Content Warning: Childlike explores themes of abuse

The IAS Heart of Stigma programme commissioned this poem which was first performed live the 25th International AIDS conference in Munich, Germany.

Numbers Game (our silence won't protect us) was first performed in 2019 and inspired the creation of a Fast-Track Cities multi-million-pound community fund.

Through her poetry, spoken word and creative projects, Bakita explores the tensions between expectations, stereotypes, internal dialogue and social constructs.

Bakita’s has been commissioned by the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Sainsbury’s Group, University of Edinburgh, and created bespoke pieces for the inaugural National Stephen Lawrence Day, and UK AIDS Memorial anniversary. She was Poet in Resident at Positively UK’s I Am Here Festival. Bakita has performed at Latitude Festival, Wilderness Festival, Leading Routes, Manchester Pride, and was a finalist in the 2020 UN Women Feminist and Women’s Movement Action Poetry Contest. Bakita is interested in the use of arts-based methods in qualitative health research; in 2022, she delivered the Introduction to Poetic Inquiry module as part of the University of Oxford’s Qualitative Research Methods course.

For more information, email admin@bakitakk.com