WeAreGriot
WeAreGriot is a collection of Nigerian-Irish poets and storytellers: FELISPEAKS, Dagogo Hart, and Samuel Yakura. They state, “Our goal is to reflect the times we live in through our work, to celebrate culture and community, and to stretch the boundaries of poetry. We create to serve both Art and Agenda.”
FELISPEAKS is a Nigerian-Irish poet, performer, playwright from County Longford, living in County Kildare. She has been nominated “Best Performer” by Dublin Fringe Festival 2018 for her performance in Boy Child, a play co-written with Dagogo Hart. FELISPEAKS’ poem “For Our Mothers” is in Higher Level English Leaving Cert Curriculum for examination year 2023. She is a member of the Poetry Ireland Board. More about FELISPEAKS
Dagogo Hart is a Dublin-based poet, writer, playwright, performer, and spoken word artist. His work has been published in the University College Cork’s Motley and The Moth. In 2017, Hart won the Slam Sunday Grand Slam, qualifying to perform at Electric Picnic with the Cúirt International Festival of Literature. He has performed at Mother Tongues, St. Patrick’s Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Drogheda Literary Festival, Spirit of Folk, Body & Soul, Loud Poets Scotland, and First Fortnight. His personal works include RedBeard Paddy, a poetry short film, and Lantern Smoke, a runner-up for the Button Poetry video contest. Hart was also Africa Day 2018 Champion, serving as host and performer. More about Hart
Samuel Yakura is a Nigerian-born poet and performing artist living in Ireland. From co-curating the Waterford Speakers Corner as part of Summer in the City, Waterford, to winning the #1 Talkatives Slam Competition in Dublin (put together by Boundless and Bare, Slight Motif and WeAreGriot), Yakura has been buzzing in the art scene. In 2019, he was among the six poets selected for Poetry Ireland’s Versify 2019 in collaboration with Dublin Fringe Festival. He is passionate about spoken word and performance poetry and strongly believes they represent today’s re-evolution from page poetry to engage society’s narratives and the human condition in ways only the arts have potential to. Yakura is committed to giving his voice to the cause. More about Yakura
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Photo by Matthew Thompson.