How a Random Hashtag Birthed Kano International Poetry Festival

In 2016, Salim Yunusa, the founder of Poetic Wednesdays, was stuck in traffic after a long day of receiving lectures. Nothing was moving and he was in a bad mood. This prompted him to write an untitled short poem bordering on uncertainty. Since he couldn’t find a title and wanted to post on Facebook, he innocently used the hashtag #PoeticWednesday because it was a Wednesday and it was poetry. The online community he belonged to loved it and it attracted engagement. The engagement boosted Yunusa’s confidence to post another of his scribbles the following Wednesday with the same hashtag. Responding to this, Abdulbasit Abubakar Adamu, one of his friends, posted a poem with the same hashtag. After this, it organically became a weekly activity. Now, that random hashtag has grown into a Facebook page with over 53, 000 members and hundreds of active users monthly. 

As the weekly prompts grew, mentorship requests started trooping in and online workshops were added. The popularity of the online community motivated a physical meet. In 2017, the Poetic Wednesdays members met at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with members coming from Kano, Kaduna and other places. As Yunusa and his team members recall in a conversation with Culture Custodian, it was a beautiful gathering that featured literary conversations and an impromptu Open Mic. The physical event further strengthened the bond and resolve to establish a literary fraternity. As young poets and artists in Northern Nigeria at that time, that online and physical community held measurable impact in their artistic and creative journeys. The weekly prompts and workshop was the origin of Abduljalal Musa Aliyu and other’s poetry journey. Today, from being a consistent member of the community and his hard work, Aliyu has two chapbooks— Encyclopedia of Dolour published by The Chestnut Review and another forthcoming in the African Poetry Book Fund. The poet who is also a team member believes that every form of art is born from a story, and through art and community, stories worth telling can be encountered. Networking and proximity to willing mentors and writers have been part of the cultural impact of Aliyu’s journey. One of the best pieces of advice on how to approach writing short stories as a poet was gotten from an encounter at the festival. “In terms of cultural impact, I haven’t seen a festival that people talk about—and even grieve for those who couldn’t attend—more than the recently concluded Kano International Poetry Festival,” Aliyu shares.  

In 2019, it became important to formalize the community into an organization. Registration, selecting leaders and curating timely activities was done. From 2019 to now, Poetic Wednesdays have carried out various activities across 9 Northern states donating over 10,000 books to select secondary schools, created empowerment events, supporting literary events and festivals, organizing book chats and literary activities and curating a literary festival, Kano International Poetry Festival (KAPFEST). From a simple hashtag, Poetic Wednesdays has become the largest youth-led literary organization in Northern Nigeria. Yunusa and his team members realized the power and positive social impact the literary movement can cause not just in Northern Nigeria, but Nigeria at large. Despite the massive online community they command, they have to connect with youth who are technologically disenfranchised and due to lack of affordability and accessibility created by a technological divide. With inspiration from mainstream and powerful movements like #NotTooYoungToRun, the #MeToo movement and others, Yunusa and his teams contend that arts can have a transformative and enlightening impact in a creative way. “Our advocacy revolves around literary development and literary activities; on how we leverage not just social media to enlighten the youth about the arts but traditional media at large using the indigenous language. It was important for us to carry everyone along and to improve the rapidly eroding reading culture among youths.”

Not only is the festival domiciled in Kano, it also curates conversations and workshops in Hausa for its audience. This linguistic inclusivity for the festival curators is important not only for the identity and contribution that it adds to the blooming Hausa literature. To the curators, Hausa is the most spoken language in northern Nigeria, and seeing that the festival is in Kano, which is like the capital of the north, having conversations in Hausa is necessary. It’s also a way for people to connect with the audiences  and community whose mother tongue is Hausa. “Hausa literature has been in existence for centuries in the north, before anything was written in English. Having workshops in Hausa for participants ensures that there is an endless supply of good quality literature in Hausa from the north.”

What guided the team’s decision to use Kano as the location for the festival, Yunusa and Nasiba Babale, co-curator of KAPFEST, provide answers. Kano, according to the festival curators, is the capital of Northern Nigeria going by its size, thriving economy and a sort of gateway to other neighboring states and countries of the Sahel. The culture, vibrancy, history and openness and economic and geographical advantages are layered factors that defined Kano as the ideal city to host the festival. But, more specifically, the city’s deep heritage and the gap in platforms for contemporary voices are what the team identified as the motivating factor for having an international festival in Kano. “Kano has always been a literary and cultural powerhouse; it has been home to centuries-old Ajami literature, Hausa poetry traditions, thriving publishing in the 20th century, and the famous Soyayya romance literature scene. Yet, despite this history, there was no major platform connecting today’s poets, spoken word artists, and writers to that legacy or to a wider national and global audience.” 

Kano, in the curators’ strategic thinking, has the “right energy” for such an international  festival. It has a large youth population, vibrant universities, a strong tradition of storytelling, and a creative scene that’s alive but often underrepresented compared to cities like Lagos. “Hosting KAPFEST here allows us to honor the city’s literary past while creating a contemporary space for dialogue, performance, and innovation—making Kano not just a cultural landmark in Northern Nigeria but also a meeting point for poets and thinkers from across the world.”

There have been arguments about the social utility of poetry in addressing and resolving social and political issues.  There are arguments that what poetry does is bring attention towards social and political subjects. In non-poetry circles and communities, it’s believed that poetry holds no social, cultural and political value. That thinking has creeped into poetry circles and communities. But,  the Poetic Wednesday team disagrees with this thinking. The organization understands how influential spoken word poetry and other artistic expressions can positively and negatively sway social, cultural, economic and political issues and intends to use it in the most creative ways to serve their immediate community. Northern Nigeria is faced with visible and invisible crises with insecurity manifesting through banditry, terrorism, ethno-religious crisis, farmer/herder crisis, malnutrition, unemployment, climate change among so many others and the invisible ones being mental health challenges and radicalization being the most pronounced. These issues threaten the collective wellbeing of northerners. In harnessing the power of poetry, the team decided to curate conversations around the place of poetry in addressing these social issues. 

Last year, the focus was on the creative freedom of expression. In a conservative region, the KAPFEST team felt it important to address the blurring lines around creative expression, art flourishing and other intricacies. This influenced the bringing of not just their immediate community of writers and artists but stakeholders with recognized social and political status and relevance to the conversation. This year, the festival is themed ‘Poetry in the Time of Crisis’ – in recognition of the social and security uncertainty in the north. For the festival curators, if praise singers can glorify thieves and wayward people, why shouldn’t they mobilize spoken word artists, musicians and poets to counter immorality and promote peace using their words? “As conscious artists, we are very deliberate on how our art and creativity should contribute to bringing peace and development to the society. This informed our decision for this year’s theme: to advocate, enlighten, advocate and empower using skills and creativity in bringing forth a generation that is conscious of its challenges and doing all it can to bring positive change.”

Organizing a literary event not to say an international festival comes with significant logistical and financial challenges. Though planning started in 2024, financing the festival was still a constant hurdle. The economic hardship, rising inflation and other socio-ecomonic factors further contributed to the significant funding delays they experienced as organizations and brands aren’t too keen to welcome funding proposals. Despite these economic challenges, the KAPFEST team believes that the major hurdle is the mindset of these organizations; they always think art events and  festivals aren’t worth supporting. STEM and climate change events and programs have monopolized attention and preference with art events and festivals seen as just “fun” activities with no real impact. As the curators told Culture Custodian, if this mentality doesn’t change, then the next generation of artists, writers and creatives are doomed. 

Another hurdle is the publicity. According to the curators, attempts to be visible, seen, heard and hopefully understood, wasn’t recognized by Nigerian media publications. Literary festivals – especially from Northern Nigeria, struggle to find space in the news, and conversations on art and culture rarely make the front page. Poets, writers, and festival organizers don’t enjoy coverage too. “Media coverage will go a long way in boosting the image of Kano as a literary city and KAPFEST as a forerunner in the literary space in Nigeria. Outside the circle of writers and enthusiasts, one would hardly know such a festival exists. Coverage is minimal, mentions are fleeting, and mainstream media rarely goes beyond superficial announcements, if at all. This has to change.” Responses to sponsorship pitch to Nigerian organizations – banks, airlines, telcos, were overwhelmingly negative. A heartwarming response was received from the local community in Kano who supported the festival with services, discounts and patronage. Additionally, funding from Open Society Foundation, anonymous personal donations and reliance on  ticket sales were how the festival supported itself.

In the next five to ten years, Yunusa and Babale see KAPFEST growing into the leading literary and cultural festival in Nigeria, with a reputation that attracts poets, writers, and scholars from across Africa and beyond. The vision is to sustain a platform that not only celebrates poetry but also nurtures emerging voices through mentorship programs, writing residencies, and structured publishing opportunities such as annual anthologies and digital platforms. The immediate major focus is championing indigenous languages and oral traditions—Hausa, Nupe, Kanuri, Fulfulde, and others—by integrating performances, translations, and documentation into the festival experience. Over time, they want KAPFEST to become a cross-disciplinary cultural space, bringing poetry into dialogue with music, theatre, visual arts, and even digital media.

Outside the festival, KAPFEST is being imagined as a cultural hub for literary research and archiving, working with universities and cultural institutions to preserve the region’s literary heritage. This is influencing why they want to position the festival as a driver of cultural tourism and economic activity in Kano, securing long-term sponsorships and partnerships to make it sustainable. Ultimately, the goal is to transition KAPFEST from a once-a-year event into a year-round institution with school outreaches, creative workshops, and pop-up events across Northern Nigeria. “We want the festival to remain a voice for social change, using poetry to spark dialogue on insecurity, gender justice, climate change, and civic freedoms, ensuring that literature in Northern Nigeria speaks to both the cultural and political realities of our time.