Vivian Amah Ofre
Poet in Calabar, Nigeria
Vivian is an emerging poet with a bold new voice, passionately using poetry as a tool to inspire learning among students, increase literacy levels and promote values of empathy and tolerance. She cares deeply about the environment, global peace, and youth development, thus, commits her time to projects aimed at improving communities, and building youth capacity in Nigeria. Vivian believes that Poetry in all its forms, is a powerful tool for creating positive change, and therefore seeks to do this through her poems and spoken word pieces.
She is the founder of WordPlay Express; an organization that provides training and platforms of creative expression for poets in Nigeria. WordPlay Express reaches an audience of over 300 youth on a quarterly basis through 'Turn Up The Mic', a poetry event that brings together poets, and other creatives with the goal of shaping minds, influencing popular culture and changing narratives that affect the African Society. In 2021, Wordplay Express won the Goethe Institut's support and Connect Fund, the friends of Prof. Yemi Osibajo My Bold Innovation Challenge for SMEs in Nigeria, and the Blank Paperz Global Change Makers Fund.
Vivian has performed on both local and International platforms such as the United States House of Representatives, Festival Poetry Calabar, Lagos International Poetry Festival, The Rhapsodist, The ShePreneurs Fest, Calabar, and The Literary Festival of the Peripheries, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She hopes to continually inspire an increasingly youthful audience through her works. She is a winner of the Afrostreetz Festival 2021, The African Writers' Ultimate Poetry Challenge, 2018, a finalist of the War of Words Poetry Slam, and the Jos Poetry Slam, Nigeria 2018. In 2019, she placed second in the Just Create E-Slam, was shortlisted for the Stephen A. Dibiase Poetry Prize and her collection of poems; 'These Little Things' was shortlisted for the AfIRE Linda Ikeji literature Prize 2019.
Vivian is a fellow of the Barack Obama's Young African Leadership Initiative (RLC) West Africa, 2016. She holds a degree in Applied Geophysics from the University of Calabar, Nigeria and is currently studying Entrepreneurial Leadership w a focus on Policy &Advocacy at the African Leadership University, Kigali.