To download the first, second, and third editions, click here, here, and here respectively.
Presenting the fourth edition of the KSR Monthly Gazelles. In this edition, we bring to you fresh and young voices.
The pre-order tenure is going to last for 4 days, starting today 26 February. Thereafter, gazelles will be finally available to download on 1 March. Feel free to order as many copies as you want. To accompany the gazelles is a poetry podcast of ten poems which shall be released also on 1 March, free-to-listen and to download on Anchor/Spotify and Soundcloud.
Click on the covers to pre-order. Each gazelle costs N1,000
A Flower Is Not the Only Thing That’s Fragile by Joemario Umana
Joemario Umana invents the voice of a poet-cleric in his gazelle A Flower Is Not… And his homily is to decry the culture of silence and indifference society perpetrates against boys and men. Most of these poems are about his personal battles with this issue. He writes “there’s something the incense / shares with a boy’s voice—they are both good / at disappearing…” He employs religious imageries in some places drawing from his Christian upbringing, even when it feels he uses same as rebellion to the religion.
Hijra by Odu Ode
In this gazelle, Odu Ode returns us to the poet’s quintessential occupation as a sojourner, and he not-so-subtly revels in showing his penmanship, as in the poem “Dear Benue Pyrite” signalling Soyinka’s grandfather style and aureate musicality. Ode is more interested in language even as his themes are revealed to his readers without the compromise of stylishness. “I seek refuge against the illusion of this voyage,” he writes. There’s the familial in this gazelle; there are poems about the road and travel; and there’s the understanding of loss and trauma.
The Apocalypse by Pacella Chukwuma-Eke
Pacella assumes a myriad of voices and personas in her poetry to explore an expanse of themes and subjects in this gazelle. There’s a cancer patient in their last hours commenting on their fate. Elsewhere Pacella writes about forbidden love. This poet constantly brings God up for questioning in her poems, and is probably why there’s an imminent apocalypse if she doesn’t get her answers. Her words overflow and become more songlike, to be animated on a stage. Maybe in another life she was a rapper. This is one goddamn conscious poet to read.
Florida Babel Eden by Alice Ameh
Alice Ameh is our schoolteacher and mother figure who reminds us of the things we choose to ignore or forget in this fast-paced capitalist and decaying world. In this gazelle she bemoans gun violence; and writes about childhood nostalgia, a lost country, womanhood, sinfulness, romance, and more. She laments but also uplifts with her words. She calls herself a poet who “finds beauty and meaning in the tapestry of everyday emotions.” Her gazelle Florida Babel Eden does not stray from this task.
An Epiphany of Roses byErinola Daranijo
As the title of Daranijo’s gazelle suggests, the epiphany of roses is a journey through vulnerabilities and its limits. The language is conscious and pulses with sensitivity. The poet seeks escape here; he also seeks to be heard and to give voice to the suppressed.
We look forward to a great year of poetry with you as you place your pre-orders and share the links to other lovers of poetry.
Konya Shamsrumi is an African poetry collective excited about all things poetry. The Gazelles Project was created to put money in our poets’ pockets while building a vibrant African poetry community by exploiting modern and digital-savvy means of appreciating, consuming and distributing poetry. We also wish to use it to build a database of African poetry lovers where we can bring you all the good news and books and publication about poetry continent-wide. Why not join our community? Make that pre-order and visit shamsrumi.org and digitial.shamsrumi.org for more.
For more information visit here.
