Here comes the Lantern Meet of Poets

UGANDA’S POETRY GETS FACE LIFT

In a developing country like Uganda, it is now common place belief that only education and the opportunity of having well-placed friends and relatives will guarantee one’s success in the future. Often, talent is undermined and several people do not dare to explore their God-given abilities, fearing that taking such a direction would be a dead end.
Every two weeks on Sunday evening at the National Theatre, a group of enthusiastic and fiery youths meet to share with the public some of what God gave them, in the hope that they will inspire more talent exploration in Uganda.
They have passion. They have zeal. They have charisma. They are young and energetic. They are the Lantern Meet of Poets, and they have what it takes to change Uganda’s poetry fraternity, while inspiring more talent.
Like oil was discovered in Uganda in 2006, you can never know how rich you are until you explore. Maybe Uganda will also be rich some day. Today, the Lantern Meet, a poetry lovers’ club that started out with just five members in April 2007, boasts of over 40 full time members.
The Lantern Meet of Poets is a meeting place for light minded individuals from different walks of life, sharing their love and passion for arts, poetry, music and visual arts. This group of creative minds professes one uniform belief, the belief that they can help other youths to explore their talent and hidden potential, especially in performing arts, despite the fact that the group is composed of mostly students in the science field.
We want to break the stereotypes that poetry, music and dance are for people with academic prowess in English Language and Literature,” said Edgar Kangare, a member of the group.
The Lantern Meet of Poets started as a small group of friends, all interested in poetry and writing, and realizing that people did not have the space to freely express their thoughts and emotions. Three university students, Raymond Ojakor, Colin Asiimwe, and Guy Mambo, put their talent and ingenuity to use two years ago, pooling a group of other interested students to write, recite and critique each others poems, finally birthing The Lantern Meet of Poets in April 2007. The three are students of Law, Mass Communication, and Architecture at Makerere University, and hope to promote literature throughout Uganda and Africa.
“We knew so many talented writers and poetry lovers who had no platform to express their views, and we wanted to give them that space,” said an enthusiastic Edgar Kangare, a member of the group. The Lantern Meet has since become a vehicle of expression for people, giving them the space to put their message across through poetry, music and dance.
The most recent addition to the group’s enterprise is the depiction of thoughts and emotions written in poems through artistic impressions, leaving a visual imprint of poems in the minds of their audience.
The group, which to attract as much talent to create a new breed of poets, considering that Africa has had few noticeable ones since the likes of Chinua Achebe, chose to focus on poetry other than prose and playwriting, which they consider more demanding for the casual writers they are, most of them being students with taxing courses. Despite their heavy classwork loads, this group of self driven, committed artists meets each fortnight at the National Theatre, to listen to members’ poetry recitals, exchange written poems, and critique each other’s work.
Believing that poetry is a universal language, and with only a few members studying Literature, members have self-taught themselves to analyse poems and enhance their writing by reading and doing research.
And even for those who joined with none or meager knowledge on writing poetry, the experience is so enriching that some write better than those who were initially considered crème de la crème. Here, everybody is a teacher, and everybody is a student.
During the group’s meetings, members read poems they have written, using a common theme as prior discussed, and then critique them.
“We want to address everyday issues that affect us, like poverty, human rights, and freedom of expression,” said Jason, a university graduate and member of the group.
Aida Kawuma, a Pharmacy student at Makerere, says critiquing a poem is very important because everyone can get different ideas. She recalls misinterpreting a poem during her first meeting, saying “I thought the poem “The Twin Almonds was about a woman’s breasts, and yet the poet meant eyes.”
To join the group, no subscription is needed, only five poems from the interested party, submitted consecutively at each meeting. Dedication and commitment are also cherished by the Meet.
This year, the Lantern Meet is inviting the public to join them on this journey of celebrating talent, at a grand recital at the National Theatre on January 30. During the grand recital, held twice a year, the group showcases the best poems, incorporating art, music, dance, and humorous drama to colour the event.
Members of the Meet believe that the fire for poetry may have been tucked under a bushel, but they are determined to keep the spirit, as clearly revealed in this year’s recital theme; Camp Lantern.
Ojakor, one of the founders, assures the public that Camp Lantern will be something different for the audience, like ‘walking through the wood’. He says that even though people have discarded the traditional ideology of gathering around a fire to tell stories, the Lantern Meet will enhance this on stage to keep the fire for poetry alive.
Initially, the group had no partners but has since its first recital in August last year, teamed up with the Uganda Commission for United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural organisation (UNESCO) to sponsor its events. The Meet has also performed at the National Book Trust of Uganda (NABOTU) literary awards ceremony, and alongside Maurice Kirya.
This group of youthful men and women are destined to transform Uganda’s poetry stage from what many have called something for losers, lonely people or introverts. With dance, art, and music to complement their poetry recitals, members of The Meet want to stimulate interest for poetry among Ugandans by starting up Poetry Clinics in secondary and primary schools. Here they hope to encourage students to explore their talent through writing poetry. Also on the group’s agenda for 2009 is compiling an anthology of some of the best poems that made it to the Lantern Scroll. The group is also looking at becoming a publishing house someday. For The Meet, the sky is the limit.
“We want people to think poetry in Africa and immediately think Lantern Meet,” said Kangare. The group’s members feel it is upon them to bridge the gap that they say has been created between older and younger generations of poets, and resurrect the past glorious epoch of poetry.
Readers and poetry lovers can also interact with the Lantern Meet though its Facebook page or its blog seam-less.blogspot.com.
The lantern Meet exists to motivate and inspire talented writers to become better.