African Writers' Evening

The first African Writers' Evening of 2011 took place last Friday (25 March) at the Southbank Centre. Hosted by the irrepressible founder of these open mic events - Nii Ayikwei Parkes, it was a new venture for the well-loved events that have in the past taken place at the Poetry Cafe. The intimate Poetry Café events will still continue, but the Southbank venue enables a wider and bigger audience to see and hear new and newly established poets and authors perform and talk about their work to what is still very much a close knit and welcoming audience.

I loved the way that Nii recognised that on a joint panel the audience will steer their questions to the author or work that they already know most about, and so this time the young poets came up and performed their chosen work one-by-one, followed by their own question and answer session.

First up was Luul Hussein, still at school she plans to study journalism at university. I have to tell you that she is awesomely talented. Her poem Rocking-Side-to-Side, about unrequited young love, made you laugh at its poignancy and exhale when you recognised the punch line (and title) is actually all about teenage suicide. While Luul was an assured performer, she was also a sweetly shy and engaging interviewee, who is already clear that life was 'a battle for happiness' and it was 'hard - 'you got to get over it' when asked where she gets her ideas from.

Kayo Chingonyi was already at the stage where you could easily see Luul will be at in a few short years. He was a terribly confident performer who changed styles and rhythms throughout the five poems that he performed. My favourite was Red Shift - about an ageing of a man with an obsession for the colour red. Think of all the words that you know that describes that colour - and I am sure that you won't think of them all - but Kayo managed to include every one in this short poem. It is a gorgeous riff on red that ends with sense of sheer exhausting incompleteness. Brilliant.

The keynote of the evening was Nadifa Mohamed, the author of Black Mamba Boy, who had appeared at an African Writers' Evening a while ago. This is where Nii's accomplished programming really came alive, because Nadifa was returning not only as a published author, but also with a long list of prize nominations to her name and as the current holder of the Betty Trask Prize. Black Mamba Boy has been hugely acclaimed, and it was lovely to hear Nadifa read from a work that clearly means so much to her. Sadly she has decided that this will be her last reading from the book, and so she allowed the audience to select the bits that she read out. That was a beautiful touch that worked well, with what is clearly an intimate work for her, based as it is on her father's upbringing in Somalia and his travels cross North Africa to Europe during the 1930s.

The next Africa Writers’ Evening will take place in May.

Follow African Writers’ Evening on Facebook: www.facebook.com/africanwriters and on Twitter/AfricanWriters

This article also appears in the April edition of Lime magazine.

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Interview with

Nii Ayikwei Parkes

by Tricia

Nii Ayikwei Parkes is an author, poet, performance poet, editor and the founder of the African Writers’ Evening series of events. His book of poetry The Makings of You was published last year by Peepal Tree Press, the innovative Leeds based publisher that focuses on the best in Caribbean and Black British writing. I think that many of you will know of Nii’s work from his beautiful debut novel Tail of the Blue Birdthat was published in 2009.
Nii will be hosting the next African Writers’ Evening series event on Friday 25 March at the Southbank Centre, London. More information here: African Writers' Evening

Why did you set up the African Writers Evening events?

When I moved to the UK to 'become' a writer, the biggest loss I felt was the sense of community I had at home (in Ghana), but the other thing that became very clear as I started to go to events was that there was no space in which writers were comfortable being writers from Africa. None of the readings had the kind of community spirit I was used to from arts events in Ghana. But it was just a feeling until I had the opportunity as Poet-in-Residence at the Poetry Café to put on my own event.

What is the theme of the latest event?

We don't tend to have themes, but traditionally the March event is when we showcase emerging writers or new books. This year is no different; we have Nadifa Mohamed (author of Black Mamba Boy), an emerging novelist, alongside Kayo Chingonyi, a fabulous young poet, and Luul Hussein, a just-out-of-school short story writer.

How do you go about planning the programme?

We generally try to put a published writer on with an unpublished writer so we tend to have a fair idea of the published writers that we will put on, but not the unpublished writers as we read some manuscripts or go and watch performances to decide who to put on. Sometimes the choice of unpublished writers can determine which published author we pair with them. So, for instance I can say that we have been speaking to Abdulrazak Gurnah, Lola Shoneyin, Mohammed Naseehu Ali andBen Okri, but I can't say for sure when we will feature them.

Where can people register to get regular AWE updates?

They can simply visit our website at www.x-bout.com/awe to join our mailing list – or they can follow us on twitter @AfricanWriters or like us on facebook

Which writer or poet would you love to have take part in the AWE?

I think I've been trying to get Abdulrazak Gurnah on for a long time and I hope to get him soon. We were close last year, but it was our first time working as closely with the Southbank and we got our wires crossed with dates and deadlines so it didn't happen.

I have been fascinated by the writers are producing and publishing both prose and poetry. Recently there’s been Jackie Kay, Kei Miller and yourself. Do you know that your work is going to be fiction or poetry when you sit down to start it?

The answer to your question is no, not at the idea stage. For me it starts with an image in my head. It's only when I start to write it out I get a sense of its scale and complexity. Since I'm too terrified to do epic poems my more complex ideas often end up as prose – although that may change as I improve as a writer.

What is your most ideal/perfect writing environment?

Lying down with some good music in the background. Oddly, since I used to read lying down as a kid I find that I write best lying down too.

You recently launched a blog using short bulleted comments and thoughts, why that format?

I chose the format because I realised that I often end up not blogging about things that come to mind because I feel it will take too much time. In this format, I hope I'll be able to push myself to speak more, but I really have no idea what I'll be blogging about until I encounter something that troubles me. I think I also returned to the blog as a medium because I have found things like facebook and twitter updates easy, but ultimately useless for archiving thoughts. [Nii's blog - here]

Tell us about your poetry collection The Makings of You?

The Makings of You really came about because I was pushed. I'd had several poems gathering dust for years and I'd been published widely in magazines, but I was spending most of my time editing other people's work and running events so I hadn't ever sat down to try to shape my own work into a collection yet. Out of the blue, the fabulous Kwame Dawes approached me about putting a collection together and I started the process of shaping the book. It was quite chaotic to begin with; I selected a lot of what I thought were good poems, which didn't seem to sit well together, I threw a few out, then I began to see a range of approaches in my work that I could split into themes e.g. sometimes I use something utterly unreal to explore very concrete ideas, as in the ballast series and other times I take the mundane and render it fantastic. Once I settled on the themes I found that I had to drag out my dog-eared notebooks and transform a few neglected ideas into full grown poems to flesh out the collection. It was great fun and sincerely hope that the collection takes people on a journey at least as good as the one I took in writing it.

The Ballast series of poems are introduced with lines from a Percy Bysshe Shelley poem – then to a Balloon Laden with Knowledge, and imagines the slave trade undertaken by balloons rather than ships. How have people responded to this work – have you performed it live?

The response has been amazing. As you can imagine, these are not easy things to talk about, but I felt that approaching the subject in this way would allow for a new kind of dialogue and I have been stunned by how well it has been received, especially on my recent US tour. It's been very humbling.

Tail of the Blue Bird was really well acclaimed in its reviews, where did the inspiration for the story come from?

The inspiration came from a variety of sources, in that chaotic way that truth has of creeping up and stunning you. I had the image of some remains, my mother sort-of adopted a child and I read an article about a people from in the forests of what we now call Brazil who had just been discovered in the 2000s. In the end, they dovetailed into an exploration of power.

Tail of the Blue Bird Is often first described as a detective novel, do you agree?

I don't disagree, but I think it would be misleading to call it just that. I have a theory that people will call a book what they want to call it. In the end all good literature is about humanity and humanity is too complex to categorise; I can't say exactly what the book is about, but I can talk about what I was exploring, which – in the case of Tail of the Blue Bird – was notions of power: the power of the community versus the individual, of the narrative of science versus the narrative of fate, of the truth of written claims versus the truth of verbal claims, state justice versus local justice, even the power of ignorance and innocence... I was exploring all of these things. My books are just maps of my explorations.

It's often clear when talking to writers that the last thing that occurred to them would be the that they’d have to perform their work, be interviewed live on stage for example, but you seem to relish performing your work, what came first – the writing or the performing?

The performing. All communication is performance so by default that came first because I could speak before I could write. I actually sometimes question my ability to write, but I never question my ability to tell a story.

You have been a poet in residence a few times. How do you keep your ideas and energy flowing in a role like that?

I try to forget I'm in residence and just hover in the wind. Seriously, residencies are fun, but challenging – it's like being a canary in a gold cage; you're well fed, you can see the world and its possibilities, depending on the size of the cage, you can move a little, but you can't really fly – or, in a paraphrase of Robert Cray's words, 'the world has wings but all you have is shoes'; how do you plant your song in the wind?

How do you inspire the employees that are doubters about the creative role while in-residence?

I don't worry about them. I do my thing and if they like it, fine. Otherwise, too bad.

You’ve recently been promoting your work in the states, how did the Americans respond?

I think I've mentioned in an earlier response; it was a humbling experience. I was very well received and one of the things you notice in the US is they really support you by buying books when they come to your reading. In Ghana the books tend to be a higher percentage of disposable income, but even they buy more books than people do in the UK when they go to a reading. Maybe we go to the libraries more? Is that why the Tories want to close them down? I don't know.

Tell us about he chapbooks series that you have written? Will you be doing more?

Let's see, so far I've had one of jazz poems, M is for Madrigal, the ballast series, Ballast: A Remix, of course and recently, I've released an e-book of some of my performance writings called This Is Not A Love Poem. I also released my out-of-print first chapbook, eyes of a boy, lips of a man, on Amazon Kindle. Chapbooks are just my way of continuing to share poetry while doing other things so we'll see.

What books did you enjoy as a child?

As a child? Wow, everything – especially what I wasn't supposed to read, Dickens' Great Expectations (abridged), Meshack Asare's The Brassman's Secret, Roald Dahl – and later, Ama Ata Aidoo's Dilemma of a Ghost, Ola Rotimi's Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, Dickens'Great Expectations (full version), Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter and bundles of Mickey Spillane. I discovered Toni Morrison in my very late teens – at 19, I think – and fell in love with her work too.

What are you reading to your children at the moment?

Stuff I didn't read like Cat in the Hat, but I tell lots of stories I know because I was told so we do story time in the dark a lot; just my voice and the thread of light creeping in by the curtains. I'm a spokesperson for BookStart and I love getting their packs every time we cross the right age milestone.

What are you working on now?

A book of short stories called The City Will Love You, exploring our relationship with cities, for Random House. I had to put the next novel on the back burner so I could spend more time being Daddy and less time being anti-social-dreamer.

Did you study writing?

I studied sciences, but later did an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck for professional (employability) reasons. I would recommend studying Creative Writing ONLY IF you know exactly what you want from the programme. I know many people who lose themselves, their individuality, because they are swayed this way and that by people's opinions. I think you have to have fairly stubborn ideas about what you want to be/achieve as a writer in order to fully benefit from the teachings of creative writing courses. Of course, I'd recommend Birkbeck, and my other alma mater Manchester Metropolitan University, which is very strong for poetry, but if you want to complete a novel go to the City University London one.

How would you say to encourage an hesitant writer to share their work?

Just do it. If you don't feel ready, you're not ready; it's really that simple.

What was it like having a Poem on the Underground? [Nii's poemTin Roof was selected.]

Surreal, but satisfying.

What is your favourite book?

Tough question. It changes, but I always say that my top 10 includes Mariama Bâ's So Long a Letter, Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides,Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin and RL’s Blues by Walter Mosley – add Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. To be honest, the only book constantly on that list is Mariama Bâ's So Long a Letter.

Do you have a book that changed your life?

Changed my life? No. My daughter replaced books a long time ago and she's a very complex hardback. Well, maybe the French-English dictionary.

Suggest a book that you think that the Black Reading Group should read?

If you haven't read Mia Couto or Jose Eduardo Agualusa, you should read something by either of them. Abdulrazak Gurnah's By The Sea is a good one to try – not too long, very good. For African-American, try Percival Everett's Erasure – strikingly entertaining – or his weirder, but more profound God's Country.

What question should I have asked you and what is the answer?

My favourite food, because it's the one question (when asked outside of Ghana) that allows you to see me happy and sad at the same time – a very rare sight. The answer is Groundnut Soup... with anything!

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