Vanessa Chisakula

Vanessa Chisakula is a Zambian poet and spoken word artist born in Lusaka. Her writing drew on personal experience, everyday observations and wider social questions, using poetry to turn individual stories into a shared conversation. She began writing while at school and developed her public performance practice in 2018. By the following year, her invitations had included events organised by ActionAid Zambia, the Centre for Trade Policy and Development, and Hivos Zambia. She had also performed during the 2018 commemoration of the annual anti-drug day. Her creative activities included Poet Spring at Alliance Française and the Word Smash Poetry Movement. Her approach brought page poetry and live delivery together, with an emphasis on expressing lived experience and responding to issues around her.