As part of our commitment to amplifying the voices of minorities and confronting injustice in Kenya and across Africa, we launched the #WTFSeries, a bold spoken word initiative designed to challenge silence and spark dialogue.
Over a three-month period, we sought out talented spoken word artists from across the country. The result was a 12-piece poetry anthology featuring 12 Kenyan poets, each tackling some of the most controversial, hushed-up, or deliberately ignored issues in Kenyan society. From politics to gender, identity to corruption, the series offered a poetic lens into the uncomfortable truths often kept out of public discourse.
Following a powerful launch on 14th May 2015, we released one video per week on our blog and social media platforms over the course of 12 weeks. The series reached over 822,000 users on social media, and the conversations that followed particularly on Twitter via the hashtag #WTFSeries, were diverse and sometimes divisive. While some viewers felt these topics were too sensitive to be discussed publicly, many others welcomed the opportunity to engage, reflect, and respond.
Poets featured in the series included Gufy and Rixpoet, Corrine Kahi, Immah Reid and Glady Mwende, each bringing their unique voice and perspective to this urgent collective narrative.
The #WTFSeries was never about offering easy answers. It was about starting the conversations so many are afraid to have. And in doing so, it reminded us just how powerful poetry can be in unsettling silence.