Kelly to launch novel in Maun
Boniface Keakabetse | Wednesday April 22, 2015 13:06
Kelly is currently in Botswana and is expected to perform at the annual Maitisong Festival, which runs from April 22 to 26, 2015 in Gaborone. She told Showbiz that Batswana should expect fireworks during her performance at this year’s Maitisong Festival.
Kelly is returning to Maitisong for the second time after participating last year.
She said she would be back in October during the Maun International Arts Festival where she would launch her novel.
Kelly is founder and director of Still Waters Collective, a Milwaukee-based outreach initiative utilising the transformative power of the written and spoken word.
She has performed extensively and conducted workshops for writers, youth, educators, executives, inmates and artists throughout the USA and Canada.
As a poet and novelist, Kelly’s writings have appeared in anthologies, textbooks, magazines and online. Her latest novel will be launched in the United States next month but there will be another one for Botswana in Maun during the US-sponsored Maun International Arts Festival. The novel is about the 28-year-old accounts manager Cece Weathers who spent her life taking care of her sick mother after her father, a traumatised Vietnam veteran, abandoned them. The poet-cum-writer is currently in Botswana courtesy of the United States Embassy in Botswana. Mmegi caught up with her when she visited Maun last week.
During her time in Maun she visited Motopi, Maun and Tsodilo secondary schools where she gave motivational talks to the students.
She also visited the Maun National Library where she met the librarian. Kelly’s novel would be availed at the Maun Library after being launched. While in Maun, Kelly also made time to wow poetry lovers during a Poetavango show, which she headlined at the Nhabe Museum on Friday.
Other performers during the night were Poetavango’s Legodile Seganabeng known as Dread X, Thato Molosi, Juby Peacock, Master Poke, Bantu and other poets who dished out good verse. She performed Throwing Butterflies, which is a romantic poem. Another outstanding performance was a poem delivered by Peacock in which she declared having found love. Love poetry was galore as Dread X also dished out two more. Poke performed a poem titled Business.