Safiya Kinshasa

Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is a British born Barbadian raised choreopoet, her interdisciplinary art  braids dance and poetry. Safiya is also PhD student at the University of Leeds in Cultural Studies.

Safiya is an Obsidian Foundation fellow and an Apples & Snakes/ Jerwood Arts Poetry in Performance recipient. Her notable commissions include writing for English Heritage, BBC Bitesize and The Wailers. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals including Poetry London, Poetry Review, Caribbean Writer and Wasafiri.

Her debut poetry collection Cane, Corn & Gully (Out-Spoken Press) arrived in November 2022. Cane, Corn & Gully was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize (2023) and won Barbados’ ‘Gine On’ People’s Choice Book of The Year Award (2023). Cane, Corn & Gully is the first book to feature dance notation of the enslaved.