Saturday gave us a special treat - this time as people gathered for the ‘Spoken Word’ festival 2012, at Ishyo Arts Centre in Kacyiru. The show was a great success – as people from different parts of Kigali braved the heavy rain to attend the event. It was a great end to a great night - just a shame more people couldn’t get there.The show showcased real culture display through talent; it brought together performers from Kenya, United States of America, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda, who really inspired the evening through creative ‘Poetry’ and ‘Live Art painting’ activities.At 7:30 pm the show commenced with various poetic performances that inspired the audience with heartfelt, inspiring, entertaining poems in English, French and Kinyarwanda languages. They received great applause from an audience that kept yearning for more. The poems were majorly about ‘life’- some accompanied with live music by guitarists.The live art painting activities also went on as people enjoyed the show and here artists displayed their skill through the works of the ‘brush’.‘Spoken Word’ is a platform which started in July 2011 for artistic expression of poetry particularly; it is basically aimed at promoting culture through poetry. It ventures poetry, reading, writing and public expression in language. The show, founded by Diana Mpyisi and Betty Tushabe, is staged twice every month at Ishyo Arts Centre. It is not only entertaining but also educating."We wanted to start up something stimulating both educationally and intellectually-particularly to the youth; because, before, the shows which were in place generally were mainly appealed to the older generation,” according to Mpyisi. "We are looking forward to publishing a book of all these poems this year and would like to work with Kigali Public Library on this. The feedback we are getting is good and this has really given us a go ahead,” Tushabe said.The show was sponsored by MTN and Ishyo Arts Centre.