Fighting pollution with poetry in Nigeria

Can poetry save the planet? A group of students at the University of Lagos thinks it can certainly help! They've set up the Parliament of Poets initiative, using poetry to educate people about the environment.

Yousef Kamara was the leader of Giverdamn Gaza, one of Freetown's most infamous street gangs. In 2017, his poetry and song-writing were noticed by Way Out, a collective of musicians and artists who take youth off the streets. Three years on, Kamara's poems have been published in several international magazines.

Today is World Poetry Day, it is a day to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, a day to promote reading and writing of poetry, a day to celebrate one of the most treasured forms of linguistic expression and identity.

Poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals everywhere in the world share the same feelings and questions. Today is World Poetry Day, it is a day to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, a day to promote reading and writing of poetry, a day to celebrate one of the most treasured forms of linguistic expression and identity.

Poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals everywhere in the world share the same feelings and questions. Today is World Poetry Day, it is a day to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, a day to promote reading and writing of poetry, a day to celebrate one of the most treasured forms of linguistic expression and identity.

In many rural areas in Ghana, women are being pushed into tradition gender roles. Abdul Majeed Fatima wants to change that - with music and poetry.

Their musical collaboration fuses literature and electronica, offering a new artistic take on events from the Arab Spring to contemporary European politics. Poet Abdullah Miniawy and musician Jonas Yamer join us in the studio to tell us more about the creation of their latest album "Between the bullet and the front sight, casting lots", how they channel external influences into introspective tracks, and why birth and new beginnings are an important idea in this latest record.