Queen of Epistles: Poet strives to put Kenya on world map

Wangui Wangari was in a quandary. It was November 2017 and she had been handpicked, out of a huge pool, for the World Poetry Slam in Dallas, Texas. The event promised great rewards, chief among them exposure to an international audience. Problem was, Wangui didn’t have enough money to cater for her trip.

DETERMINATION

But Wangui, who goes by the stage name Qui Qarre, was not about to be deterred; she had come so far that there was no chance she was going to miss out on the opportunity.

And so she took a loan, reached out to her fans about her predicament, and with assistance from friends, raised her air ticket and finally, just days to the event, she schlepped her bag across the airport lobby and winged out to the US.

“When I arrived in Houston, I only had Sh20,000,” Wangui, 20, recalls.

This was hardly enough to live on for the duration of the event. Fortunately a young Kenyan couple, upon learning of her plight, agreed to host her for the two months she would be in the US.

POETRY SLAM

The poetry meet drew bards from all over the world, all of them there on merit. Earlier, in March 2017, Qui had taken part in the World Poetry Slam in Dallas another poetry competition in the US organised by the Women of the World Poetry Club.

At the Olympic-like event, each entrant was hoping to put her country on the world map. Qui emerged 29th out of the 96 contestants.

And now here she was again, this time more confident, more poised. The event was organised in a way that only the top two poets would be recognised. Though she did not win the contest, the experience — sharing the stage with seasoned poets and representing her country — was worth all the trouble.

“I was invited to perform in front of big audiences in Texas, and was hosted by a major radio station,” she says.

Qui has done well locally. She has featured on the television magazine show, "The Trend" on NTV and regularly performs to packed venues, gaining a sizeable following of fans. Her delivery seems to come from a deep, true place.

The old narrative of the troubled poet or writer — that those who have undergone trauma or unusual experiences produce some of the best literary works — carries a lot of agency for Qui. Before it became her passion and livelihood, poetry was for her a way of escape.

FAMILY LIFE

The first child in a family of two, Wangui was born in Nyahururu but grew up in Nairobi in a home rife with conflict.

“I grew up in a home with domestic violence,” she says. “I was one of the loneliest children. Everything piled up in me.”

Words would become her balm. At 15, while in Form two, Wangui, then a quiet, introspective girl, began jotting her thoughts and experiences down in a journal.

“I would sit up at night while everyone else was asleep, writing songs,” she says.

In 2015, after her secondary school education, she started an online business selling shoes. It did not work out, though, after a customer tricked and stole from her.

“I was down emotionally,” she says. “I started writing again to free myself from the pain.”

SLAM QUEEN

She took part in the Kenya Poetry Slam Africa at the Alliance Française and won her first award, Women of Africa Slam Queen.

Qui refers to her art as Urban Poetry — a hybrid genre that straddles traditional poetry sans the inflexible rhyme and meter, while also avoiding the usually unbridled freelancing endemic in spoken word.

Her poems stretch across the gamut of life: Love and its absence; dreams and growing up. Most of them inspired by personal experiences.

In one, she writes: “The art of my face being a canvas just didn’t feel right…."

While she mentions the late poet, Maya Angelou, who would have turned 90 this week, as the poet whose works she admires most, Qui adds that she does not have a role model. Put another way, she is not comfortable with the idea of being a version of another poet.

“I look up to the woman I wake up to: Me.”

NOMINEE

Last November, she was among the nominees for The Cafe Ngoma Awards – Best Spoken Word Artiste of the Year category, which she narrowly missed out on.

“It’s possible to live off proceeds from poetry,” Qui says, but cautions, “you have to outdo yourself, be extra unique, push yourself to the limit.”

She plans to release her first poetry book, Tears of the Pen, soon.