for one or two performances throughout the 7 1/2 month season.

“Contraceptive Congo” explain the proper use of birth control, especially condoms. This playful comedy begins with Brandon and Maia, a couple in love, who show that they truly care about one anther’s well-being. Brandon tells Maia that he believes it’s’ now time to become more intimate…”You know, have sex.”

Read more about New Image

Mother and daughter

Southwest Community Health Center’s Teen Theater Program is an educational theater group performing original works dramatizing important social and health issues for youth, such as parent-teen communication, body image, teen pregnancy, gang prevention, non-violent communication, healthy relationships, and positive self-esteem.

The group has written and performed plays on different themes that affect the youth. Some of their plays are; “In the waiting room” which portrays teens discussing hot topics such as emergency contraception and abortion. “Mother and daughter” which is about beginning a conversation with parents, among others.

Picture: From Lola Kenya Screen.

Words can sometimes fail to show the stark reality but one can never go wrong with a video footage of the actual victims. The message most often than not does reach home when the victim speak in their own voice.

Here are some featured videos of various youth in different African countries talking about their experiences on Sex, relationships, love and the harsh consequences.

Catherine Wanjiku, a 16 year old, pregnant with her 2^nd baby from one of the many Kenyan slums.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Alphelele Ndamase is an 18 year student at Hillbrow High School in South Africa. She admits that she is in love with her teacher whilst still having a boyfriend

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pamoja Mtaani is an animation video game that was developed through the collaboration of the U.S government and a private entertainment company have teamed up to  help curb the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The  Voice Of America (VOA) video takes a look at the Teenage Pregnancy in Nigeria in this video

Click here to view the embedded video.

A significant number of bloggers in Africa write poems to express their feelings of love, hurt, betrayal, regret, pain and joy.

The topic of love and relationships is one that evokes a lot of interest and expression from young people in all spheres regardless of race or social status.

This more often than not does border on sex, something that most African youth term a taboo to talk about but ironically are engaging in at an even younger age than ever seen before

One could attribute this to lack of sex education in almost all African institutions and a virtual no go zone as far as family discussions go. It is due to this that many young people are often misguided about the fine line between love and sex, their sexuality and how to handle relationships with the opposite sex.

Young people “out to punish their parents”

The previous lack of forums where young people could easily discuss their experiences, fears, desires and opinions openly has for a long time made it seem like the young people are out to punish their parents and just acting rebellious and engaging in relationships that lead to either pregnancy, HIV infection or abuse.

The internet has also gained a similar if not a slightly greater interest as Love and relationships to the youth everywhere. This has been proliferated greatly by the emergence of social networking sites with Face Book having the greatest impact on young people who can access the internet.  This is because this particular social networking site has made it easier for young people to meet old friends, former high school mates and even peers that they had a crush on but barely had the guts the approach.

Those seeking to express their thoughts, feelings and opinions have turned to blogs- another type of social networking medium that is slightly different in that it allows one to share their experiences in a diary like format and can receive feedback in form of comments.

Blogging about love in Africa

According to Afrigator – a social media aggregator and directory built especially for Africans who publish and consume content online; there are currently 11,386 blogs in Africa with South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya respectively having the most number of blogs. The total might be higher than that as not all bloggers have registered with Afrigator.

Out of the total, there is a significant number of bloggers who have chosen to let their poems be the tools of expressing their feelings of love, hurt, betrayal, regret, pain and joy while some have also used poetry to speak out on the ills that are affecting many African Societies.

A plea for forgiveness

Thelma Migue Flinston is a  mother and a fun loving person as she describes herself in her blog cizoepoetry.

She says this of her blog

THIS IS WHERE YOU GET POETRY AT IT’S BEST. THIS IS THE MIRROR TO MY SOUL.

Her poem Ashamed is a plea for forgiveness and feeling of deep guilt for something that has made the person she deeply cares about change.

One can easily tap into the emotional turmoil in the poem as she describes her futile attempt in seeking forgiveness

I am sorry for what I did,
I didn’t mean to embarrass you.
I saw the look in your eyes
I felt the pain
I am ashamed of what I did.

I don’t know what I did wrong
But I can feel it all around
I can tell by the way
You look at me.
I miss the look
That said I was your only gal.
©thelma migue, 2009

read the rest of the poem here

Her other poem Tragedy is also on love and a relationship that ensued after she met this person 2 years ago. The poem has an interesting twist to it and is proof of Thelma’s stretched imagination.

Tragedy

Two years ago,
We met at the mall,
Sized each other up
Neither of us was ready to approach the other.
Finally he gave in
Names and numbers were exchanged
Places of work and residences discussed
As we got to know each other better.
We sized each other up

Read Full Poem

True to her blog’s description, hers is truly a place where she lets you look into the mirror that reflects her soul’s emotions.

But what about consequences?

Wayne Visser is an ardent poem contributor and the force behind  Poets of Africa – A blog for all Poets of Africa to share their work with each other and the world. He  is  the Founder and CEO of CSR International and the author/editor of seven books on the role business in society. Wayne lives enjoys art, writing poetry, spending time outdoors and travelling in his home continent of Africa.

In his poem We Could he explores issues of  consequences, responsibility, expectations and destiny

We could …

But what about consequences?

I’ve thought about it

And savoured the thought

Dreamed about it

And woke up still smiling

So, we could …

But what about responsibilities?

The thrill of beginnings

Leads to the ache of endings

Happy-go-lucky now

Means sad-and-lonely later

Yes, we could …

Read the full Poem here

Love games

Wayne has written a large collection of poetry on various themes and on love he has written on themes like adultery, afterglow, cyber- chat, enchanted, love games and mystery among others.

Injete Chesoni’s poem Healing Rain is a poem of utter heart ache amidst fading hope of a love break up

I thought my tears would make you love me again,
I thought my tears would fall on the roots of our love
and nourish it like rain.
I thought my tears would pierce your heart,
and help us to make a brand new start.

I thought my tears would make you feel my anguish and pain,
and draw you back into my arms again.
I thought my tears would flow with yours
and create for us a pool of love.
I thought my tears were heavenly showers
with magical healing powers.
A trickling sent from the heavens above,
That would fill our hearts with joy and love.

From Healing Rain: Heartbreak Poems, Break-Up Poems and Sad Love Poems By Injete Chesoni.

Her’s is a BLOG that

FEATURES ARTWORK, METAL ART, POETRY AND SHORT STORIEs.

Time to take a bow

Glady’s is ‘A proud Kenyan Undergraduate’ whose blog The Undergraduate features her poetry on love and relationships. Her poem, time to take a bow is a her latest poem on a lover she has lost to someone else.

Her other poem Kisses is a piece on her love and vow of devotion.

Other poets that have written on love and relationships are  The East African Poet in his poem Letter from a contract worker – Antonio Jacinto

RawPoet a blog by Eastlandah  also features a poem by Laban Erapu called I beg you

It is interesting to see just how many have turned to blogs as tools to express their deep feelings and emotions through poetry  and it is undoubtedly a new forum that young people in Africa can use to get their voices heard on a subject that still met with a lot guarded emotion. Of love and relationships.