Makoha, Nick

Nick Makoha © privat

Nick Makoha is the founder of The Obsidian Foundation. Winner of the 2021 Ivan Juritz prize and the Poetry London Prize. In 2017, Nick’s debut collection Kingdom of Gravity was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and was one of the Guardian’s best books of the year. Nick is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and the Complete Works alumnus. He won the 2015 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and the 2016 Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Prize for his pamphlet Resurrection Man. His play The Dark – produced by Fuel Theatre and directed by JMK award-winner Roy Alexander – was on a national tour in 2019. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Alfred Fagon Award and won the 2021 Columbia International Play Reading prize. His poems have appeared in the Cambridge Review, the New York Times, Poetry Review, ‘e Rialto, Poetry London, TriQuarterly Review, 5 Dials, Boston Review, Callaloo and Wasaari. He is a Trustee for the Arvon Foundation and the Ministry of Stories, and a member of the Malika’s Poetry Kitchen collective.

Festival Content

THE DREAM FACTORY – A poetic cartography of Africa’s new urbanity

TALKS, READINGS, MUSIC & CONCERT– Western preconceptions about the African continent continue to reflect relations of power and domination that originate in the colonial past. For this evening, poets and specialists from seven African countries will speak about a new globalism, diaspora, and Afrofuturism.

Mwanza Mujila, Fiston • Fotso, Kareyce • Elom 20ce • Mawiyoo, Ngwatilo • Macamo, Elisio • Makoha, Nick • Lola , Theresa • Batila • Elange, Ronny