Poets

WAYout poetry books Broken Pens, Street Rhymes and ‘Written Off are available on Amazon- see below for details and are in the UK National Poetry Library.

WAYout has produced some outstanding poets. Alhaji Kondeh aka Overdose, won the National Anti Corruption poetry prize and recorded ‘Convince Me to Vote‘, a controversial and timely poem challenging past political leaders coming up to the National elections.

Ibrahim Bangura, aka Cleffy, won a grant from the Prince Claus Fund and produced his own book ‘My Road’ which is available on Amazon. Other poems by Cleffy are on our youtube. The Forgotten Child

The poem ‘Homeless’ which includes 14 different WAYout poets has a video which has been selected for 10 international film festivals and counting

HOMELESS LAURELS

Broken Pens, the latest compilation of poems, photographs and drawings is now published on Amazon  or you can get the kindle version here  In Frank Turner’s introduction he says

I can only be humbled by reading through the latest collection of poetry (and art, and photography) from the marginalised and street youth who are engaged with the charity. “Broken Pens” shimmers with the vibrancy of their talent. Poems about the street, corruption, hope, rage, love, and all the other kaleidoscopic shards that make up their lives, reach out from the page and touch something human in any reader, helping us see the world through their eyes, and thus to see it anew. “

WAYout poet Gazbee, Yusif Kamara, appeared in Reuters recently ‘gangster leaves streets for poetry’. Gazbee is turning his life around -check it out Reuters Gazbee

Poetry anthology ‘Street Rhymes’ available on Amazon for kindle. The first anthology  “Written Off “ also from Kindle or a paper version of both for £7.00 by contacting info@wayoutarts.org

“Girl Force: Unscripted and Unstoppable” was the code at the Way-Out Spoken Word Slam, where Fantacee Wizz was a member of jury. “It was an amazing time for me, seeing my hope for young people to embrace poetry as a means of expressing themselves being actualized. My happiness increased with the outcome of the competition with girls occupying the first two of the three winning places. They both spoke of the discriminations the girl child has going against her. They both delivered their lines with so much emotion, good diction and vivid imageries that got me tearing up. Their determination to beat the odds set against them, was the icing on the cake Way to go, girls!”

And Qwineve has gone on to run the advocacy campaign to highlight arts in schools with a team of WAYout creatives.

WAYout runs a writers group which trains members in storytelling and script writing. Foday Sillah wrote the script for the feature film The Choice and we have produced comedies and awareness raising dramas. 2017, volunteer Stella Harding started a poetry group over messenger with a group of just ten. When she returned to Freetown in 2018 she found herself running three groups. She returned again in May 2019 she established new groups in Ferry Junction and Susan’s Bay. Writing poetry improves literacy skills and enables people to explore their experiences and voice things otherwise unsaid.  WAYout poets have been published in online magazines and have performed live at the Freetown Music Festival and other open mic venues. 

Cleffy is the pen name of Sierra Leonean poet and musician Ibrahim Sorie Bangura. Born in 1992 in a subsistence farming village in the Northern province of Lungi, he grew up speaking Themne, Susu, and Krio as well as English. In 2011 he migrated to the capital Freetown to escape rural poverty. After surviving on the streets for several years he joined WAYout where he studied creative writing and music production. In 2017 he was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers Adda poetry commission and in 2018 he had a poem published in the international online literary magazine Write the City