Workshops/Warsha

MANENO poets lead poetry writing workshops in Zanzibar that encourage a love for the written and spoken word. Through these workshops, we hope to engage people of all ages in a vibrant culture of reading, writing, and community, and to inspire a life-long love of words.

Our first workshop took place at the U.S. Embassy library with a focus on the poet Langston Hughes, April, 2011. Led by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein. Participants were Form IV students from Ben Bella school in Stone Town, Zanzibar.

LANGSTON HUGHES -- "MOTHER TO SON" POETRY WORKSHOP APRIL 2011:

 Our second workshop took place at the U.S. Embassy library with a focus on the poet Maya Angelou, April 2012. Led by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein and Gerry Bukini. Participants were Form V and Form VI students as well as members of the library's English club.

MAYA ANGELOU -- "CAGED BIRD" / SONGS OF FREEDOM POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP, APRIL 2012: 

Freedom sounds like 
a bomb bursting
like a drum, traditional 
like a good song
it's the sound of crying
the sound of victory
sounds like people shouting
bursts of dangerous chemicals
Freedom sounds like
birds singing
it's the sound of each animal
the cow
the goat
the lion 
the sheep
Freedom is the sound
of kings and queens
the revolutionary mind
the slow reaction of chemicals
like water on the sea. 
You can't tell the sea:
Water, go away. 
Freedom is the sound
of wisdom, of war
of children playing 
of lovers. 

-- Group Poem



NIKKI GIOVANNI MEMORY POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP  @ THE U.S. EMBASSY LIBRARY -- "My First Memory (of Librarians)" April 5, 2013

These Our Our Memories

I remember finding out I was pregnant. 
I remember when i entered my house for the first time. 
I remember when I ate a coin. 
I remember when I had a bad dream. 
I remember when my father beat me. 
I remember when I crashed a car at night. 
I remember singing a song with my father. 
I remember I bit my mother. I remember when I played with fire. 
I remember playing football with my grandfather. 
I remember when I graduated from school. I remember my first enemy. 
I remember the day you made me laugh so much. 
I remember when my mother fed me food. 
I remember watching a cat fight against a dog. 
I remember when they called me Kitoto. 
I remember feeling like I could fly. 
I remember standing with my mother on the farm. 
I remember the day I cooked chai all by myself. 
I remember when I jumped down from the tallest tree. 
I remember when my mother loved me. 

-- collective lines from poets in the Memory workshop, April 2013

ZANZIBAR HAIKU MARATHON -- April 25, 2013 Students read the works of Richard Wright, analyzed his Haiku written in Paris, France and then learned the rules of Haiku to write their own. 

We are together
Like a sun setting and the night
The ring and finger. 

Hey beautiful one!
Find the fruit that you most like:
It is delicious. 

A bird is flying
So beautiful in the sky
Higher and higher. 

-- Ali

Congratulations!
Flowers decorate the house. 
Red like hibiscus. 

-- Group Haiku

Do you see my dream? 
Yearning for development. 
Joyful will I rise. 

Colobus Monkey
Red colours shine, Jozani,
Found in Zanzibar. 

-- Ali

I have a dream. 
A president chooses me. 
Loved my idea. 

Zanzibar is mine. 
Nobody can touch its heart. 
Love it, kiss it. 

With a good culture, 
It gives out attractions, 
Tourists wanting it. 

-- Dr. B. 

Kanzu, kofia. 
Sitting on the baraza. 
Friday call to prayer.