I’ve awarded a ThenDoBetter grant to Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa.

She writes:

Reclaiming The Dance

In 2017 poetry became my obsession, I wanted to learn as much as possible but due to my disability and neurodiversity (autism, ADHD, dyslexia & LPD) I found poetry quite challenging which often left me feeling disheartened, nonetheless I persevered and forged my own path. One evening in 2018 I decided to explore poems dancing to Janelle Monáe and Jill Scott in the corner of my bedroom. I felt liberated - I began to see poetic form as choreography, my work dramatically improved. Dance became essential to my practice, not only has it enabled me to access language in a unique way, but I recently I discovered the combination of dance and poetry could help me reclaim ancestral voices.

There are no known first-handwritten accounts/ biographies of enslaved women from the African diaspora in Barbados during The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, all documentation on the cultures, artistic expressions and behaviours of enslaved Africans and descendants were collated by colonialists and often vulgarised and associated with obeah (“witchcraft”). These depictions assisted in the cultivation of the colonial imagination of Black women which continues to permeate popular culture, despite numerous efforts to counteract stereotypical narratives. However, there are historical first-hand descriptions of their movements documented by the European colonists. Dance, movement & gestures are also forms of language and by using these notes (navigating the racism) transforming the movement into poetry for my first poetry collection. The poetry collection will also include a dance score.

This is the beginning of a life-long project, and I will be using this grant to work with a choreologist to help with the notation arrangement. Labanotation is a form of documenting dance; however, I want to present the notation in a way which best expresses my discoveries. Therefore, this grant will assist help me to produce the best arrangements whilst respecting the craft.

Who am I?

My name is Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa and I am an interdisciplinary poet, who chiefly uses dance to write poems. I have been dancing since I was 14 and got BA in Cultural Studies & a MA in Dance Cultures. I always wanted to combine dance, history and cultural theory and when I found poetry it felt like the missing link. I am a British born Barbadian raised lady who thinks a little differently, but I prefer to just call the way my brain works as a kind of superpower. I have won a bunch of national spoken word awards, been shortlisted for things and I’m an Obsidian fellow and an Apples & Snakes Poetry in Performance Recipient. My collection will be published in 2022 by Out-Spoken Press – name TBA soon.

Her Twitter is here.

More details on the microgrants programme here.