Philo Ikonya sings and plays her famous and touching poems on Friday 22nd of May, evening 8 p.m. in the old Prayers House of FRESACH – worth to see and hear. “Philo Ikonya’s poems are filled with political commitment, and it’s hard not to be touched by the story that is evoked in them. Thematically, they emerge from power relations in Africa experienced in Kenya, with emphasis on freedom of expression and women’s issues. The author expresses what she is heavily involved in and manages to portray it so that it concerns us all. In her poems, human rights are central.” http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Olav_Kaldestad “I write from my soul, heart and mind. Police brutality in an earlier arrest, the second one, shocked me and many Kenyans. The poems exploded into my chest fiercely and steadily. I breathed. I expanded my chest and adjusted my bust clothing. I hid them inside my bra. I remember that the toilet took the pen readily and that the paper gave some warmth once inside. May be the act of expression did too. Taking care of them consoled me. Taking the poems out on arrival home was like detaching a baby from my breast. That was third arrest.” Philo Ikonya is a writer, lecturer and human rights activist. She is the President of PEN Kenya, and she taught semiotics at Tangaza College and Spanish at the United States International University in Nairobi. She graduated in Literature and Linguistics (The University of Nairobi) before reading philosophy in Spain and Italy. She worked as an editor for Oxford University Press (Eastern Africa). Born in Kenya, Philo speaks Kiswahili, Gikuyu, English, Spanish and some Norsk. She has a grasp of Italian and French. Philo is a mother of one. She is currently living in exile in Norway. Her fiction includes two novels, “Leading the Night” and “Kenya, will you marry me?” She has published three poetry anthologies: This Bread of Peace, (Lapwing) Belfast Ireland and Out of Prison-Love Songs translated into German (Aus dem Gefangnis: Liebesgesänge). Philo is a Pan-Africanist. See more at: http://www.pen-international.org/who-we-are/board/philo-ikonya/#sthash.Nwtb09Cb.dpuf
