BOOK LAUNCH EVENT
100 Days by Juliane Okot Bitek
With readings by Jordan Scott and Cecily Nicholson
Friday, June 10, 2016
7:30pm – 9:30pm
Selectors’ Records, 8 E. Pender St., Vancouver
No RSVP necessary. More details on the Facebook Event page.
The University of Alberta Press recently published 100 Days, a collection of poetry written by Liu Scholar Juliane Okot Bitek, a PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Students Graduate Program at the University of British Columbia.
About the Poet
Juliane Okot Bitek has never stopped exploring the power of narrative, focusing her passionate essays, poetry, and nonfiction work on political and social issues. Her work has been anthologized and published widely online, in print, and in literary magazines. Some of her writing can be found in West Coast Line and subTerrain or on Warscapes.com, African Writing Online, zocalopoets.com, and julianeokotbitek.com.
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A brief description of the collection
For 100 days, Juliane Okot Bitek recorded the lingering nightmare of the Rwandan genocide in a poem. Okot Bitek draws on her own family’s experience of displacement under the regime of Idi Amin, pulling in fragments of the poetic traditions she encounters along the way: the Ugandan Acholi oral tradition of her father – the poet Okot p’Bitek; Anglican hymns; the rhythms and sounds of the African American Spiritual tradition; and the beat of spoken word and hip-hop.
Download the title sheet here.
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Ikhide R. Ikheloa, from Reading and Writing… Loudly, posted this to his blog:
“Bitek’s ability to connect with the beauty and pain of human suffering seems supernatural, this ability to give voice to those who seem to have no voices. Bitek wrote this book with her blood and it shows…. Bitek is a gifted seer, she sees tomorrow with a sweet but earthy, guttural voice, voice of the masquerade…. [Bitek] takes the reader to places in the heart that the writer never intended or imagined. That is powerful, how she makes 100 Days a deeply personal journey to each reader.”
Upon publication, 100 Days appeared on a list as one of 25 New Books by African Writers You Should Read.
It was the earth that betrayed us first
it was the earth that held onto its beauty
compelling us to return
it was the breezes that were there
& then not there
it was the sun that rose & fell
rose & fell
as if there was nothing different
as if nothing changed
To purchase the book, click here. Learn more about Juliane Okot Bitek’s work by visiting her profile.
