BNAP INTERVIEW.
1. Tell us about your self
I am Juma Brenda, a Kenyan, A graduate of Theatre Arts and Film Technology from Kenyatta University and currently pursuing an MA in the same discipline. I prefer to call myself a versatile Artist because my form of art revolves around performing Art, literary art and visual art. I am a published poet Best New African Poet 2016, a Filmmaker, an Actress, a stage and screen writer and a Makeup Artist.
My career has been successful because of the strong pillars in my life. God being the first pillar for giving me amazing talents. my parents who saw a talent from a tender age and natured it, my Mentor, Hero, Role model and sister Dr.Anne Ouma, for always guiding me and enabling me to be on the move to ensure I am always on the right path to get closer to my dream, my sister Joan, the number one fun, who reads, edits and critics my work and the ONE Dr.Zipporah Okoth, her lecturer and whom she got the inspiration for her career in Theatre Arts and film
2. Tell us about the poetry scene in your country
Wow! That’s an interesting question. Kenya is blessed with notable poets with the females such as Prof Micere Mugo, Philo Ikonya, Sitawa Namwalie and Ngwatilo Mawiyoo taking the lead. These women have taken Kenyan poetry to an international platform and inspire me as a poet to go beyond my limits. Besides, the Kenyan Government has included poetry in the high school curriculum and in National Drama and Music festival-a factor that has helped to nurture and shape young upcoming poets. Spoken word which is a sub branch of poetry has also become quite common especially among the youth in the past four years and therefore shows a positive trend towards Kenyan poetry.
3. What influences your creativity?
There are a lot of aspects that influence my creativity as a writer. For starters, I get a lot of inspiration from socio-political and economic factors that offer diverse information. Besides, I derive my creativity from nature and dreams- you know like when I go to sleep and dream.
4. How do you get around life and your creativity, how do you achieve balance between these, living and creativity
God does the planning I then perform my mandate.it is just as simple as that.
5. What do you think is lacking in writing or poetry making in the continent and how do you think we can solve this?
Originality, most of us do not want to write from an Afrocentric perspective but have adopted Eurocentric way that kills our authenticity as African writers. I believe we have so many stories that need to be told that still appeals to the global market and this is the only way we can preserve our stories and culture. Solving this goes back to ME as a writer that’s it.
6. Tell us something funny or mischievous a little crazy that happened to you that you have kept a secret
Haaaa! If I say it won’t be a secret anymore that’s the tricky bit, but it’s okay I will go for this one. I remember in high school something really risky ever happened to me and funny at the same time. I overslept that day and being a school prefect I knew the teacher on duty would punish me more. Fortunately, I had a spring bed that was indented in the middle. So when the teacher on duty came inside the hostel, I quickly entered my bed and pulled my school uniforms, books and some files on top of myself. Then I took the bed sheet and laid it on myself so that the teacher would notice me. Then I held my breath for a few seconds and tried to be a still as possible. My trick worked! When the teacher came, he didn’t notice anything and simply passed by my bed. When he had left, I slowly crept out of bed and went to class.
7 If you were a poem what type of a form would you be?
I would be a sonnet. The rhyming schemes are so beautiful and magical. A sonnet sounds like a flowing river.
8 What types of sports are you into?
You got me here!
Am not a sports person, but I love dancing?
9. Tell us about your poems in BNAP
It was an honor to get my poems published in BNAP. I had different inspirations for each of the three poems. THE CITY QUEENS came as a result of the daily things that I see happening in my city that has almost become a culture. I wanted to tell a simple story that my audience could relate to all this being brought by the `post modernity effect` that some people have adopted without caution. HER is female gender oriented poem that portrays what women go through psychologically and how they do not have a voice at the end of it all. CULTURE is a poem about the stereotyping of African woman in a traditional setting, where their feminity is guided by set of patriarchal rules. But at the same time they come at an expense of the women who are dehumanized all in a bid to make them submissive.
1. Tell us about your self
I am Juma Brenda, a Kenyan, A graduate of Theatre Arts and Film Technology from Kenyatta University and currently pursuing an MA in the same discipline. I prefer to call myself a versatile Artist because my form of art revolves around performing Art, literary art and visual art. I am a published poet Best New African Poet 2016, a Filmmaker, an Actress, a stage and screen writer and a Makeup Artist.
My career has been successful because of the strong pillars in my life. God being the first pillar for giving me amazing talents. my parents who saw a talent from a tender age and natured it, my Mentor, Hero, Role model and sister Dr.Anne Ouma, for always guiding me and enabling me to be on the move to ensure I am always on the right path to get closer to my dream, my sister Joan, the number one fun, who reads, edits and critics my work and the ONE Dr.Zipporah Okoth, her lecturer and whom she got the inspiration for her career in Theatre Arts and film
2. Tell us about the poetry scene in your country
Wow! That’s an interesting question. Kenya is blessed with notable poets with the females such as Prof Micere Mugo, Philo Ikonya, Sitawa Namwalie and Ngwatilo Mawiyoo taking the lead. These women have taken Kenyan poetry to an international platform and inspire me as a poet to go beyond my limits. Besides, the Kenyan Government has included poetry in the high school curriculum and in National Drama and Music festival-a factor that has helped to nurture and shape young upcoming poets. Spoken word which is a sub branch of poetry has also become quite common especially among the youth in the past four years and therefore shows a positive trend towards Kenyan poetry.
3. What influences your creativity?
There are a lot of aspects that influence my creativity as a writer. For starters, I get a lot of inspiration from socio-political and economic factors that offer diverse information. Besides, I derive my creativity from nature and dreams- you know like when I go to sleep and dream.
4. How do you get around life and your creativity, how do you achieve balance between these, living and creativity
God does the planning I then perform my mandate.it is just as simple as that.
5. What do you think is lacking in writing or poetry making in the continent and how do you think we can solve this?
Originality, most of us do not want to write from an Afrocentric perspective but have adopted Eurocentric way that kills our authenticity as African writers. I believe we have so many stories that need to be told that still appeals to the global market and this is the only way we can preserve our stories and culture. Solving this goes back to ME as a writer that’s it.
6. Tell us something funny or mischievous a little crazy that happened to you that you have kept a secret
Haaaa! If I say it won’t be a secret anymore that’s the tricky bit, but it’s okay I will go for this one. I remember in high school something really risky ever happened to me and funny at the same time. I overslept that day and being a school prefect I knew the teacher on duty would punish me more. Fortunately, I had a spring bed that was indented in the middle. So when the teacher on duty came inside the hostel, I quickly entered my bed and pulled my school uniforms, books and some files on top of myself. Then I took the bed sheet and laid it on myself so that the teacher would notice me. Then I held my breath for a few seconds and tried to be a still as possible. My trick worked! When the teacher came, he didn’t notice anything and simply passed by my bed. When he had left, I slowly crept out of bed and went to class.
7 If you were a poem what type of a form would you be?
I would be a sonnet. The rhyming schemes are so beautiful and magical. A sonnet sounds like a flowing river.
8 What types of sports are you into?
You got me here!
Am not a sports person, but I love dancing?
9. Tell us about your poems in BNAP
It was an honor to get my poems published in BNAP. I had different inspirations for each of the three poems. THE CITY QUEENS came as a result of the daily things that I see happening in my city that has almost become a culture. I wanted to tell a simple story that my audience could relate to all this being brought by the `post modernity effect` that some people have adopted without caution. HER is female gender oriented poem that portrays what women go through psychologically and how they do not have a voice at the end of it all. CULTURE is a poem about the stereotyping of African woman in a traditional setting, where their feminity is guided by set of patriarchal rules. But at the same time they come at an expense of the women who are dehumanized all in a bid to make them submissive.
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