An [un]Heroic Journey
A Tanzanian poet unseats the illusionist tale of the mission museum of the Archabbey of St. Ottilien in Germany. ✽ brick and mortar like skin and bone wisps…
A Tanzanian poet unseats the illusionist tale of the mission museum of the Archabbey of St. Ottilien in Germany. ✽ brick and mortar like skin and bone wisps…
A Tanzanian historian and poet conjures alternative engagements with Black African women who were marginalized by violent colonial histories and imprisoned in the archives. As the 2024 poet-in-residen…
Black African women in former colonial centers such as London gesture to subversive ways of communicating with those imprisoned in archives across generations. ✽ despite the Maangamizi,( Maangamizi…
A 19th-century prophetess reportedly bore a serious message from the ancestors to her Xhosa people amid British colonial assault. The written archives judged her—but much still remains unknown…
A poet-historian reflects on women’s labor carrying memories and the past. ✽ memory is a washerwoman who knows that when the blood is poisoned, you have to slaughter…
SAPIENS’ 2024 poet-in-residence conjures the voices of those imprisoned in archives. ✽ when the writing is done reference room locked index cards slotted library doors bolted when the…
A poet interrogates the garden of Eden origin story by reimagining it against the backdrop of East Africa’s coastal environment. Coastal Eden – Listen in the evening, frangipani…
Archives often render marginalized people’s histories invisible. In response to such erasure, a poet writes a letter to explore the experience of historically enslaved African and Creole women…
SAPIENS’ 2024 poet-in-residence imagines a wordless conversation with a troubled figure from the past and considers legacies of marginalization during the figure’s life and in archives. The Visit…