Janice M Whyne

Intentionality, creates opportunity for creativity…

Who Am I

Photograph courtesy of Morlene Fisher

Janice Whyne is a Jamaican by birthright, a Londoner by birthplace, and a proud descendant of the Windrush Generation. A words person since childhood, writing prose-filled Christmas cards, songs and poetry, she sees poetry as a conduit for our individual and collective expressions, feelings and lived experiences.

She participated in her first open mic at The Poetry Cafe, London in 2016. It was a ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ moment and the first milestone on her journey of rediscovering her creative self.

Her practice includes page and spoken word poetry. Her spoken word pieces are often responses to occurrences that captured–sometimes demanded–her attention. They are also a means of personal protest. Injustices such as the murder of George Floyd, the strip search of Child Q and similar incidents instinctively made her put pen to paper. Other themes in her work include identity, race, challenges, hopes, loss, and grief.

She’s performed at Flovortex, The Mother Wolf Club, Voices in Power: London, Poets Palace and Ubud Writers Readers Festival Poetry Slam. –Winning 1st runner-up in 2019 and 2022.

Her poems appear in Coffee People Zine, Issue 10 (2020), ‘Coffee & Contemplation: a taste of empowerment’, Malik Muhammad (2021), All My Relations, Volume 5, Talbot-Heindl (2023) and her poem ‘Sitting with Amazing’ is part of the Poetry Archive Now Worldview 2021 Winners’ collection.

Her debut poetry book, ‘In Conversation’ was self-published via Amazon in 2022.

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