Dike
Chukwumerije
Years: 2026
Dike Chukwumerije is a performance poet, spoken word theatre practitioner, author, public speaker, and cultural administrator.
His novel, ‘Urichindere’, won the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Prose Fiction in 2013. His poems and short stories have been published in several literary magazines including The Combat Magazine, The African Writer, Saraba, The Dream Catcher, and Wasafiri.
Since 2013, he has hosted and headlined an annual poetry show in Abuja, Nigeria, and has directed three feature-length spoken word theatre productions, including the production “The Made in Nigeria Show” which toured the country for seven years.
Between 2013 and 2023, he was the Programs Director of the Abuja Literary Society (ALS) in which capacity he oversaw an annual program of book readings, open mics, and poetry slams. In 2019, he participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), a US Government exchange program, on the theme ‘Promoting Social Change through the Arts’. In 2022, he was named as one of the judges on the Nigeria Prize for Literature in the Poetry category for that year.
He is the Executive Director of the Simply Poetry Foundation, a not-for-profit he established in 2018 to promote the use of art for social change, and is currently working on a program that leverages art in tackling issues of polarization in society.
Dike Chukwumerije is a performance poet, spoken word theatre practitioner, author, public speaker, and cultural administrator.
His novel, ‘Urichindere’, won the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Prose Fiction in 2013. His poems and short stories have been published in several literary magazines including The Combat Magazine, The African Writer, Saraba, The Dream Catcher, and Wasafiri.
Since 2013, he has hosted and headlined an annual poetry show in Abuja, Nigeria, and has directed three feature-length spoken word theatre productions, including the production “The Made in Nigeria Show” which toured the country for seven years.
Between 2013 and 2023, he was the Programs Director of the Abuja Literary Society (ALS) in which capacity he oversaw an annual program of book readings, open mics, and poetry slams. In 2019, he participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), a US Government exchange program, on the theme ‘Promoting Social Change through the Arts’. In 2022, he was named as one of the judges on the Nigeria Prize for Literature in the Poetry category for that year.
He is the Executive Director of the Simply Poetry Foundation, a not-for-profit he established in 2018 to promote the use of art for social change, and is currently working on a program that leverages art in tackling issues of polarization in society.
