Grace Kwikiriza began her poetic journey along the beaten path: social media.

For it carried sexual undertones of the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am variety.

However this young lady, who was born on June 18th 1997 and hails from Mwanjari, Kabale District, is anything but playful.

Her poetry, honed in the hallowed halls of Uganda Christian University, came across as angry, dark and somewhat forbidding.

Each time she posted a poem, it dripped with a liquid rage, canalised by personal experiences which dealt with betrayal, hurt and heartache.

She seemed like a lady cast adrift by her own poetry, only to be cut loose as a sloop of war set to take on a world of pain with an armada of words.

Then, a few years ago, I hosted a Karaoke, Quiz and Poetry show at Rock Bar. The combination of poetry, quiz and Karaoke was clearly a motley crew of three Third Wheels. So it struggled to find its singular footing beyond its three-dimensionality.

Then, one day, a certain feminine energy set the show in a tailspin.

During the poetry session, a self-possessed and undeniably comely lady held the microphone.

I can’t recall the poem she recited, but her perfectly pitched vocals felt as soothing as a cold drink on a hot Kampala afternoon.

You know the drill: you take a sip. The effect wears off and so you take another and another until the rush of flavor going down your throat seems like a storm.

This storm was Grace Kwiki, and she came across as being free in the captivity of her poetry.

A little reserved, she also seemed dreamy without living in a Katy Perry-ish, “bubble, bubble.”

Clearly, she was far different from the exasperated young poetess who posted poetry on Facebook which caused many a man to cover their privates in protection from the potential assault by an angry poetess who was taking no prisoners.

The Facebook Grace was not the same as the Grace I met in person. So who was this lady and what is her story, I asked.

“I started writing poetry in 2012; I had a bit of a temper. One day when I really wanted to confront a teacher at my new school and I couldn’t, I settled for writing instead and when it turned out I could commit murder on paper and not get convicted, I had found my saving grace,” she says, without any hint of levity.

This explains the duality between person and persona, poet and potential battleax.

Grace’s poetry, however, is a low-calorie version of the weighty tendencies which characterize the staple of much of the dark poetry out there.

It can be depressive but it clearly has more soul. So it is therapeutic to her and her listeners.

“Poetry for me is an outlet, a source of freedom. I want people to feel happy when they read my poetry and to feel the weight of sadness, the lingering gloom and then be able to expel each emotion that does not serve them afterwards. I want them to be free and if I can inspire people while doing this, then I have done more than I could hope for,” she confesses.

As she says these words, her anger and frustration with life seems to pall and that, I hasten to add, is part of her poetic charm.

Although rich in talent, Grace has not yet carved out her niche as a force to be reckoned within the poetry circuit. That’s because not many poets or fans of poetry have heard her more incendiary works.

However, you can distinctly hear trilling violins and confident guitar riffs playing in the background to declare how unfazed she is by this as she says:

“I have had a few collaborations with a couple upcoming poets that are Kunkundakwe Diana, Kisolo Emmanuel and Yateesa Jonathan. I’ve been honored to perform my poetry at Uganda Christian University stage drama productions and poetry nights.”

Being only 23, like the number on LeBron James’s shirt, she has a lot of jump to her poetry in the sense that, beyond the relative innocence of her craft, she pursues enlightenment with the aesthetic deliberation of a Lauryn Hill.

Her words seem to mature with every syllable, like a Meme-turned-Article of Faith. So one wonders why she has not yet made a major literary splash with a book or a contribution to an anthology.

“I have not published any books. However, I do have a book in the works, “Love’s Visit” . It is about a love encounter. From the beginning, a portrayal of joy, love and satisfaction to the end disappointment, hatred, castration, anger and, finally, moving on. This compilation is close to my heart with poems dated as far back as 2013,” she reveals.

When you peel back the skin of her poetry, her soul reflects a catholicity of passions first expressed on Facebook and later at Rock Bar. These passions enabled her to surmount the three dimensionality of the Rock Bar show with ease.

It is this fevered diversity and unwillingness to be hemmed in that shall turn Grace into a poetry superstar.

“The Late Maya Angelou inspires my poetry because there was always a sense of relatability to her poems and that is what I strive for. I definitely hope to publish during the COVID19 era,” she says with the finality and confidence which have come to define her as a poet on the rise.