Our Team

SDPF Staff

The Founder & Director, Splendors of Dawn Poetry Foundation. (A registered NGO) Lawyer, Poet, Writer, Author.
A University law lecturer, former legal officer (contract), Legal department, Shell Petroleum Dev. Co, Marina Lagos, Nigeria. Business & Commercial law Consultant with over fifteen years of law practice as Partner with reputable Law Firms- Was Partner, Ayorinde & CO (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) 33, Moloney street, Lagos Nigeria.
Was Partner, Ayo Ajibulu & Co (former Attorney General in Ondo State, Nigeria) 23 Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos. She regularly presents papers at academic conferences.


A former MD & Board of Director of Pearl Allied (Group of) Companies Ltd, No 2 Victoria street, Ogudu, G.R.A, Lagos Nigeria. A Company with retainership & clients such as West African Portland Cement, Chevron, Dangote Group of Companies, Honeywell Group of Companies, & Unilever, Nigerian Flour Mills, to mention but a few.

The CEO of the Heritage Series, Every Child's Fables, Nursery Rhymes and Poems, On the Pathway books. Some of her poems have appeared in International anthologies & at poetry performances and readings both at National & International events. She has collections of poems for adults & children, and has written some plays. She has attended so many National and International Writers' workshop, conferences and seminars.

She formed the READ AFRICA PROJECT a book club for Universities and she teaches Poetry, Literature, & Creative writing in universities & secondary schools as a Volunteer.
She is a Volunteer Legal Advisor for the Ghana Federation of the Disabled.
She is the Legal Advisor for the Ghana Association of Writers. The Chairperson of the Publications Committee & the Constitution Review Committee.

A member of the Civil Liberties organization member of Mbassem Foundation, the Ghana Women Writers Forum & a member of International Pen.



Kofi Marrah holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Development Studies and has worked with the Integrated Social Development Centre and the World Bank. He also worked for a year as a journalist with Public Agenda, a development-oriented local newspaper. He has been writing since the mid-1980s when he authored numerous news commentaries on a wide variety of political and social topics for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. He also contributed articles and book reviews to the defunct West Africa news magazine between the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Other international newsmagazines which have published his articles include African Agenda and Business in Africa. His latest article appeared in the Daily Graphic in December 2010. He has also authored various poems most of which are unpublished. Mr. Marrah has had four of his poems published in the Daily Graphic in 2009.

He continues to write poetry and is currently working on his first novel. He is an avid reader and is committed to the promotion of a reading and writing culture among the youth of Africa.


Mafando received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics, with a minor in Geography from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). He is dedicated to pursuing higher education in the hopes of becoming a Development Economist and/or Communications and Legal Expert.

Previously, he worked as Staff Assistant to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for a year, focusing mainly on public education and students’ club activities regarding human rights.  He also proposed and developed as Co-Event Organizer the first Annual Saboba District Spelling Bee in May 2009. He spent most of his holidays between 2004-2009 teaching at Junior High Schools in his village, served as the Anti-AIDs Club Patron at St. Charles Lwanga Junior High School, Community Volunteer for the National Polio Immunization and the Northern Ghana Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination programs, and Obama Club Proponent (whose objective was to rally President Obama to visit Northern Ghana during his stay).

He spent most of his holidays between 2004-2009 teaching at Junior High Schools in his village, served as the Anti-AIDs Club Patron at St. Charles Lwanga Junior High School, Community Volunteer for the National Polio Immunization and the Northern Ghana Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination programs, and Obama Club Proponent (whose objective was to rally President Obama to visit Northern Ghana during his stay). He sees Splendors of Dawn as integral to allowing talent to be discovered and developed so that other youth may pursue their dreams with confidence.


Nutor graduated from the University of Ghana-Legon with a concentration in Economics and Geography with a Resource Development minor, Second Class Honors.

Beforehand, she served as Staff Assistant to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and Medical Records Clerk at Newham University Hospital in the United Kingdom. At CHRAJ, She realized the need for the youth in deprived communities to be encouraged, mentored and supported to discover their capabilities and build up on them to make them more productive and responsible.

She has held several officer positions in the Lions Club, focused on caring for the needy and underprivileged by coordinating activities such as donating to homes, schools, hospitals, and orphanages; tree planting; and clean-up campaigns. She has also volunteered with Sister Cities International and Volta Forum Trust.

Volunteer Coordinator
Name: Ali Okine

Laura received her BA in Spanish literature from Montclair State University in 2002. She also holds an MA in Spanish literature and linguistics (2005) and a PhD in Latin American literature (2009) from Temple University. Her doctoral dissertation focused on social constructionist views of reality and their intersections with theories of sexuality and gender identity as seen in contemporary Mexican theater.

As a professor, Laura uses language and literature as vehicles for creating awareness and understanding of the spectrum of human experience and diversity. Her belief in the incomparable change producing powers of meaningful and quality education--a result of her own transformation as a student--has led her to work with those members of society that are typically denied access to higher education.

Laura is currently working at the Safe Horizon Street work Project in New York, where she advocates for homeless marginalized youth through education, counseling, and community outreach. Her areas of interest and research include feminist theory, sexuality and gender, cultural anthropology, Mexican culture and theater, reproductive rights and health, and food politics. She is presently pursuing a Master's in Global Public Health at New York University, where she is focusing on researching from a public health perspective gender and sexual-based violence.

Studied journalism at Rhodes University and got a diploma in Theatre from the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris. She worked with Theatre for Africa, did Theatresports and a number of street theatre projects and some television before studying scriptwriting at Wits University. She wrote scripts for TV series like Soul City, Soul Buddies, Tsha Tsha, Thetha Msawawa, Takalani Sesame and SABC education and Backstage for eight years and in 2005, won a mentorship with English poet John Lindley through the British Council/Lancaster University’s distance learning scheme Crossing Borders.

She wrote Where the children live (a two-hander play) which came second in the best writer category and won the audience award at the National Festival of Play Readings. She published her first collection of poetry Taller than buildings (2006), which was followed by Original Skin (2008), a one-woman play based on her life story.
She performed at Havana International Festival of Poetry, Poetry Africa and Word Power Festival of Black Literature in London (2007), The Voorkamerfestival in Darling in Western Cape. She attended the Solidarity Festival in Sweden, Jozi Spoken Word Festival (2008) and performed at the Passaporta Festival in Brussels, Belgium as well as the Northern Cape Writers Festival in Kimberley, Berlin International Poesie Festival (2009) and the Beyond Words Tour of the UK later the same year.
She has continued to perform in SA and abroad, in 2010 Harare International Festival of the Arts, Worldwide words festival in Denmark and China. She contributed to the anthology of South African birth stories, Just Keep Breathing, published by Jacana with her story A thousand births (2008) and won the Writing Beyond the Fringe/de Buren competition with her short story The day that Jesus dropped the ball (2009).

In 2010 she released her second collection, The everyday wife and co-edited No serenity here, an anthology of African poetry translated into Mandarin. She was editor of the South African contribution to A megaphone, a journal initiated and edited by Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young out of Mills College. Her work is in anthologies and journals from Poui to Edinburgh Review, and the online journals The Canopic Jar, Shine and Incwadi. Her poem Consider the birds appears in the Umuzi anthology Letter to South Africa: Poets call the state to order (2011). She is working on a very long memoir/poem which has been optioned by a documentary film producer and performing poetry and engaging with other transracial adoptees in South Africa.

 

Samar is the CEO of Pearly White Dental Clinic, Egypt. She holds a Master Degree, Cosmetic Dentistry from Ain Shams University, Faculty of Dentistry. She is a Poet and Dental Surgeon.

 

Karin holds a BA Degree in BA, Library Exam. Currently, she works as Librarian at Rinkeby library, Stockholm and consultant for Swedish School Agency. Karin runs a private company NDIO, an intercultural communication.


SDPF Groups

  • Projects/Programs
  • Volunteer/Interns Coordination

At the National level, Splendors of Dawn PF. collaborates with other literary organizations, The Media, Universities, Secondary, Primary schools, non-governmental organizations (NGO) and the government.
Internationally, Splendors of Dawn PF. has presence in most African countries, Networks, Links, and collaborations with most vibrant Poetry organizations across Africa, America, and Europe. Click here to learn more!

Communications and Events


 

SDPF  Clubs

  • Platinum Group
  • Gold Group
  • Silver Group
Our Poets
  • English
  • Oral Poetry Indigenous
  • Associates (Students)

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