22-year-old Gretta Ingabire uses poetry to assure herself of the immense things she has to accomplish. To her, poetry is a way to express what is on her mind, convey messages that are aimed to teach, inspire and entertain. She mostly likes writing about society, to speak about social changes that all human beings can embrace for a better world. But also, creating a voice for changes in women’s wellbeing, such as equality and control over their own lives. Some of her paintings showcased in her solo exhibition Ingabire started writing poems at the age of 12 while in high school. She started by writing in her diary on a daily basis, and somehow, stories started flowing. One day, her school hosted a guest-speaker who encouraged students to write—the kind of writing of ‘speaking without telling people whatever you think or imagine, or experience’. Ingabire didn’t know what the guest-speaker meant but she gave it a shot anyway. She practiced it almost every day, and was fascinated. With time, she learned about poems and writing as a therapy, and everything it adds to a person. She has lost count of the number of poems she has written. Some of these include “For us”, “Like it’s not enough”, “Dear heroine, teach us”, “I want Freedom”, “Stubborn women”, among others, which are all on her YouTube channel (Ingabire Gretta) and other social media platforms. “My journey in poetry has taught me a lot about myself first, what I’m capable of and what I can achieve. It is, however, challenging because it’s still an industry that has a long way to go, but I believe it’s just a matter of time,” she says. Ingabire is also a visual artist. She started drawing a bit early, around primary five or six. As a gesture of affection, she offered her drawings as birthday gifts to her friends, a thing she enjoyed doing and gave her gratitude in return. Now as an expressionist painter, she did a course in art in high school at Ecole d’art de Nyundo. There, her talent was enhanced. While drawing, she uses paints, brushes, pallet knives, and so many other things that help her create something nice and unique. “Just like writing, the art industry still needs a boost for people to give it value and understand it. It should be a lucrative industry, as it is in developed countries,” she notes. Ingabire says that effort is still needed in spreading arts awareness and its impact on society. She hopes that with time, quality art materials will be easily available in Rwanda, and more local platforms for poets will be accessible, so that spoken word poetry is live on different stages. Among her achievements, Ingabire graced the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa-ICASA in 2019. In July 2019, she organised a solo art exhibition titled “Spoken Art” at the Innovation Village Gallery in Kacyiru at the public library. This went on for two weeks and was attended by a number of people. This, she says, was one of her greatest experiences. The show was the second female solo exhibition in Rwanda. Ingabire was impressed with the whole setup, and that she had to showcase most of her art pieces and their copy prints for those that couldn’t afford the original paintings. According to Ingabire, the journey of practicing art is one that sometimes stresses as she feels like giving up, but because of her passion for it, she keeps going. “This is a journey of connecting with different people, some that encourage me, while others dishearten me in diverse ways. But there is something I have learnt so far which is, if being an artist is all that I want and is all that burns in me; then I will just keep falling and bouncing back, it’s all I have got,” she says. Her paintings can be accessed at Envision Art Gallery and range from $200 to $500.
