{"id":55676,"date":"2025-09-19T17:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/inspiring-journey-of-rwandan-street-photographer-documenting-rwanda-in-verse\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T14:28:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:28:39","slug":"inspiring-journey-of-rwandan-street-photographer-documenting-rwanda-in-verse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/inspiring-journey-of-rwandan-street-photographer-documenting-rwanda-in-verse\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiring journey of Rwandan street photographer documenting Rwanda in verse and image"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hirwa\u2019s path to the arts began during his undergraduate studies at Southern New Hampshire University. In 2019, while still a student, he joined the Writivism Mentoring Program, a project by The Center for African Cultural Excellence. Under the mentorship of Nigerian writer Adeola Opeyemi, he learned a lesson that continues to shape his creative process on the importance of showing rather than telling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am greatly indebted to my time in the program and my mentor Adeola Opeyemi,\u201d he reflects. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the first time I learnt to show, not to tell. Even now in my poetry practice, what sets me apart from my earlier version is that I make sure to show, not to tell. And I believe this makes the poetry more visual. I think that rule also influenced my love for photography, at least subconsciously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cMisozi<\/figure>\n

By 2020, at the age of 22, Hirwa was admitted into the MFA program in Creative Writing at Texas State University, moving to the United States a year later. There, he studied under acclaimed poet Naomi Shihab Nye and refined his voice as a poet. His chapbook Hairpins, published by Akashic Books in 2023, was selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani for the African Poetry Book Fund\u2019s chapbook boxset series. The collection, he explains, captured his early 20s\u2019 struggles with identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe book captures my early 20s\u2019 grapple with identity,\u201d he says. \u201cMost of the poems are attempts at understanding my own masculinity. I wrote the book when I was around 23 years old, fresh out of high school and college, and I had questions about where I stood on the spectrum of masculinity. Am I a soft man, am I a tough guy, why does it matter etc. Those are the ideas the book captured.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Alongside the chapbook, his poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in Wasafiri, Poetry Society of America, Lolwe, and Transition Magazine. Each piece, whether a poem about solitude or an essay on small spaces, reflects his interest in how identity, belonging, and culture intersect.<\/p>\n

But Hirwa\u2019s work is not confined to the page. In 2024, shortly after returning to Rwanda, he staged his first solo photography exhibition, Stilettos, Nikes, and a Basketball, at L\u2019Espace in Kigali with support from the Goethe-Institut. The exhibition marked the start of his photography career and a significant return home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solo exhibition was a marker of various shifts in my life,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt also meant that this is a person returning home to show home who he has become. Since my photography captures how I see the world, an exhibition like the one at L\u2019Espace was a way to say to my home \u2018this is what I have seen\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Visitors<\/figure>\n

The response from audiences in Kigali was immediate. <\/p>\n

\u201cAttendees had good responses to the exhibition. I remember there is this teenage boy I found sitting on the floor reading a piece of text I had printed on a transparent paper and attached on the white floor. He admired the experimental approach to the curation of the physical display of the artworks, and what more can one ask for?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirwa has since participated in group exhibitions at the Kigali Center for Photography and at The Strand in London, expanding the reach of his street photography. His images often portray the quiet dignity of everyday life\u2014motorcycle taxi drivers in colourful vests, children at play, the textures of Kigali\u2019s neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n

His forthcoming full-length poetry collection, Dear Zoe, was a finalist for the 2025 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poetry. The book, still awaiting publication, focuses on the Rwandan diaspora and the ways people sustain cultural identity abroad.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/figure>\n

\u201cThe book \u2018Dear Zoe\u2019 documents the ways in which the Rwandan diaspora makes a living abroad, such as running or working in hair salons, restaurants, and many other jobs and lifestyles in such cities as Dallas and Brussels,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope when it gets published, it will spark conversations on how the Rwandan diaspora make a living abroad, and their experiences in relation to identity, belonging, and nostalgia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Hirwa acknowledges that his influences are wide-ranging. He cites Teju Cole\u2019s Blind Spot as a model for pairing photographs with prose, Joel Meyerowitz\u2019s mastery of street photography, and Warsan Shire\u2019s poetry about migration and belonging. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe two men, both Cole and Meyerowitz, have taught me to focus on simple things in my artworks in general, both writing and photography,\u201d he notes. \u201cThat is why, as a photographer, I am interested in capturing the beauty in the mundane, which reflects my poetry too in a way. As in, what is a day like for a moto driver working in Kigali during weekdays and going to the provinces on the weekend to his wife and kids? That\u2019s where Warsan Shire comes in. Her poetry is about the humanity of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Living and creating between Rwanda and the United States has also shaped his sense of belonging. <\/p>\n

\u201cLiving transnationally has distracted this sense of belonging to me,\u201d he admits. \u201cWhen I was in the US, my poetry was my attempt at staying connected to my roots, my Rwandan culture. But it\u2019s a real hustle since being away most times means whether one likes it or not he or she is acculturating, hence trying to keep the writing originally Rwandan becomes hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Hirwa, poetry, prose, and photography are not separate practices but interconnected modes of expression. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, they feed into one another because they are on a spectrum of realism versus abstractedness,\u201d he explains. \u201cMy poetry is a transcription of my photography, and my essays and pieces of fiction are translations of my poetry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Looking ahead, he envisions expanding into film. Inspired by Rwandan filmmaker Kivu Ruhorahoza and Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambety, he hopes to bring the same attentiveness to story and image into motion pictures.<\/p>\n

For now, Hirwa remains rooted in Kigali, balancing writing with photography and documenting Rwanda with the same patience he first learned under mentorship. Whether in verse or image, his work is an evolving archive of how Rwandans see themselves, at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

\"Alain<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alain Jules Hirwa, a Rwandan poet and photographer, is building an artistic career that bridges literature and visual storytelling. At just 28, his work has been published internationally and exhibited in Kigali and London, positioning him among Rwanda\u2019s emerging literary and artistic voices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000094693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000094693,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-09-19_124920.png","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/png","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-09-19_124920.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-09-19_124920.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-09-19_124920.png","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-09-19_124920.png","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/screenshot_2025-09-19_124920.png","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000094693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55676"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55676"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}