Tjawangwa Dema’s knowledge fuses creative and critical and leaves students inspired, informed and energised: TJ’s research and writing in black ecology, modern pastoral and ecofeminism is a beacon which lights up any session, talk or workshop she offers and she’s able to connect and speak about her work and research in a way which brings it alive, closer and connects it to the universal, whether online or in person.” – Anna Selby, Lecturer, Engaged Ecology at Schumacher College
Facilitator
Tjawangwa Dema has taught workshops in secondary schools, community centres, detention centres, after school programs and to undergraduate-graduate seminars. She has been guest writer/workshop facilitator for various institutions including the University of Warwick’s International Gateway for Gifted Youth program, Pittsburgh CAPA, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities at Northwestern University, the University of Alabama, the University of Washington Bothell and Escola do Olhar in Brazil. She mentored Botswana’s all female national champions for the British Council’s Power in the Voice program and has experience with youth slam teams and magnet school students. Tjawangwa was mentor on the University of Iowa’s IWP Women’s Creative Writing Mentorship Programme and continues to offer one-to-one mentorship.
Please pop over to the contact form on this very website for any enquiries.
Producer / Curator
Tjawangwa has conceptualized, curated and programmed various Botswana based festivals as well as consulted for live literature initiatives based elsewhere including in Johannesburg, Berlin, and Bristol as co-producer for Africa Writes – Bristol. In 2011, Tjawangwa recorded 12 Batswana poets on 1 CD. Though many were considered leading local poets at the time, with the exception of two, all were unpublished and had never been recorded. In 2015, commissioned by Badilisha Poetry X-change, and in collaboration with the Poetavango Collective, Tjawangwa oversaw the recording of 42 poets; the eldest poet was 70 and the youngest 17. Recordings were mainly in English with a small selection in Setswana.
Please pop over to the contact form on this very website for any enquiries.
Researcher / Poet-Scholar
As a cultural fixer and senior research associate Tjawangwa’s areas of interest are creative writing instruction, poetry, live poetry and literary networks in Botswana and Southern Africa in general, as well as Bristol, U.K. In 2018 she was research associate on an Arts Management and Literary Activism (AMLA) project with Investigators based at the universities of Bristol and Exeter. In partnership with Dr. Kirk B. Sides she researches eco-writing and its pedagogies, alongside race and gender. She explored belonging and the environment as part of a multimedia book project – an/other pastoral – in collaboration with NoBindings.
Please pop over to the contact form on this very website for any enquiries.
Not one of the best poets writing in Botswana. One of the best poets writing today, full stop. – Lauri Kubuitsile