Star Zahra
Star Zahra is a Nigerian writer and poet, Miombo’s Princess Of African Poetry 2019 and the author of The Dance of Dawn. A BA English undergrad at the University of Abuja, she is interested in music, drama and community service. She is also passionate about textile design and the reinterpretation of fabric in culture, art and utilitarian terms. She can be found at a literary event or library near you.
I consider literature in Africa as identification – a means to tell about our rich culture, history and diversity, standing out like different shades of hue. And so, this is why I write and read and dare to understand life from the artistic literary perspectives available not just in this continent but in the world.
– Star Zahra Okpeh
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Illuminate
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fibre.
It will always be true that our actions are a reflection of who we have chosen to become inside. A wise man once told me that I am free to make choices but I must also be responsible for the consequences of the things that I choose to do, accept or fuel. Peace, development or stability of any kind cannot be achieved without the teachings of enlightenment. This is the ability to focus on worthier issues than surface disturbances. It is impossible to consider others as whole when are yet unable to understand the importance of our own existence.
Strange Lines
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fibre.
Violence is a dark contrast to what many of us still believe in. – Rumi
Forms and Mystery
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fibre.
Red can be considered a violent color, dominating, loud. I love yellow. Yellow is the color of many happy things I remember. The color of emoticons shared between a million people every day in the spirit of friendship, love and respect. It is the color of the sunflowers outside my hostel back in school where I get to meet many people with whom I am united not by race, or gender or class but the sheer desire of accomplishing pursuit and I think that this is the reason for existence. Every man is on a journey with himself and in the course of this journey, we interact, we partner with others, we share spaces and we acquaint ourselves with the world. Between violent and happy things are the grey areas. The influences we cannot explain and the fundamental of what truly defines us. I know it is not land or boundaries or faith. I know it is not color. I know it is not hate.
Disguised
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fibre.
It is mostly easy for us to see the things that make us different than it is to see pass all of that into what unites us. We do not see the perfect connections until we find it through conscious decisions of love, understanding and respect.
Marbling Pain
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fibre.
The thing about pain that is experienced due to the wrong of others is that it leaves behind a great sense of terror. We feel safe when we are sure of our dealings but what fear is greater than the fear of impending danger forcefully labeled on you. What caution is certain when you cannot change the color of your skin, the idea of God or humanity or even the country you are from? Violent extremism is a selfish reaction to ignorance. One that does not consider the threat it leaves behind for those they claim to be theirs.
Two Rivers
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fibre.
I try to imagine the nature of confluences. How two things, two people, two ideas journey and arrive at a point. Everywhere you may turn to look there are two races, two tribes, two faiths, two different beliefs meeting. Sadly, while some have received these meetings with a sense of threat, this piece tries to portray the beauty and serenity evident in our diversity, differences, uniqueness and sensibilities.
Mapping Violence
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fibre.
There are many ugly things to experience in our world today – racism, terrorism, religious discrimination, radicalization, obsession and so many vices that constantly fill the media with fear. Fear sure enough to inspire more violence. It is sad and it is reality.
“This is the ultimate weakness of violence: it multiplies evil in the universe. It doesn’t solve any problems.” – Martin Luther King Jr
Variation and Patterns
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fibre.
Variation and patterns are the very essence of nature. Shapes, color, size, and depths all create a balancing effect on her arrangement. There is no threat in diversity, no error in differences and absolutely no separation in the things that seem to make us different. Life is not lived in a straight line. In thus same way, our appreciation of the world is not limited to some perceived perfection.
Amani
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fibre.
Growth, peace, communal participation, self development, social interdependence
Ripples
Medium: Textile art, 100% cotton fiber.
“Salvation and justice are not found in revolution but in evolution through concord. Violence has ever achieved only destruction, not construction; the kindling of passions, not their pacification; the accumulation of hate and destruction, not the reconciliation of the contending parties; and it has reduced men and parties to the difficult task of building slowly after sad experience on the ruins of discord.” – Pope Pius XII