Reflecting on "In Light of What We Write"

This event meant a great deal to me. Anybody who knows anything about me, knows my unbound and nerd-like love for anything literary related. And because the past year and a half I have been on a self-imposed sabbatical from working in the literary scene, I severely missed it. I took a break from the literary scene because sometimes you need a break even from things you love. This event and my "Soothing the Fear – a night of Poetry with Linda Kaoma" event in November were great ways to remerge from the sabbatical.

I am remerging back on the scene as a freelancer, as in my 9 – 5 is not dictated by anyone or one organisation and I am RECLAIMING MY TIME honey! Yes, of course, I still need to work and will probably need to go back to full time work because #notrustfund, but at least for now I am in control of my hours and I have more say on what kind of work I want to work on. This feels like I am empowering myself in some way and I am in desperate need of a different rhythm that the 9 – 5 just cannot provide at the moment. But at the end of the day work is still work if I'm being all the way real here. Anyway, before I digress too far off the topic, "In Light of What We Write" meant a lot to me because it was the first gig I was commissioned to curate and manage as just Linda Kaoma. Not Linda who works at so and so organisation. It was just independent me. I am very grateful for the partner I worked with on this for trusting me and allowing me to integrate my vision into theirs.

If you read the description to my "Soothing the Fear – a night of Poetry with Linda Kaoma" you know this event was some sort of ‘coming out’ event. A spiritual healer recently told me that the song ‘I am coming out’ by Diana Ross is my theme song for the next long while, but that is another story for another day. I 'came out', because although I worked behind the scenes of the literary scene, and I wrote fervently, I hardly ever shared my work publically. I did not share because I was not clear on my intentions for wanting to share. I am getting clearer and clearer on my need to share or why the need to share has been planted in me. I shared my work once again during "In Light of What We Write", and this of course gave the event even more meaning. I did not perform during the event, but rather I had two of my poems exhibited alongside two artists’ visual interpretation of my work. Listen, I wanted to be on that stage, but my nerves need serious management and I could not do that while wearing my event organiser hat. Okurrr!?

Look at the images below. LOoooOK PROPERLY. Do I need to explain? The event was targeted at 18 to 35 year olds, and who was there? Exactly whom we wanted to be there, and what were they doing? Curiously engaging with the work we curated for them and the writers wholehearted shared with them. We wanted the work to be consumed via a variety of mediums and that is exactly what happened. We challenged them with the form and content of the event, and they welcomed this challenge. Also, look at the joy and the celebration. It means the world and the entire universe to me that our event brought this much joy. I love that after the event my friends and I did a ‘get down’ to celebrate; not discussed before hand, but just a mutually understood, appropriate and needed conclusion. There’s nothing like black joy y’all. Go back to looking at the images below, busk in the joy and glory of "In Light of What We Write".

Click here to view more images. https://www.facebook.com/events/289617331563624/?active_tab=discussion