AfroWomenPoetry begins in August 2017, from a collaboration with Antonella Sinopoli and Davide Galati, the editorial staff of the online magazine Voci Globali. It’s an online platform that collects verses and stories of African female poets. Its main goal? Narrating women of Africa through poetry. We started in Ghana, in August 2017, meeting these “narrators” along the way, recording them in their own house or in their workplace in order to establish a feeling of trust and to get closer to their lives.
Their verses draw upon their own personal experiences and are inspired by those of thousands of other African women. They cover several topics and issues – domestic violence, the longing for freedom and autonomy, gender equality, the respect for the environment, rigorous social and familiar dynamics.
On this platform you may find a short introduction video, in which each poet presents herself. An essential feature of the website is the multilingual option: transcriptions of each poem, performed in a video by the artist, are included in the website, both in their original version – in English for now – and translated into Italian. It is also possible to access the videos via a YouTube channel, which features a short explanation of the texts.
Check out the project here.