Joshua Merchant is Black Queer (they/them) a native of East Oakland exploring the realm of love and what it means while processing trauma, loss, and heartbreak. They’ve had the honour to witness their work being held and understood in literary journals such as 580Split, Rigorous and Anvil Tongue Books.
mankind will come to call her mother,
yet, she is an ancestor to few.
now, for a mother of few to become a mother of many
the motion for adoption is moved.
Do you have reservations about the way African creative discuss mental health? What is your opinion about mental health issues and do you think this affects the way we tell our stories? We want you to create timeless pieces by making a blend of mental health and storytelling.
The poet laureate is easily one of our biggest events as a community. Just as the Nobel Prize is bestowed on an individual who has done exceptionally well in a particular field, with the poet laureate, we seek to honour and crown an outstanding creative every year.
We make sure that our themes border on heavy African narratives. For last year, we had “sankofa yenkyi”, a Ghanaian word from the Akan tribe that means “it is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.”
“My dad got me a poetry teacher, Paul Liam at the age of 8, to strengthen the meaning of poetry on top of my soul and to help with the foundation. After that coach, I gathered 30 poems suitable for publication. My dad published the book when I was 10 years old.”- Zakiyya Dzukog
Africa is likened to a woman, who dresses her keratin-rich, strong and dark hair in a way where a part is plaited round and the remaining part of the hair is left free-flowing.
If we had been asked again at this point if we thought being male or white would have made us happier, we would have responded in genuine puzzlement at what that strange vague word “happy” implied.
MARITAL RITES IN AFRICA || Soyoye Testimony Faith The origin of marriage in Africa is as old as the folklores told at the village squares to young offsprings.” —— Soyoye Testimony. In Africa, marriage is regarded as a pivotal part of our culture, and just like every other component part of this culture, there are …
Marry a white person, you’ll only have to buy a casket and mark a plot in the cemetery!
I looked on to the face of Mother
my siblings, friends, & relatives urging me to smile
they said this was for the best…