Lamwaka cuts cake with her family members after launching her book. Photos | Isaac Ssejjombwe
There were so many activities happening at Design Hub last Saturday evening and among those was a book launch by Joan Gillian Lamwaka.
Lamwaka, who is also a poet, had only a handful of people attending her Innate Speech book launch, among those were family members, fellow poets, well-wishers and fans.
Having gone through some troubling times in her life, she decided to write a book that inspires people to talk to themselves positively.
Asked what inspired the title of the book, Namwaka said she was looking at a shorter version of things people say to themselves.
“I wanted to come up with a short version to say ‘the things we tell ourselves. How we speak to ourselves. That ‘Innate speech’ intrinsic words,” she said.
The 100-page book consists of three chapters; the first being about living while broken, the second about loving and the third about living in revival.
Innate Speech, according to the author, was written in two years and the story started when she used to post poems on whatever she saw that intrigued her on her social media accounts, especially Instagram to inspire people and with this collections of poems, friends who later became her publishers at Raven House Group advised her to put together a book.
Like everything else, Lamwaka said it has been an interesting but challenging journey to have it out to the public.
“First and foremost, we are not from a reading culture and it was so hard getting a target audience for this book, which hindered the process. Then there was also a challenge of finances but I thank God we are here now,” she said.
Lamwaka autographs one of a fan’s book
According to the author, the thing to pick out from this book is that we are in an era where everyone should watch what is consumed and that our mind plays a big role in who we become. This is because her mind once played tricks on her but when she took control of it and used creativity to heal every wound that she had succumbed to, it got to a better place.
“We hold power over our minds but need to water our minds with the right things by being around the right people, being inspired by the right people in the right place and at the right time,” Lamwaka said.
This is her first book but has plans on releasing many more as her mind allows and from here, she is in the process of venturing into script writing.
The three-hour event saw Lamwaka speak about the motivation behind the book, the people who helped her put it together and support her among others.
However, the day was not all about speeches and poetry, revellers got a chance to enjoy some poems from Angel, who impressed with her Soultry (songs and poetry) as well as some acts from Mitchel and Kenneth.
A cake was later cut to celebrate the milestone before food and drinks were served to crown the day.
issejjombwe@ug.nationmedia.com