Staging with Nak: A poetic festival with poetic African and tropical touches.

When you have to create a space for adults to enjoy some spoken words at the end of a long day, a few plants and some African print pillows add lots of comfort to the body & soul.

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Update; I will need to revisit this post and share some of the photos that I have retrieved from that day and new ones from the last Shades of Poetry that I staged in August 2025.

Context: The photo above is from the first Shades of Poetry Showcase (2019) by the Chattanooga Festival of Black Arts & Ideas.

Bio updated January 2026

If this is your first time here, meet the author, your host, stage designer and cultural storyteller: N'nako Kande

N’nako Kandé is a ceremonial entrepreneur, bilingual poet, painter, illustrator, and multidisciplinary artist whose work lives at the intersection of Nature, Art, and Kulture (N A K). Born in Côte d’Ivoire and shaped by Paris, the American Midwest, and over 20 years in Tennessee and Georgia, she creates through rhythm, ancestry, and the land.

She is the niece of the illustrious and legendary Guinean musician Mory Kanté, whose global influence helped carry West African musical heritage into international consciousness. Her artistic lineage also includes a profound connection to the late Toumani Diabaté, the world‑renowned Malian kora master who was named one of the fifty greatest African artists across media. Toumani, father of French star Sidiki Diabaté, served as the parrain (godfather) of the kora recording in her Self‑Love Blessing project, offering his guidance and blessings before his passing in 2024. His legacy includes two Grammy Awards for his collaborations with Ali Farka Touré and a lifetime of elevating the kora to global audiences.

N’nako is the founder of Kande Kulture, a wearable storytelling brand where each culturally inspired hoodie includes a QR code linking to a YouTube story that explains the meaning and heritage behind the phrase.

A prolific author, she has written over twelve books, including The Art of Rooting, which received the International Impact Book Award. Her creative work spans poetry, photography, painting, mixed‑media illustration, culinary storytelling, and culturally rooted educational coloring books.

Her artistic and cultural contributions have been featured in international documentaries produced in collaboration with Chattanooga Sister Cities, highlighting her global perspective and her commitment to cultural remembrance.

She is also the creator of the Self‑Love Blessing EP (French + English, released January 13, 2023) and the Self‑Love Blessing Trilingual Lyrics & Treasured Memories Book (released June 15, 2024), featuring French, Spanish, and English lyrics, behind‑the‑scenes photos, and stories from the making of the EP.