Yasipi Casmir Uwihirwe, who was crowned the 1st runner up title of the Miss Rwanda 2019 for her amazing brain and beauty, outperformed in Transpoesis, a local poetry-based bang that aims to detect and empower new talents in young people in order to be voices for less heard people like refugees. Dr. Andrea tells us more about Transpoesis.
Yasipi, who once won a best English poem category
at the Kigali vibrates after she presented a poem entitled ''Humanity 60'', has
outperformed again and mesmerized goers of the show that was held at Lavana Restaurant
based in Kimihurura, over the weekend, 8th June 2019.
Yasipi presented a soulful ballad that touched hearts of revelers
Miss Yasipi Casmir outperformed in the show of poems over the weekend that joined about 7 boys and 8 girls. The participants had attended a poetry camp in Kigali before they headed to Kimihurura to be joined together.
After an active performance, in which performers used Swahili, English, French and Kinyarwanda language, Yasipi told the journalists that
Transpoesis has remarkably contributed to her progress in poems.
‘’ Transposis empowered and promoted my talent so much, after I
won an award, I rose to fame and my talent was recognized by many people in the country, before, I
knew myself that I had talent because I could write poems which i kept in my archives, but I could not help
myself turn them into recordings and videos in order to publish them to the whole world, they are{ Transpoesis} the
ones who made it for me, so I have a sense of urgency that I have something to
give and contribute to the society of Rwanda.’’
A director of Transpoesis, Dr Andrea Grieger, who made the event possible thanks to her presence and commitment, described the event:
‘’Tonight you are
seeing young people who have been part of this workshop since yesterday, we
have a workshop here joining together people who attended poetic training held
in three camps like Bahati, Yasipi and others. ’’
Dr Andrea added that the idea of the workshop is to hear and listen to
the voices and experiences of the youths who participated in the camps and
bring them together with participants of Transpoesis.
‘’ The poetry portrays a community of various categories of
people such as refugees and other categories, just because we are human beings,
but when you see yourself in a poetry, you feel connected to other people,
beyond what we are in terms of categories of our society’’ Dr Andrea said.
Transpoesis have been running a competition, three best poets from Kigali are expected to motivate and inspire others who are talented but doubting to show their talents to the public.
Yasipi Casmir, who had vied for the Kigali Poetry bang, participated in the workshop. The result of the workshop is the first step and expected to show qualifiers of the second step due in the end of August.
Miss Yasipi is sitting with participants, they are drawing attention, listening to a presentation of a Swahili, ''Hakuna Matata,'' poem, literally means no worries.
‘’ The quality is getting better and it starts being a
community, like, if you go to school and perform well, others will know that
and they also inspire others, like two poets who have become winners in Kigali,
now, they are inspiration for the young people in Rwanda.’’ Dr Andrea made remark.
She added: ‘’ We organized this event to detect talents and to empower young people for the poetic industry and to bring this voice to the whole society, and the world.
When you say voices up is like one uses his
voice to speak out what he has experienced, it is the testimony that you are
alive and your poem is telling the truth that you are living, this is brought
in the society which is built on talents, which is being an understanding
because if you live in a camp and have no idea on how you are, how I can see
you as a full human being like a refugee! Once we do not know others, once we do not know what they think of, we know how dangerous this is’’.
Asked what kind of motivations given to poets to remain focused in the industry of poetry, Dr Andrea said; ‘’ We organize competitions yes and winners are awarded trophies, we give them also video and audio recorders which allow them to be known, we have produced one video, it has like 10 thousand views and we consider to have much more videos on You tube.’’
Recall Uwihirwe won the school contest for her poem; no man is an island. She then proceeded to the Kigali slam and finally the national level when she presented the poem entitled Humanity 60 and won best English poem.
Name list of participants, some poets are from Transpoesis Kigali and others came from camps:
1. Gislaine NISHIME
2.David NDAGIJIMANA
3.Kenny NDAYIRAGIJE
4.Denyse MUKESHIMANA
5.Desange UMUHOZA
6.Jeannnette MWIZA
7.Besto-Damascene KALISA
8.Dinha Angelique NYIRAKANEZA
9.Esther MUHORAKEYE
10.Janvier NSABIMANA
11.NSEKA Junior RUMAGA
12.Assoumpta KAYIHURA
13.Delice MUKAZI
14.Dvine MUTONI
15.Casmir Yasipi UWIHIRWE
16.Innocent BAHATI and
17.Fefe KALUME