SheShe Slam 2026 Welcomes Huda the Goddess to the Selection Jury

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7 February, 2026

Listening as leadership, and curation as cultural power

SheShe Slam 2026 is proud to welcome Crystal Tettey as a member of its Selection Jury, strengthening the platform’s commitment to thoughtful curation, cultural depth, and global perspective.

Crystal Tettey is a Malagasy Ghanaian polyglot whose creative life moves naturally across poetry, music, performance, advocacy, and activism. Her presence in the SheShe Slam jury process is important for one reason many people overlook: selection is not only about talent, it is about values. It is about discernment. It is about recognizing voices that hold truth with care.

A life built across worlds

Crystal’s identity carries a rare cultural layering. Ghana and Madagascar meet in her work, and that meeting creates a kind of artistic language that is both intimate and international. Her multilingual capacity has long been part of her artistic signature, with profiles noting fluency across English, French, Russian, Ga, and Twi, a range that reflects both study and lived experience.

This is not just an impressive detail. It explains why her work often feels like bridge building. When you speak in many languages, you learn quickly that meaning is not only vocabulary, meaning is context, history, tone, and the courage to listen.

Artist, yes, but also archivist of the moment

Crystal’s creative practice is rooted not only in expression, but also in documentation and dialogue. That philosophy is most visible in her podcast, CURATING DREAMS | A Creative’s Podcast, which hosts conversations with artists and human rights advocates from Africa and the Black Diaspora.

The podcast functions as a living archive. Not the kind that only preserves accomplishments, but the kind that preserves thinking. It asks what is happening beneath the headlines, beneath the art, beneath the activism. It makes space for the long conversation, the one that allows a person to be fully human rather than reduced to a bio.

Creativity with responsibility

Crystal’s work has also been shaped by peacebuilding and community oriented initiatives. A Salzburg Global profile notes her involvement with the Women Peacemakers Program at the Africa desk, hosted at the time by WANEP, and her contribution to an editorial team that published a book amplifying experiences of African women peacebuilders from conflict affected contexts.

This matters for SheShe Slam.

Because SheShe Slam is not simply a competition. It is a platform built around dignity, safety, and intentional storytelling. It creates room for women’s voices to land without being punished for truth. A jury member who understands both art and social responsibility adds a necessary kind of integrity to the process.

A long arc of artistry

Crystal’s creative journey has been public and consistent for years. Earlier coverage around her debut album project describes her as a spoken word artist and singer, and notes a project that blended spoken word with soul and folk influences across languages and geographies, recorded between Ghana and Madagascar.

Over time, the mediums may expand, but the through line remains clear: voice, meaning, and the inner life of communities.

The wellness lens, the human lens

What makes Crystal’s presence especially relevant today is her commitment to whole human creativity. Writers Project of Ghana notes that she runs a year long wellness series called yello, offering conversations and community, live soul filled music, and wellness gifts, with events free to attend.

In a creative industry that often celebrates exhaustion as proof of seriousness, this is quietly radical. It signals a belief that art should not cost a person their health, and that community care is part of cultural work.

Why her jury seat matters

A selection jury is not just a gatekeeper, it is a guardian of the platform’s standards and spirit. Crystal’s background brings three strengths to this role.

First, a curator’s ear for depth, not just delivery.
Second, a human rights informed understanding of what it means for women to speak publicly.
Third, a diaspora conscious perspective that recognises African voices as global voices, without dilution.

By joining the SheShe Slam 2026 Selection Jury, Crystal contributes to a process that honours women’s voices as complex, powerful, and essential to social reflection and change.

We are honoured to have her on this journey.

SheShe Slam 2026
Her Voice Is Not a Crime

SheShe Slam 2026 Announces Raya Wambui as Selection Jury Member

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7 February, 2026

Raya Wambui The poet who turns place into purpose and purpose into practice

Ehalakasa is pleased to announce Raya Wambui as a Selection Jury Member for SheShe Slam 2026, our flagship women centered slam poetry platform commemorating International Women’s Day.

Raya Wambui is not simply a poet you invite to a stage. She is the kind of cultural practitioner you bring into a process when you want standards to rise, stories to be handled with care, and talent to be met with integrity.

A voice shaped by passion and purpose

Raya has been writing for years with a creative philosophy that sits at the intersection of passion and purpose, a framing that appears consistently across her official platforms and public profile.

Her journey is rooted in the kind of storytelling that does not chase attention. It builds meaning. It values place. It tells the truth in a way people can carry. That grounding, in local imagery and lived reality, is part of why her work resonates across communities and across borders.

Recognition within Nairobi and beyond

Raya is a Slam Africa Queen, an achievement linked to Nairobi’s longest running poetry slam ecosystem, and she is also the laureate of the Nairobi edition of The Spoken Word Project.

In 2013, coverage of an Evening with the Spoken Word in Nairobi reported that Raya won the contest, earning the traditional opportunity connected to the next station of the project, which included travel to Bamako. This detail matters because it points to something deeper than winning. It shows artistic trust, regional mobility, and the kind of excellence that holds up under juried evaluation.

Her profile also appears in wider documentation of Kenya’s spoken word landscape, including mainstream cultural commentary naming her among notable artists on the scene.

A continental footprint

Raya’s work has been included in Poetry Africa programming and documentation, with a festival profile noting her long term writing practice and describing her creative stance in terms of passion meeting purpose.

Across her public appearances and platforms, she is presented not only as a performer but also as a coach and published poet, signaling a practice that extends beyond performance nights into craft development and training.

Leadership beyond the stage

What makes Raya especially relevant to SheShe Slam is not only her performance history, but her relationship with poetry as a system.

Her official biography emphasizes a continued commitment to organizing and performing within Nairobi’s poetry ecosystem, with a clear intention to be remembered as a poet who inspired hope and encouraged positive change.

This is the posture of a builder, not just a participant.

Why her appointment strengthens SheShe Slam 2026

SheShe Slam is built to protect artistic dignity while amplifying women’s voices. A selection process like this requires more than taste. It requires clarity, fairness, discernment, and cultural sensitivity.

Raya brings a combination that is rare: a poet’s ear for language, a community organizer’s understanding of context, and a juror’s discipline around standards. Her presence reinforces what SheShe Slam stands for: safe space, truthful storytelling, and excellence without harm.

At Ehalakasa, we believe platforms do not become respected because they are loud. They become respected because they are consistent, transparent, and intentional.

Raya Wambui’s work reflects that same ethic. We are honored to welcome her into the SheShe Slam 2026 Selection Jury, and we look forward to the rigor, warmth, and cultural intelligence she brings to this season.

SheShe Slam 2026 continues to stand on the principle that women’s voices are not a crime but a necessity.

Tracy (T-Spirit) Stanton Joins SheShe Slam 2026 as Selection Jury

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7 February, 2026

SheShe Slam is proud to welcome Tracy (T Spirit) Stanton as a Selection Jury member for its 2026 edition, a choice that reflects exactly what this platform protects: voice with purpose, craft with conscience, and storytelling that refuses to abandon the people it comes from.

T Spirit is an award winning international spoken word artist, trainer, workshop facilitator, community organizer, peacemaker, and certified well being coach whose work sits at the meeting point of art, healing, and justice. In her public profile, she describes her practice as rooted in transparency, vulnerability, resilience, righteousness, resistance, joy, and truth, a value system that feels less like branding and more like a lived commitment.

A voice built through lived experience

What makes T Spirit especially human, and especially necessary, is that her work is not abstract. She is open about being a survivor of layered harm, including incarceration, trauma, sexual violence, substance use, and oppressive systems, and she frames her life today as a deliberate turning of tragedy into service.

That honesty shows up in her art. Not as spectacle, but as responsibility. In a world that often rewards performance without depth, her storytelling insists on the full weight of the human being behind the microphone.

Building community, not just stages

Beyond the page and the stage, T Spirit is the founder and producer of Some Things Must Be Heard: Spitting and Politicking, a Black led initiative that merges art, advocacy, spirituality, and embodied organizing to ignite transformation. The platform uplifts currently and formerly incarcerated, system impacted voices, while mobilizing community members to shift narrative and dismantle systems of oppression.

She has also been a founding member of the Freedom Community Center, described as a Black led abolitionist organization building a movement of survivors intervening in interpersonal and systemic violence.

In short, she does not only create work. She builds rooms where truth can breathe, where people can belong, and where art can move from expression to action.

Craft with strategy, and healing with structure

T Spirit’s practice also extends into coaching and consulting through Spirit Led Coaching and Consulting, with offerings that include wellbeing coaching, artist coaching, and organizational health and strategic planning. Her work is explicitly framed as future focused and grounded in a body, soul, thought methodology, supporting individuals and leaders toward deeper healing and clearer direction.

This blend matters. She understands both the inner world and the public fight. Both the poem and the system around the poet. That is rare. That is valuable.

Recognition and momentum

In a recent profile, the St Louis arts community highlighted her role in elevating spoken word locally and beyond, including her work producing Some Things Must Be Heard and her commitment to using poetry and storytelling as tools for personal and societal transformation.

On her own platform, she also lists recent milestones including becoming a 2025 semifinalist for St Louis Poet Laureate, performing in a Black History keynote collaboration connected to KSDK and the Missouri History Museum, and directing her first poetic visual titled When We Speak, an ode to the voices and impact of Black womxn in poetry and social justice.

Why SheShe Slam chose her

SheShe Slam exists to honor women’s voices with dignity, safety, and artistic integrity. The Selection Jury is not a ceremonial role. It is a responsibility to listen deeply, to evaluate fairly, and to protect the standard of the platform.

T Spirit brings the exact kind of listening this moment demands: one that hears craft, yes, but also hears courage. One that respects performance, but also recognizes what a voice has survived to reach the stage.

Her presence strengthens the values at the heart of SheShe Slam, truth, protection, excellence, and community.

Welcome to SheShe Slam 2026, T Spirit.

Karla Brundage Joins SheShe Slam 2026 Selection Jury

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6 February, 2026

An author, cultural connector, and poet whose work bridges diasporic worlds

Ehalakasa is pleased to welcome Karla Brundage as a jury member for SheShe Slam 2026, the fifth edition of our women led slam poetry platform dedicated to artistic excellence, cultural depth, and community rooted storytelling.

Karla Brundage is an award winning author, editor, teacher, and cultural practitioner whose expansive work spans continents, genres, and generations. She is most widely known for her prize winning poetry collection Blood Lies: Race Trait(or) which interrogates race, identity, history, and belonging with both intellectual rigor and lyrical force. Through her writing and public projects, she consistently invites readers and communities into difficult yet transformative conversations about how language, history, and power shape human lives.

But Brundage’s influence extends far beyond the page into the world of collaborative cultural exchange. She is the founder of the West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange, a visionary project that grew out of her long standing belief in poetry as a place of healing, connection, and mutual human recognition. Initially sparked during her years living and teaching abroad in Côte d’Ivoire, she partnered with local poets like Sir Black to imagine what a sustained creative dialogue between poets in the United States and West Africa might look like. Through weekly epistolary exchanges, workshops, and collaborative forms such as renshi, the project brought poets of diverse ages, identities, and backgrounds together to share work that culminated in international gatherings, published anthologies, and deep bonds across oceans.

These exchanges have produced several books and anthologies, including Our Spirits Carry Our Voices, Black Rootedness: 54 Poets from Africa to America, and Sisters Across Oceans the latter conceived as a collective conversation among women across the African diaspora that uses linked poetic forms to explore identity, resilience, and shared histories.

Karla’s vision is rooted in the idea that poetry is not simply performance or text, but a living practice something that lives in community gatherings, written exchanges, classrooms, festivals, and shared spaces of cultural belonging. She has taught internationally in Zimbabwe and West Africa, directed reading series, and curated anthologies that give space to voices too often marginalized in dominant literary spaces. Her work appears in a wide range of journals, magazines, and anthologies, and she has been recognized through Pushcart Prize nominations and features on radio and public literary platforms.

In Blood Lies: Race Trait(or), Brundage takes on the complexities of racial categorization, genealogical legacy, and personal narrative. Through rich poetic investigation, she unpacks terms like mulatto, octoroon, and quadroon not just as historical curiosities but as lived realities that shape personal identity and collective memory. Her book embodies an urgent intellectual curiosity one that embraces nuance without sacrificing emotional clarity.

What makes Karla’s contribution particularly valuable to SheShe Slam and the broader Ehalakasa community is her grounded approach to poetry as lived practice. She sees poetry as a tool for cultural reckoning, intergenerational dialogue, and global artistic solidarity not merely as entertainment or competitive sport. Her work is grounded in real communities, social history, and cultural continuity rather than abstraction or performance alone, making her presence on the jury both enriching and aligned with the ethos of SheShe Slam.

As SheShe Slam enters its fifth edition, Ehalakasa continues to prioritize jurors whose perspectives strengthen the integrity of the platform and support the growth of women poets beyond the stage and into lasting cultural influence.

We are honoured to welcome Karla Brundage into the SheShe Slam 2026 journey a testament to the power of poetry to heal, to connect, and to forge new cultural pathways.

Road to the Crown: 16 Poets Secure Their Place in Ghana’s National Poetry Slam Final 2025

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10 August, 2025

Ehalakasa’s National Poetry Slam Prelims ignite the race to represent Ghana on the global stage in 2026.

Accra, Ghana, August 9, 2025 The British Council Hall was alive with rhythm, rhyme, and raw emotion as 26 of Ghana’s finest spoken word artists battled for a coveted place in the National Poetry Slam Final. By night’s end, only 16 emerged victorious, inching closer to the ultimate prize the honour of representing Ghana at the 2026 World Poetry Slam Championship in South Africa.

In a contest where every syllable counted, Poema and Kwabena Prah led the charge with 26 points each, delivering performances that married precision with passion. Following closely were the equally captivating Whinna Yentem, Soyo Vi Zibo, Baby Poet, and Teliba, each securing 24 points and a joint third-place finish.

The list of finalists reflects a diverse blend of voices, from seasoned veterans to rising stars. Each poet brought their own lens to the stage, offering perspectives that cut across identity, politics, love, resilience, and social change.

“It’s more than just poetry. It’s a movement, a platform, and a chance to carry Ghana’s voice to the world,”said an Ehalakasa representative after the event.

The competition now shifts to the National Poetry Slam Final on November 1, 2025, where the stakes will be higher, the verses sharper, and the spotlight brighter. From that night, one poet will wear the national crown — and with it, the responsibility of championing Ghana’s slam poetry on the world stage.

Qualified Poets for the National Final (Top 16):

Poema (26)
Kwabena Prah (26)
Whinna Yentem (24)
Soyo Vi Zibo (24)
Baby Poet (24)
Teliba (24)
Jay (23)
The Town Crier (23)
Beyanus (23)
Nesty Brown (23)
Kobby Wright (22)
Leo (22)
Evans Narh (22)
Sabway Lyfstyle (22)
Napare (22)
Ueezy (22)

With the preliminaries concluded, the countdown begins. Who will rise on November 1st to carry Ghana’s poetic spirit to the world in 2026?

Ueezy de Poet: The Smile That Slices with Truth

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8 August, 2025

Ueezy de Poet, also known as Herman Jatoe, is not here for applause. He’s here to disrupt. To shake the silence. To put a rhythm to the realities so many try to avoid.

Emerging from the raw edges of Ghana’s urban storylines, Ueezy is part of a bold new poetic generation that doesn’t perform for validation it performs for truth. And that truth is often uncomfortable, unfiltered, and urgent.

His words cut through expectations like a hot blade through butter sharp, swift, and deliberate. Behind his bright smile lies a mind that has mastered the metaphor and a heart that knows how to make every syllable land like a fist or a feather depending on the moment.

On August 9th, 2025, at 6 PM at the British Council, Ueezy will take the mic at the Ehalakasa National Poetry Slam Prelims. The room may not be ready. But he is.

Whether he’s unpacking identity, spinning street slang into scripture, or challenging societal myths, Ueezy doesn’t just speak poems he lives them.

The slam stage is about voice, grit, presence and Ueezy de Poet brings all three in generous supply. This isn’t a performance. It’s a prophecy in progress.

Maame Rasta: The Unapologetic Voice Roaring into Ghana’s Slam Arena

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8 August, 2025

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There are voices. And then there is Maame Rasta a cultural flame wrapped in fabric, fire, and fierce honesty.

Stepping into the Ehalakasa National Poetry Slam Prelims 2025 with the full power of her persona, Maame Rasta is more than a poet—she’s an institution. From her bold Afrocentric fashion to her defiant gaze, she commands attention before the mic is even on.

Set for 6 PM, August 9th at the British Council, this year’s prelims are already buzzing but Maame Rasta’s appearance has added a whole new layer of anticipation.

Unfiltered. Radical. Grounded. She embodies everything poetry was always meant to be: a rebellion with rhythm, a truth-telling drumbeat. Her voice is not just performance it is protest. A cry for justice wrapped in metaphor. A matriarchal wisdom that slices through noise. A spiritual chant rising from ancestral ground.

In a space where artists often chase applause, Maame Rasta reminds us: the stage is sacred, and words are weapons.

She enters the arena not to impress but to ignite to stir the embers of memory, history, and possibility. In her presence, poetry feels less like art and more like invocation.

This is no ordinary prelim. This is Maame Rasta’s roar. And Ghana will hear it.

Soyo Vi Zibo: The Pen, The Stage, The Voice of Maamobi

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8 August, 2025

Born in the soul of Maamobi and raised in its rhythm, Jibril Iddrisu, stage-named Soyo Vi Zibo, is not just a poet he is an embodiment of community consciousness, cultural depth, and lyrical fire. With roots deeply planted in Accra’s working-class suburb, he grew from the dusty corridors of Kubatul Hadra Islamic Primary through the disciplined halls of Barnes Memorial and O’Reilly SHS, to emerge as one of Ghana’s most commanding spoken word voices.

Today, Soyo Vi Zibo stands as the reigning Ehalakasa National Slam Champion, a title earned not just by rhyme and rhythm, but by the weight of relevance his words carry. His performances are textured with commentary on politics, love, education, domestic struggle, and the environment, echoing the lived realities of the people who shaped him.

But he’s not just an artist he’s a builder. As a literacy facilitator at the Nima Maamobi Community Learning Centre, Soyo pours into others the very thing that saved him: the power of words. His dual life as both teacher and performer creates a rare fusion where his classroom becomes a stage, and his stage, a classroom.

Whether at the National Theatre or in a crowded corner of Accra, his delivery remains intentional, his voice grounded, his presence undeniable. With Ehalakasa, he has delivered moving poetry and captivating theatre performances, always drawing from his roots to reach the hearts of strangers.

Soyo Vi Zibo is more than a slam poet. He is a mirror to society, a mentor to the youth, and a megaphone for the silenced. In his voice, the streets of Maamobi speak and the nation listens.

Dorneh Rhymez: Turning Wordplay into Worldview

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8 August, 2025