The Lantern Meet of Poets at Ten – BAGENDA REMIGIUS

Enter Bagenda Remigius – a young student of the law and resoundingly passionate poet.

Remigius, fondly known to the ladies simply as Remmy, is better recognized by the wider Ugandan poetry-patronizing public for his memorable performances in the Lantern Meet’s recitals, before we drew a nostalgic curtain on that leg of our artistic trek.

Bagenda’s deep, sonorous baritone always gave him a commanding, stentorian presence few other performers have been able to match in depth or richness.

Joining  up in 2013, Remmy took a while (and not a short one) to acclimate to the peculiar space of the Lantern Meet and its refreshingly strange folk.

But once he’d grown to comprehend how very much like him not few among our number were – shy and reticent, yet incisively brilliant – his wall of frost began to gradually thaw.

A retiring, soft-spoken and keenly observant character – Remmy soon became a consistent face in all our productions, and has grown to fill a very pivotal space in the elaborately-patterned and discursive trajectory of the Meet.

For the past few years, Bagenda has been the central axis of the Sunday Poetry Circle – moderating discussions, curating workshops and meticulously archiving submitted works.

He makes an excellent wing-man (literally and literarily), as our Executive Director Wobusobozi Amooti wouldn’t hesitate to attest.

Currently, Remmy is trying his hand at short fiction, and so far, he says he is as surprised as he is excited with the results of this genre experimentation.

We are watching this space for what (we earnestly hope) is an imminent anthology.

Taken at a Lantern Meet Poetry Residency in Matugga, Wakiso early last year

*This Chronicle is part of a short series of Poet bios I jotted for the commemoration of the Lantern Meet of Poets’ decennial anniversary.