Second book means it’s read poet’s society

After watching the award- winning poet, Khulile Nxumalo, perform on the opening night of Poetry Africa at UKZN, I woke up early the next day and in the rising Durban spring sun read some of his poems from his latest book, fhedzi.

What was surprising was that, unlike many of his counterparts who chose on the previous night one long poem for their five minutes on stage, Nxumalo chose four short poems. Yet, in fhedzi he has used longer forms of poetry in almost all of the published work...Read more here

Kobus Moolman wins 2013 Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award

Kobus Moolman has won the 2013 Sol Plaatje European Union Award for his poem “Daily Duty”. Moolman was announced as the winner on Saturday evening at the 17th annual Poetry Africa International Poetry Festival, where The Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology Vol III, comprising the best poems by the shortlistees, was also launched...Read more here

Moolman's latest poetry collection, Left Over, is published by Dye Hard Press

Khulile Nxumalo and Kobus Moolman to participate in the 2013 Poetry Africa International Festival

The 17th Poetry Africa – International Poetry Festival presented in partnership with the City of Durban and the KZN Department of Arts and Culture is proud to announce the festival line-up, which promises to be an exhilarating showcase of diverse voices and sounds. Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) to take place from 14-19 October, this festival is a critical platform for self-expression that offers a space for cultural exchange in the city of Durban.

The festival’s line-up features a ground-breaking poetry project – a 12 track recorded album entitled Insurrections – featuring poets and ethnomusicologists from India and South Africa. The project sees the rich sounds of the Indian music tradition blend with African instruments accompanying radical poetry from both continents. The Insurrectionsensemble will be performed by musicians Sumangala Damodaran (India), Jürgen Brauninger (South Africa), Neo Muyanga (South Africa), Pritam Ghoshal (India), Brydon Bolton (South Africa), Bettina Schouw (South Africa), Sazi Dlamini (South Africa) and Paki Peloeole (South Africa). The poetry contingent for Insurrections will comprise of Ari Sitas (South Africa), Malika Ndlovu (South Africa), Sabita TP (India) and Vivek Narayanan (India). The ensemble will perform on Thursday, 17 October.

Keeping with the musical theme of this year’s edition, the festival will feature five poets who also work as recording musicians. Kabomo Vilakazi is a singer, songwriter and actor who also features in South African poetry circles. Nominated four times for the SAMAs and a former editor of youth culture magazine Y-Mag, his credentials in the entertainment industry are indeed formidable. Kalawi Jazmee artist Busiswa Gqulu returns to Poetry Africa in the middle of her impressive reign on the music charts throughout Africa. She first graced the Poetry Africa stage as part of the all-women poetry collective Basadzi Voices in 2008 and has also performed solo in 2010. South African poet Natalia Molebatsi is also a writer, facilitator and programme director who recently founded a South African-Italian music project with the band Soul Making. Her poetry is published in the books We Are.(2008) and Sardo Dance (2009). Durban-born poet, performer and MC (Ashleigh La Foy) is well-known on Durban stages for both her poetry and her musical prowess. Having earned her stripes as a female rapper, she will indulge Durban audiences with her poetic oeuvre ahead of her much-anticipated debut album. Hailing from the Eastern Cape, Pura Lavisa is a writer, performer and poet whose musical arrangements incorporate percussion and African sounds. Lavisa will be presenting a collection of poems mostly in isiXhosa.

Returning to the Poetry Africa stage, well-respected Soweto-born dub-poet and writer, Lesego Rampolokeng, will deliver an infectious brand of poetry influenced by Black Consciousness and rooted in the lived experience of people on the margins. Also from Soweto, Khulile Nxumalo will present works from his first title ten flapping elbows, mamaand his latest collection fhedzi, published by Die Hard Press. Critically acclaimed, Nxumalo was twice named the recipient of the DALRO prize for poetry. Nigerian-born poet Kole Odutola will also be reading his latest work at the festival. Odutola teaches at the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Florida and has published extensively both in academia and literature. Another participant with a background in teaching languages is Kobus Moolman, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Moolman’s latest collection Left Over is currently enjoying rave reviews in the press and his performance will allow an eager Durban audience a chance to celebrate his vast canon of works.

Johannesburg-based performance and slam poet Mandi Poefficient Vundla forms part of the Word n Sound collective and is featured on the online and print publications of Poetry Potion. Crowned ‘Queen of the Word and Sound Mic’ in 2012, she has graced numerous poetry stages including Arts Alive and Jozi Book Fair. Another young female voice featured in the line-up is Sanelisiwe Ntuli, a wordsmith from Hammersdale who writes and performs in isiZulu. Ntuli is a graduate of the Kwesukela Storytelling Academy and regularly features as a storyteller and voice artist on educational programmes of Ukhozi FM. Also writing in isiZulu is Professor Langalibalele F. Mathenjwa is holding a Doctor of Literature and Philosophy from UNISA. He is a published writer of isiZulu poetry, novels, short stories and folklore and has chair Usiba Writers Guild, South African Geographical Names Council, IsiZulu National Language Body and the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names-Africa South Division.

Four poets from the Irish poetry collective O’Bheal will present their work at the festival. This contingent consists of Paul Casey, Afric McGinchey, Billy Ramsel and American-born Raven. Completing the international line-up will be Ian Kamau (Canada), Barnabe Laye (Benin) and Raphael d'Abdon (Italy/ South Africa). Kamau is a writer, visual artist, hip hop and spoken word artist from Toronto, whose discography lists five collections, including the popular album One Day Soon (2011). He will be presenting additional workshops in advance of the festival. A poet and novelist, Laye has published a dozen books and is the recipient of the Nelligan Prize his lifetimes work. His most recent work is entitled Poems in Absent, a long wait (2010). D’Abdon is an Italian scholar, writer, editor and translator and a post-doctoral fellow in the English Studies Department at UNISA. As an editor, D’Abdon recently published Marikana - A Moment in Time, as well as an anthology of poetry about the massacre and his own collection, Sunnyside Nightwalk.

The festival’s community outreach programme will see poets visit over twenty community centres, campuses and tertiary education departments across Durban and beyond. In addition, participating poets will visit twenty schools to discuss reading, writing and the performance aspects of poetry.

Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 17th Poetry Africa is funded by the City of Durban and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture. The Centre for Creative Arts is housed in the College of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The CCA is a special project of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cheryl Potgieter, in the College of Humanities at UKZN.

Poetry Africa 2008

Poetry Africa 2008

Poetry Africa 2008

Poetry Africa 2008

Poetry Africa 2008

With Allan Kolski Horwitz and Mxolisi Nyezwa

(Photo: Pravasan Pillay)

Poetry Africa 2008

Poetry Africa 2008

With Kobus Moolman's creative writing students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
(Photo: Pravasan Pillay)

Coming to the party on poetry

Towards the end of September, The Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal organised the 12th Poetry Africa International Festival in Durban. About 26 poets and performers were invited from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Mayotte, the Netherlands and the US to provide a showcase of poetic and cultural diversity, with approaches and styles ranging from written-word poetry to rap and hip-hop.

The main venue for the festival was the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, which has 400 seats, which for most of the five nights there were well filled. However, when taking into account the overall activities of the festival – which included visits to university campuses, schools and performances in public places – the organisers estimate the audience to have been about 4 000.

These numbers seem to go against the claim by many publishers and booksellers that there is no market for poetry in South Africa, but I say “seem” because there are those critics who feel that what is being showcased at Poetry Africa these days “isn’t really poetry”. In the past few years Poetry Africa has shifted its emphasis from written-word poetry to spoken word, and two of the performers this year – hip-hop trio Godessa and Jitsvinger – were definitely more singers/musicians than poets. And besides, detractors may ask, what effect does all this have on poetry readership?

For most of the festival there was a bookstall in the theatre foyer run by independent bookstore Adams Campus Bookshop, and for manager Cedric Sissing the effect of the festival was clear: for the five nights that the stall was open, he sold more poetry collections than the store would normally do in a year.

Revenue for units (books, CDs and DVDs) sold at the festival for the past three years was R24 288 in 2006, R27 366 in 2007 (a 12, 67% increase) and this year R21 013 (a 21,23% decrease).

Sissing says that while this year’s decrease can be directly attributed the sharp rise in the cost of living in South Africa, the increase in last year’s revenue is attributed to sales of books and DVDs by the Hindi Kenyan poet Shailja Patel. About 50 units of her work sold over the period.

This year the top book sellers were Megan Hall’s Fourth Child – winner of this year’s Ingrid Jonker poetry prize and published by independent Modjaji Books – which sold 19 copies, followed by Mxolisi Nyezwa’s New Country, published by University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, which sold 16 copies. Both of the books were launched at the festival. In third place were various titles by US rap poet Carlos Gomez, who sold 14 books and five CDs.

Of the total 108 South African units sold this year, 86 were books, with the remaining 22 being CDs.

Granted, these figures aren’t exactly earth-shattering, and Gomez told me that in the US, where he often gives performances at schools and colleges, he usually sells about 20-30 units a night.

But for Sissing the figures are a clear indication that in South Africa the sale of poetry collections has to be event- rather than retail-driven.

“Take, for example, the work of Patel,” he says. “She sold 50 units last year when she was a featured poet, but sold no copies during the year at the shop. Three copies of her work were sold at the festival this year, even though she was not featured.”

And on the subject of whether the shift in emphasis to spoken word is having any kind of effect on poetry readership, Sissing says, “It’s difficult to prove this on paper, but in the past five years, since the rise of spoken-word poetry, there’s no doubt that the spoken- word poets lift the patrons’ passion, thereby influencing them to buy more poetry. Not just spoken word, but also written word.”

And, as the figures show, book sales are still far ahead of CDs, so it is clear that written-word poetry is not in any immediate danger of extinction.

But in a nutshell what South African poets and publishers need to do is to organise more events. We need more readings, more launches, more workshops and definitely more festivals such as Poetry Africa.

Poetry Africa 2008: Burst into life

An International Poetry Festival takes place in South Africa once a year, with Poets from all around the globe. This included the Netherlands, South Africa, Mozambique, USA and many more. The event stretches over a week, but unfortunately I could only make it to the finale (October, 4th). The Finale that took place at the BAT Centre (a local centre of creative arts and music) was a huge success. I was honored to read there at the event. I represented a local poetry club called Live Poets Society (LiPS)...
Read more here from http://philosopherpoet.wordpress.com/

Poetry Africa: Boisterous Finale

In all the boisterous excitement you’d have forgiven the wry 2008 Poetry Africa delegate Anton Krueger (dressed in sporty red gangster fatigues) for thinking Durban’s BAT Centre dealt with “rehabilitating wild animals” - as all the discerning reserve of the preceding days at the festival viewing took an energised turn for the spirited during Saturday’s finale...Read more here.

Photo courtesy of Centre for the Creative Arts at Book SA

Gary Cummiskey at the Poetry Africa International Festival

Courtesy: Monica Rorvik

Poetry Africa International Festival 2008

29 September to 4 October promises to be a stirring week of words, rhymes, performance and ideas, as the 12th Poetry Africa international poetry festival ignites Durban with over twenty poets from around South Africa , Africa , and the world. Hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Creative Arts, Poetry Africa's intensive week-long programme kicks off with a pre-festival showcase of Durban poets at The Workshop Shopping Centre's Amphitheatre on 28 September at 11h00. The showcase forms part of the Imagine Africa initiative which seeks to create platforms for challenging stereotypical ideas of Africa and imagining a better continent. The week encompasses introductory performances by the full lineup of participating poets at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on opening night 29 September, and will thereafter feature 5 poets every evening, through to 3 October, before the rousing Festival Finale at the BAT Centre on 4 October.

The as-always diverse selection of poetic voices, styles, forms, and cultures includes the finely-tuned verse of teacher, photojournalist and activist Kole Ade-Odutola ( Nigeria ). Ade-Odutola's celebrated second collection of poetry The Poet Bled is dedicated to Ken Saro Wiwa, the author and environmental activist who was killed in 1995 by the Nigerian military junta. The lineup from Africa also includes Angolan Nástio Mosquito, a provocative artist, performer, and poet whose often satirical work will be accompanied by South African musicians. Kenyan Bantu Mwaura's laconic poetry is principally concerned with examining the African continent, its politics, its history and its place in the international arena. Nassuf Djailani, from the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte , is the author of two poetry collections rich in humor and tenderness. The multi-talented Rogério Manjate ( Mozambique ) recently won the Best Short Film Award at the 29th Durban International Film Festival and looks set to again wow Durban audiences with his distinct and humane voice. Legendary Zimbabwean musician Thomas Mapfumo – whose music is now banned in Zimbabwe – has been making his captivating Chimurenga music for over thirty years. His incendiary songs, patterned on ancient mbira rhythms and injected with a contemporary sensibility, are particularly relevant given the current political impasse to the north of our borders. Mapfumo will be supported by the guitarist and two mbira players from his group Blacks Unlimited. Mapfumo will also perform in special post-festival events in Johannesburg organised by African Synergy Book Café.

The as always strong South African presence this year includes Megan Hall, winner of the 2008 Ingrid Jonker Prize for her debut collection Fourth Child. Hall is a poet of startlingly vividness and – somewhat paradoxically – control and will launch Fourth Child, published by Modjaji Books, during the festival. Other launches include: Invitation To A Voyage (Protea Book House) edited by respected scholar and poet Stephen Gray. The collection features French-language poetry of the Indian Ocean African islands and is a wonderful introduction to the lesser-known but rich literature of the region. Prolific independent publishers Botsotso launch an amazing five new publications including one by top Durban poet Mphutlane wa Bofelo. UKZN Press will launch the second collection of Mxolisi Nyezwa entitled, New Country . Nyezwa is also a participant this year and has long been an acclaimed in local poetry circles for his powerful and difficult-to-classify lyrical poems. The festival this year offers an emphasis on performance and the spoken word, reflecting the growing diversity of poetic expression.

Sisters Tereska and Laverne Muishond call themselves !Bushwomen and infuse their poetry with song and dance to create a stage performance that is filled with energy and passion. Jitsvinger (a.k.a Quintin Goliath) is one of South Africa`s fastest rising hip-hop artists and delivers his conscious rhymes in an urgent and unique meter. Joining the Poetry Africa lineup this year is the trailblazing South African hip hop crew Godessa, comprising E.J. von Lyrik, Burnie, and Shameema Williams, whose poetry and music combination makes them some of the most relevant voices in the country.

Anton Krueger is an award-winning playwright and poet and brings to Poetry Africa his humanistic yet slightly view-askance verse. Andrea Dondolo, renowned for her role in the award-winning sitcom Stokvel , is also a skilled praise singer who is bound to captivate Durban audiences. Mak Manaka's sensitive and lucid poetry has seen him become a sought after performer at local and international events. Powerful, fresh and blessed with an enviable stage presence, poet and musician Ntsiki Mazwai also goes by her clan name, MaMiya. Her style of fusing her inspirational poems with beats resulted in the immensely popular single “Uwrongo”. Independent press hero Gary Cummiskey is the founder and editor of Dye Hard Press, which specialises in publishing South African poetry, and in his own poetry, spread over numerous collections, shows a deft hand at balancing the avant garde and the poetic.

Masoja Msiza is the brains behind the popular Lentswe Poetry Project on SABC 2 and his poetry focuses, in a non-didactic manner, on social concerns. Rounding up the South African component is the poetry collective Basadzi Voices, which comprises Shameeyaa neo waMolefe, Phomelelo Mamampi Machika, Busi Gqulu and Xoli Vilakazi. Basadzi Voices through their projects – which include a successful poetry anthology published in 2006 by UKZN Press – aim to represent the many voices, often silenced, of young women across South Africa . A special component of the festival is the Durban Poetry Showcase, which takes place at the Festival Finale at the BAT Centre. This platform showcases the collaborative talents of poets from leading poetry collectives in the city, including: Live Poets Society, Keen Artists, Nowadayz Poets, Poets Corner, and Pour a Tree.

The international presence at Poetry Africa includes the evocative, finessed verse of Dutch poet Marjolijn van Heemstra and American Carlos Gomez, a leading voice at the forefront of the oral poetry movement who has been described by critics as a “truth-telling visionary” and a “lyrical prophet”. Gomez also co-starred in Spike Lee's hit film Inside Man alongside Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster, while his first poetry album was named Spoken Word Album of the Year at the 2006 Los Angeles Music Awards .

The festival also includes special readings that will commemorate the life, work and struggle of Mahmoud Darwish, the respected and celebrated Palestinian poet who died in August this year. The readings form part of an internationally coordinated effort to honour this great artist and man. Saturday, 4 October sees a full day of activities at the BAT Centre, which includes poetry workshops, open mic opportunities, the Durban SlamJam with Sakhile Shabalala, Lexikon, Ngonyama, and American slammers, Kesed Ragin and Tahani Salah, all culminating with the Festival Finale on Saturday night.

Apart from the evening performances at the Sneddon and the BAT, a packed daily programme includes performances, seminars, workshops, poetry competitions, and school roadshows.

The full programme of activities, plus participant bios and photos, is available on http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/Enquiries to 031-2602506