RadioMoLI’s Writer Presents series invites writers to produce a radio programme focussing on and exploring a chosen subject that is close to their heart. This edition of Writer Presents, was created by Nandi Jola, and features a conversation between Nandi Jola and Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan. The discussion revolves around on Jola’s play The Rise of Maqoma, which tells the story of the discovery of the Xhosa Chief Maqoma’s stick in the National Museum of Ireland.
Nandi Jola is a South African born poet, storyteller and playwright, as well as a Smock Alley Theatre Rachel Baptiste 2022 Programme recipient. She was a creative writing facilitator for Ulster University Books Beyond Boundaries NI in 2021. Her one woman play ‘The Journey’ opened the International Literature Festival Dublin in October, 2020, she represented Northern Ireland at the Transpoesie Poetry Festival in 2021 and was a commissioned poet for Poetry Jukebox, Ambiguities, a James Joyce programme of the Centre Culturel Irlandais and Impermanence Way Archive Project in 2022. She has an MA in Poetry from Queen’s University Belfast.
Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan is a Dublin-based, writer, performer, and cultural consultant from India, who has also lived in North America, Sweden, Turkey, and the UK. Her work has been published in Writing Home: The ‘New Irish’ Poets and Local Wonders from Dedalus Press, the Irish Chair of Poetry’s Hold Open the Door anthology, Queering the Green by Lifeboat Press, Banshee, Honest Ulsterman, Stinging Fly, and Poetry Ireland Review, amongst others. Chandrika has been selected for the Irish Writers Centre’s XBorders programme twice, and in 2021 was a Poetry Ireland’s Introductions poet and a Science Gallery Dublin’s Rapid Residency Artist. She was also editor of Poetry Ireland’s Trumpet issue 9, and is a book reviewer for Children’s Books Ireland’s Inis magazine. Chandrika is also on the Board of the Irish Writers Centre. She was Writer in Residence for the Institute of Physics for 2023.
Producers Benedict Schlepper-Connolly & Ian Dunphy
Sound Ian Dunphy
Additional Audio Nandi Jola
Series Music Benedict Schlepper-Connolly
This programme was created with the support of the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, and the Display Europe Project of the European Cultural Foundation, funded by the European Union. MoLI’s digital programme is supported by ebow, the digital agency.
Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
