We met on Facebook and she’s not a newcomer on the literary scene. We have bonded like no other not only on this project of mine but on other things in life and who knows I may fly over to Gaborone one of these days to charge my phone (Hehehehehe). Say hello to my Botswana ‘Lesedi’ which means light (Figure the rest out).
I found out these little quirks about her in no particular order;
* She is obsessed with deciphering and understanding African mythology. She literally spends days reading about all sorts of awesome, strange things (A true Nnedi Okorafor fan).
* She loves Indie rock music and but generally loves her music lyrical and poetic.
* She loves dancing alone to the sound of silence. Sometimes contemporary music because if she was not a writer, would be a fantastic contemporary dancer.
* She’s obsessed with sci-fi/fantasy television shows but can binge watch on Grey’s Anatomy any day. (Team McDreamy)
* LOVES reading all types of African stories, African ideas, thought and philosophy.
* Loves travelling ‘as a means to live within culture and humanity’(Whatever that means.lol).
* Loves and believes in fringe science. Reincarnation, parallel universes, time travel, extraterrestrials, numerology, astrology, lucid dreaming. You name it. (This is some real geeky stuff)
* Interested in human nature & behavior (What do you expect from a Psychology grad)
* Loves meditation on and off practitioner. Aims for those kind of extreme cases of meditating in the middle of the forest for three months or so (Madam come down to Africa. Lol)
* She loves green so much she painted her bedroom wall green with green curtains, towels, bed sheets to match (Are you related to Tarzan or what)
As she is still single, she will definitely want to read her vows herself at her wedding but wouldn’t mind TJ Dema, Mandisa Mabuthoe, Lesego Nswahu, Thato Chuma, Nametso Phonchi and my great friend Gauta Eyman doing her the honours.
She was introduced to poetry by Gauta Eyman in 2010. Before now, was mostly a play writer coming from a dramatic writing background and didn’t think it was possible to tell riveting and visual stories in the time and length constraints of traditional poetry. She has found a home with narrative poetry. She would love to try television series writing as the idea of
“creating something on paper and seeing it interpreted, performed in a visual format, and seeing that continuity and development of characters and story lines is something I cannot wait to pursue”
She has have written mostly plays and short film scripts and has had a couple of her plays performed in festivals such as the Botswana Amateur Arts Festival and Maitisong Festival. She wrote her first short romantic film with Gwamaka Media, which was shot in India with a diverse cast from Africa, Asia and Latin America. (My Madam at the top…Come and mentor me na)
She runs two blogs; one specifically for exploring Africa and Art (www.afroartivism.wordpress.com) and another for her poetry and explorations of spirituality, psychology and philosophy (www.conscioussoulcentre.wordpress.com).
A week ago, she started an online interview magazine (www.africaindialogue.com), which aims to engage in dialogues with Africa’s storytellers and to explore various discourses that affect Africans here and in Diaspora.
She is currently working on an illustrated poetry book that ‘we’ plan to publish by the end of the year. She is also working on a poetry chapbook and developing a short film inspired by true events. She writes fulltime and hopes to keep doing it forever.
She has since 2009 explored playwriting, screenwriting, poetry, short story writing, fiction writing and journalism but her creative evolution is closely tied to current life experiences and interests. She only became deeply interested in Africa mythology and landscapes so naturally it reflects itself in her work. She thinks social media has done wonders for contemporary writers and concludes that social media is the holy grail for marketing.
She absolutely loves The Famished Road by Ben Okri because of its magical realism and I agree, like who would argue that Okri is the grandfather of African magical realism. The book is absolutely incredible and you should get a COPY now!!! The powerful imagery and beautiful and lyric prose of this book though is on another level.
You can connect with Joy here (She is really active on these platforms…*winks)
Blog: www.afroartivism.wordpress.com
www.conscioussoulcentre.wordpress.com
Website: www.africaindialogue.com
FB Page: Gaamangwe Mogami – https://www.facebook.com/GaamangweMogami/
Instagram: gaamangwe_mogami