Opening up Creative Spaces for the Girl Child
Culture - Inside Art
Monday, 13 June 2011 10:50
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A new organisation focusing on nurturing creative talent in girl children has been launched. Named Girl Child Creativity, the group will focus on spotting and developing artistic ability in girls between the ages of 12 and 19 from all over Zimbabwe.
Co-ordinated by poet Mbizo Chirasha, the Girl Child Creativity and Motivational project is aimed at reducing female under-representation in the literary arts, creative writing poetry and performance arts.
^ Mbizo Chirasha addresses guests at the Girl Child Creativity launch. To the left is US Embassy spokesperson, Sharon Hudson-Dean.
Speaking at the launch held in Harare this week, the opulently vocal Chirasha said, “We want to teach the girls how to find opportunities with their talents and develop them. We want to avoid the syndrome in the country currently where people want to fly yet they can only crawl.”
The launch was attended by US Embassy spokes person Sharon Hudson Dean, Ambassador Hotel General Manager Gary Webstock, journalists and other invited guests.
The organisation will start its operations by hosting an all female motivational workshop to be held at the Chiedza Childcare Centre on June 15 and 16 and this will coincide with the Day of the African Child celebrations.
^ Guests at the launch which was held at the New Ambasador Hotel. The hotel’s general manager, Gary Webstock, gave the venue and refreshments at no cost as part of their support for the initiative.
Chirasha said, “The uniqueness of this activity is that twenty-five female students will attend a workshop which will be moderated by four female new generation poets and writers. This will help the girls to interrogate issues of self identification, talent realization, creative motivation and inspiration.”
The Girl Child Creativity team is made up of Mbizo Chirasha (Girl Child Creativity producer, coordinator), Agnes Gudza (Press Focal person), Rebbecca Zeggler-Mano (workshop participants Advisor), Rutendo Tapiwa Chigudu (guest poet, workshop facilitator), Thando Sibanda (Content editor), Primrose Dzenga (Advisor, facilitator), Eve Nyemba (guest reader, poet, girl child creativity motivator), Cynthia FlowChild Marangwanda (Guest poet, workshop facilitator)and Black Heat Deshanti (guest poet, workshop facilitator).
- Trevor Makonyonga for Zimbo Jam

creating creative spaces for girls

Creating creative spaces for girls

MASIMBA BIRIWASHA, GROUP ONLINE EDITOR HARARE - Jun 14 2011 16:27

A new project, Girl Child Creativity (GCC), aimed at mitigating the under-representation and unbalanced participation of young females in the arts in Zimbabwe, was launched last week in Harare. The project which is brainchild of internationally-acclaimed performance poet and writer, Mbizo Chirasha and veteran filmmaker and broadcaster, Agnes Gudza, is aimed at enhancing the ability of girl children to develop themselves mentally and creatively.“The aim of this project is to reduce the under-representation of young women in the creative industry. We want to teach the girls how to find opportunities with their talents and develop them. We want to avoid the syndrome in the country currently where the girl child wants to fly yet she can only be allowed to crawl,” said Chirasha.“We are going to have motivational poetry and writing workshops. In future, we are going to have talent-realisation programmes where we are going to have accomplished writers, musicians and promoters talking to the girls on how to identify and nurture their talents.”Agnes Gudza, operations manager of the project and renowned filmmaker, said the project was aimed at empowering the mental capacity of young girls so they could become creative in all aspects of the arts and their lives.She added that the purpose of the programme is to reach out to a lot of girls especially in rural areas. Chirasha said GCC is working in collaboration with the US Public Affairs, the New Ambassador Hotel, Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe, as well as Chiedza Childcare Centre, to reach out to disadvantaged and marginalised girls in the country. He said the first part of the programme will be rolled out in Harare before moving to Gweru, Masvingo and the rest of the country.

Mbizo a Conscious Poet

Poetry Profile: Mbizo Chirasha

Karabo Mkhabela June 7, 2010

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Mbizo Chirasha is an internationally acclaimed performance poet,writer and creative projects consultant has worked as a guest poet in Namibia Haiti presidential fundraising project. Poet in residence of international conference of African culture and development/ICACD 2009. Poet in residence United Nations information centre 2001-2008.Poet in residence for Iranian embassy/UN dialogue among civilizations project2001-2004. Official performance poet Zimbabwe International Travel Expo 2007. Media/Publicity Advisor inaugural Jibilika Dance festival Zimbabwe 2007. Festival Program Consultant Zimbabawe Peace festival 2006. Convener/Event Consultant THIS IS AFRICA POETRY NIGHT 2004-2006. Official Poet Sadc Poetry Festival,NAMIBIA 2009.

Mbizo is the Official poet in residence for the ISOLA/international conference of oral literature 2010 university of Nairobi,also the Guest poet at the Arts in Translation conference in ICELAND 2010 , OFFICIAL INVITED GUEST PERFOMANCE POET AT TAMBO INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL,CAMP MOZAMBIQUE 2010 AND THE DRUM CAFE PEACE FESTIVAL IN KENYA 2010.

The Following is Mbizo’s latest work
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Golgotha episode 911

ballot defecating shadows of hunger over

poverty creased napkins of my mind

slums farting anopheles into the gutters of my blood

long departed hunters urinated bullets into iron uterus of

war tired peasants

giving birth to atomic bombs

and suckling grenades

media wizards imbibing propaganda salami

and slogan pizza

hunger mandraxed rabbis licking fingers after chalk dust noon meals

i am a word dynamite fumigating corrupt economic bedbugs

sucking out the fertility of our sunshine

clouds of hungry bellies rumble with formulae

sunrise with virus graffiti scribbled on its forehead

moonrise with roaches corrupting its eczema eaten breasts

bread buttered with tustiville blood ,sanguages cheesed with

darfur wounds

gore dripping diamonds auctioned for flesh guzzling guns

brown teethed nights grazing green mealies before fingers

of dawn caress vendetta wounded minds

unrepentant Ngo bishops pimping vulnerables for fat cheque books,gong and bling

greenback lauretes double crossing peacecrats and warcrats in donor shebbens

economic whores dipping their sperm-ducts in diplomatic brothels

paparazzi gutters vomiting garbage of spray painted columns

slogan dogs parodying Hiroshima farce and bag dad comedy

greenhorns licking leftovers of propaganda braai packs after ballot arithmetic

undersized zealots fitting political g-strings in springs of delimitation

political morons mastering propaganda syllabus in their gimmick-

tired memories.

i am a poetic chlorine puritising political mental conveyor belts

from the crude oil of corruption

i am a metaphoric lotion peeling off eczema of the decade election hepatitis

- End -

DEMONS GRAZING 1/2

democracy does not heal the syphilis of apartheid

it never healed the hepatitis of racism

it is the ritual of the governed to govern

though they remain governed

democracy, a word of the corrupted learned

democracy, a fart of the bullet

signature of ballot

sting of the scorpion

blood boiling stomachs of darfur

darfur you smell Nagasaki

blood frothing hard rocky buttocks of Congo

Congo you sting Baghdad

hunger pornographing breasts in Somalia

ministers dangling bellies

poetry scattered in slums and ghettos

word stitched between bullet and ballot

grammar punctuated between slogan and vulgar

democracy an oxymoron of abacha’s machete and madiba’ bible

hyperbole of Guantanamo bay and robin island

- End -

DEMONS GRAZING 1/1

democracy

freedom unearthed from apartheid intestines

a legacy that carried sorrows since the days of yelping baboons

and yapping dogs

Monrovia blooming legumes of blood in superstitions

of blood harvesting

crocodiles basking in the east of political comfort zones

afghan with the heart burn for freedom

baboons laughing other baboons in political forests

politicians crushing poverty under their feet

polishing streets with the glitz of robots and rainbow sweet talk.

- End -

DESTINY/FOR THE WORLD CUP

my Africa

, i see your tongue dripping the honey of sacred languages

tongues rolling in holy tones

the spirit of nerfetiti walking pyramids naked and free.

my Africa the breath of your life smell in Serengeti

while ngorongoro breathe fortune in your back

another night , another daylight

Kilimanjaro never slept last night , with breath of identity

bangamoyo smelling the scent of palms in the fluorescent of African Sunday

my Africa

the smoke of mosia tunya ,thundering

Zambezi vomiting fish

hippos dancing the light of the moonshine

‘crocodiles basking in glee of the sunshine

copper fields heaving with wealth untouched and unspoiled.

Namib desert pregnant dangling with diamonds

fish river canyon bleeding with hope ,not surrendering

skeleton coast ,

compressing the ribs of struggles won and history told.

Shafiishuna pushing the freedom cart up and down pan Africa

Valleys of rhythm

My africa

i see inyanga coughing the laughter of beauty mist

in the dawn of day

chimanimani giving birth to a newssun with joy

matopos welcoming the new ritual

after the storytelling of sleeping legends

mzilkhazi ,tshaka,nehanda and lobengula

times folded and unfolded

your memory written in the museum of revolution

after kinda love theater at vilanculos beach

i walk along bazaruto archipelago

my blood floating the warmth of cabora bassa

my Africa

in this journey to the destiny of soyo and luena

swazi kingdom,cleansing its feet in pongolo river

Princes and princesses dancing rain coming

another daylight

another moonshine

another rain season

another harvest

sunrise with the image of king moshoeshoe

in his trip in the mountain kingdom

walking down up his former kraal

africa rise again ,rise to your destiny

my Africa.

Mandela , the smile of Africa

the glee of the land

trudging through shakaland with his spears of freedom

after nights and days in robin island

spirit floating in soweto townships

soul breathing life in table mountains

kamuzu smoking imboza in the wind valleys

the mystery of mount mulanje

fish breeding generations in shire river.

my destiny

my Africa

, shine your forehead with Vaseline of freedom

caress your armpits with the lotion of wisdom

grease your thighs with soap of liberation

sing with me this song of civilization

enjoy the omelet of progression

- End -