Uchechi Kalu
BIOGRAPHY
Uchechi Kalu is a Nigerian-American writer based in Los Angeles. Having lived and worked on six continents, her work explores how her relationship to Blackness, Americanness, and Africanness transmutes as her body moves around the globe. She served as a Poetry Fellow for the 2024 Paris Olympics where she performed at the Théâtre de la Ville – Paris. Uchechi is currently working on her first book, which explores the lost history of the Biafran War and her family’s journey to the United States. She has received support for her work from PEN America, and her work can be found in an upcoming poetry anthology featuring fellow poets from the 2024 Paris Olympics. She received a BA from Princeton University. When she’s not writing, she can be found studying new languages, indulging in Bollywood movies, hiking around Los Angeles, and working as a financial planner.
PROJECT
Uchechi will be working on Guardian Martyr — a debut poetry collection that confronts the silence surrounding the Biafran Genocide (1967-1970). During this period, over two million Igbos were killed following a failed attempt to secede from Nigeria. The collection seeks to honor the unnamed martyrs of the genocide and poses that, similar to the concept of the “guardian angel,” these two million lost souls became guardian martyrs, protecting the Igbos who survived, especially those who later migrated to and integrated into the same Western societies that funded the genocide. Blending narrative, verse, and hybrid forms, the work weaves personal and historical memory to examine colonial violence, diasporic inheritance, and Africans’ complex post-colonial identity. Uchechi is particularly excited to be guided and inspired by Fes’ rich legacy of colonial resistance. And to learn how Moroccans define themselves and preserve their cultural identity, all while navigating Western influence.