Word of Mouth Poetry is a Lilongwe based arts movement dedicated to promoting poetry and self-expression via multimedia and live event platforms. Conceived in late 2012 by 6 poets, the movement aims to engage the city of Lilongwe via various mediums and forms of poetry by drawing from the city’s rich cultural and social diversity.

The movement fosters the reading, writing, performance and consumption of poetry through live event programming, publications, broadcast and online media.

Our objective is to raise the profile of poetry via:

• Providing safe platforms where people can engage with, discover and develop their voices.
• Make poetry accessible to the wider audience via online media and non traditional formats
• Raise awareness of poetry amongst young people in educational institutions

The founders

Word of Mouth poetry was founded by six poets from Lilongwe, who were all passionate about elevating the standards and visibility of poetry in the city. They were all regular performers at the presently discontinued open-mic initiative called PillowTalk. They all bring their professional expertise to the project, ranging from finance, media, project management literal and performance arts.

Chris Msosa

Ovixlexla Bunya

Qabaniso Malewezi

Ed Kenamu

Andekuche Chanthunya

Andrew Kamwambi