Caroline Anande Uliwa aka Carol Anande is a 29-year-old artist residing in Dar es Salaam Tanzania.
She has been a feature journalist since 2008 writing for newspapers in the country and region to include -The Express, Flare Magazine, Daily News, The Citizen, Bang Magazine & The East African. She now runs a blog on arts & culture as well spaces called MKEKA – carolanande.blogspot.co.za
Ndi’Aphrykah, born Morongoa Basadi Mosetlhi, is a young Motswana writer, performing artist and entrepreneur. Her interest in writing began in her early teens. Her works include poetry, short stories, novels & scripts.
Her involvement as a performer in local arts industry began in 2009 when she was casted for a role in Re Bina Mmogo Season II. In 2011, she found herself pursuant of the stage again, performing as a poet for Art of the Soul Organization’s Poison Poetry, an endeavour she has continued with to this day. From here, her passion for the arts would only grow further, fed by partaking in local productions including Passion Play I & II, The Maitisong Festival, Queer Shorts Festival Showcase, and most recently, The Maun International Arts Festival.
She is currently in the process of setting up a management and tax consultancy in order to be able to complete the requirements of being a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. She is also working on an anthology of poetry inspired by her time in the Delta and the remodel of her blog AmanteFatale.
On the performance side, she plans to frequent local productions as a performer and as a producer as well as begin to frequent international festivals around Africa.
Keziah is a poet, singer fashion designer and graduate architect.
She has performed her poetry at different poetry platform: La Poetista, Open Mic, Lyricist Lounge, Nafasi Chap Chap Festival, Noisy Pen Recitals and Jeans and Tshirt in Tanzania and Poetry In Session in Uganda.
She is an organising member of La Poetista, a group dedicated to encouraging and growing poetry in Tanzania.
She also founded Noisy Pens [2010 – 2013] which was a forum for sharing and improving poetry through meetings and recitals.
She is the founder of ‘kea apparel’ and East African clothing brand that was started in January 2015.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture in 2013 from Ardhi University in Dar es Salaam and currently works at Architectural Pioneering Consultants Limited in the same city. In addition, she has worked with Anza, an East African architectural magazine as sub editor from 2012 to date.
Mandi Poefficient Vundla is a writer and spoken word ambassador, born in Soweto, Johannesburg.
She made her debut in the world of competitive poetry in 2011. Since then, she has appeared at different events on various stages, including the State Theater’s Night of the Poets, and the Jozi Book Fair, where she was part of the protest poetry panel discussion hosted by Poetry Potion, a monthly online journal that profiles poetry communities.
Vundla has shared the stage with Myesha Jenkins, Natalia Molebatsi, Lebo Mashile, Phillippa
Yaa De Villiers, Napo Masheane, Afurakan, Tumelo Khoza, Keisha Monique Simons, UK’s Yrsa
Daley-Ward, Chanelle Gabriels (U.S), Joshua Bennett (U.S), Busiswa qulu, Kabomo Vilakazi , Neo Muyanga, Muta Baruka, Tumi of the Volume and many more. She has also performed alongside the legendary Pops Mohammed and opened the stage for Ian Kamau (U.S), career highlights include her appearance on e-tv’s breakfast show, Khaya fm, Power fm, Sunrise, 702, Radio 2000, shiznizz, and opening for Tedx Johannesburg, she went on to co-hosted Tedx Soweto.
Performances Include:
-Action aid’s 5 year country strategy launch
-KPMG women’s breakfast
-The screening of the ‘Girl Rising’ documentary, hosted by Intel Africa.
-Commemorating 20 years of the Native land act in Nasrec .
-Bertha Gxowa Memorial Lecture
-Smac Gallery
Features:
-The Citizen
-The Star
-True Love Magazine’s September edition, where she dedicated a poem to South Africa for
Heritage month.
-Twelve + One Botsotso Anthology featuring Jo’burg poets
-News Day [Zim]
Festivals:
-Poetry Africa
-Arts Alive
-The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown
-The Spoken freedom fest, hosted by Word n Sound in conjunction with the Market Theater.
-Afr(we)ka Festival in conjunction with WordNSound and The DAC
-Harare International Festival
-Venice Biennale in Italy, where she opened for the South African Pavilion
Vundla is the co-editor of an international anthology that features 24 young influential writers titled ‘ HOME IS WHERE THE MIC IS’ published by Botsotso
Vundla is currently a member of the Word N Sound content production team.
Dubbed Queen of the Word N Sound Mic 2012 in Johannesburg’s prestigious Slam, she went on to win the Poet of the Year award, and broke her own record by defending her own WordnSound queen of the mic title.
She is the undisputed queen of the word n Sound mic 2012+2013
Chris Mann, a South African of English, Dutch and Irish descent, was born in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. He started his working life in rural development and poverty alleviation projects, such as low-cost water-supply and sanitation, small-scale agriculture and labour-intensive public works including secondary road and pipeline construction. This multi-faceted, multi-talented writer has also taught English in a rural school, lectured in English at Rhodes University and worked in teacher development and job creation. He has volunteered for various trusts, has been a parish councillor and was a founder and song-writer of Zabalaza, a cross-culture band performing in English and Zulu.
His formal education includes a BA from Wits majoring in English and Philosophy, an MA from the School of Oriental and African Languages (London) in African Oral Literature and an MA from Oxford in English Language and Literature. Now based at the Institute for the Study of English in Africa at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, he is the founder and convenor of Wordfest, a national multilingual festival of South African languages and literatures with a developmental emphasis. Chris Mann’s poems have appeared in a wide range of journals, textbooks and anthologies in South Africa and abroad. He performs his work at various festivals, schools, churches, universities and conferences around the country as part of a life-long passion to promote poetry in the public domain. Able to converse in Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa, Mann writes poetry influenced by the richness of the different languages he speaks and which reflects the diverse work experiences and social encounters he has had. Keenly narrative, his poems convey to the reader the textural details of the South African landscape and the intimacy of its people. As he examines his own spirituality, which appears rooted in the history, place and potential that is contemporary South Africa, his practical musicianship emerges clearly in the lilting lyricism and rhythm of his poetry.
Myesha Jenkins writes and performs poetry. Her second collection, Dreams of Flight, was launched in 2011 at UKZN’s prestigious, international festival, Poetry Africa, where she also performed. Her first collection, Breaking the surface was published by Timbila in 2005. Her work can also be found in We Are (Penguin, 2010) and Isis X (Botsotso, 2006). Myesha has been interviewed in the print media and on radio and TV.
For the last three years, she has produced Poetry in the Air to celebrate Women’s Month on SAfm. She also co-hosts the Jozi House of Poetry, a non-competitive, woman-friendly monthly poetry session.
In 2013 , Myesha won the Mbokodo Award for Women in the Arts in the Poetry category
She also runs writing workshops for women and girls, stimulating creativity and imagination. Myesha is currently co-editing South Africa’s first erotic poetry anthology. Also, a CD is in the pipeline.
Feminist, immigrant, activist, she generously shares her life, reflections and vision. She has been on stages with Napo Masheane, Lebo Mashile, Ntsiki Mazwai, Natalia Molebatsi, Gabeba Baderoon, Antonio Lyons, Phillippa DeVillers, Vonani Bila, Khosi Xaba and Khethi Ntshangase
She has lived and worked in Johannesburg since 1993 when she relocated from California.
Anna is a mother, a yoga and art teacher who runs writing workshops and self growth courses. One of her passions is counselling and she sees life as a spiritual journey. Her poetry has been published in various literary magazines including: COSAW Gauteng Cultural letter, HerStoria Volume 1 NO. 3, Something Quarterly Volume 2 No 4, New Coin, Ear, Bleksem. Botsotso Contemporary Cultural Magazine. Anthologies which published her poetry- We Jive Like this, Dirty Washing, IsisX [Botsotso Publishing], Like a House on ire [Cosaw].
She recently completed a Self Growth Workbook, Walking the Labyrinth which has not yet been published. She has participated in various poetry readings and performances.
Mathadjé Yogolipaka is publisher, poet and literary critic from Cameroon. He is also the managing director of the organization Lupeppo International.
Ka Mau is a multidisciplinary performance artist born and raised in San Francisco, California. For the last ten years Ka Mau has lived in Bali, Indonesia and traveled throughout Asia, using the art of poetry, rap and dance to connect cultures, inspire creative thought and action and motivate youth to use their creativity as a means of personal and collective empowerment.
Ka Mau was named Best Poet in the 2002 Oakland, California Slam Finals. He is the winner of the 2004 & 2005 Ubud Writers Festival International Poetry Slam where he has also been the host and featured performer in 2010 & 2013. Ka Mau was selected as Artist Ambassador to represent the San Francisco Bay Area and perform at the 2004 World Social Forum in Mumbai, India. He has also been invited three times as a guest artist, lecturer and workshop coordinator, to board the Japanese activist/educational cruise ship Peace Boat.
He currently hosts Bali’s longest running open mic and produces eclectic performance productions in Bali incorporating music, dance, poetry and visual arts.
Joan Metelerkamp is one of South Africa’s foremost poets. She is the author of eight books of poems. Her work won literary prizes (SANLAM, Sydney Clouts) in the early 1990s and later she judged the DALRO and Ingrid Jonker prizes. Her poems have been widely published in local and international anthologies of South African poetry, and she has taken part in readings and literary festivals here and in Europe and America. She edited the South African poetry journal New Coin for some years and has also written poetry reviews and essays. She lives on a farm near Knysna.
Hazel Tobo also known as Fasaha Mshairi was born in Tembisa Gauteng but grew up in Polokwane Limpopo. She started writing at the age of 11 and writing has since grown into a great passion. She has a published an audio book entitled Have we put out the fire? compiled in collaboration with SHINDIG AWE. She has performed at a number of events in her home province Limpopo, including Kgorong Poetry and Sound, Arts summit, Woman’s Conference, and Fire on the Mountain Annual Festival.
She has also performed outside of Limpopo; she slammed at the 2014 Windybrow Theater Freedom Friday Poetry Festival, she has also taken part in UJ’s events as a resident poet, performed at The Izimbongi Festival 2013 and Poetry Africa Slam 2013. She plays the recorder and harmonica and also does photography as a hobby
Keith Oleng also known as K.O.K.O is a 29 year old poet, performer and creative director from Kenya.
His journey into the arts started when he was in the theatre arts club at Kakamega High School, where he learned about theatre directing, acting and creative writing. He then went on to study mass communication and film arts in Cetral TAFE College [Australia] and New York Film Academy [USA].
Later he started a communication organization called Oleng Communication, which focuses on understanding and communicating the interests of young people in Africa.
His first poetry collection, titled LOVE, Taken to a Mysterious Place is available for free download on his artist website.
Dawn Garisch has had five novels, a collection of poetry Difficult Gifts and a memoir/popular science work Eloquent Body published. Both short stories and poetry have been published in anthologies, journals and magazines. She has had a short play and short film produced, and has written for television and newspapers. Three of her novels have been published in the UK.
In 2007 her poem Blood Delta was awarded the DALRO prize. In 2010 Trespass was short-listed for the Commonwealth prize for fiction in Africa, and in 2011 her poem Miracle won the EU Sol Plaatjie Poetry Award.
Her interest in interdisciplinary work in all art forms and psychology has led to her running both memoir writing and creative method courses. She is a practising medical doctor and lives in Cape Town.
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Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva is the founder of Beverley Nambozo Poetry Award and Babishai Niwe Literary Foundation which means Creating with You, in a mixture languages. It Babishai Niwe has been coordinating annual poetry awards for Ugandan women since 2008 targeting hundreds of women country-wide over the past 5 years, being the only award o its kind in the country. In 2014, the award will extend to the entire continent, targeting both men and women. In 2013, the foundation will publish an anthology of poetry from poets of Africa. Beverley Nambozo is also the author of Unjumping, a chapbook collection of poetry which was published by erbacce-press in 2010 after she emerged a joint first runner-up in their annual poetry competition. She has a Masters Degree from Lancaster University and devotes a lot of time to being a stay-at-home mum. Beverley currently lives in Kampala and looks forward to travelling far corners of the world with her husband and children.
Malibongwe Omega Snyman, also known as “The Lazzy Poet” was born and raised in Eastern Cape, South Africa. He has performed his “street poetry” on various platforms.
Lazzy Poet’s latest brainchild and achievement has been his collaboration with, LoveLife, an NGO that deals with HIV, teenage pregnancy and various other social issues.
He is also the founder of Poetic Expressionz, a platform established to showcase the artistic work of the youth in his home town.
Mbali Vilakazi is a child of the city by the sea, who came into being under the watchful eye of a silent mountain. She is born on the 9th day of the 9th sign. The Archer.
She is Nona’s daughter, Mzamo’s sister and Avumiles aunt. A woman who holds the gaze and the spectator in her own life.
Tracing her beginnings as a patient journey into herself, she holds the dream of a youth that rises to assume both its relevance and place. Touched by the wisdom in children, she remembers that it is always the little things.
Soul Activist, Poet, Flower. She is a Fairy. And the Queen in exile. With pen as sceptre and her throne a cloud. On a mission to answer the call.
She hears voices, sees in the dark and when she gows up, she wants to be Sade.
Malika Lueen Ndlovu is a poet, playwright, performer, arts project manager and mother of three sons, with a wide range of experience in the Arts and Arts Management arena.
Malika is a founder-member of Cape Town-based women writers’ collective WEAVE, co-editor of their multi-genre anthology WEAVE’s Ink @ Boiling Point: A selection of 21st Century Black Women’s writing from the Southern Tip of Africa. In 2004 she initiated the And The Word Was Woman Ensemble of female performance poets and later that year joined The Mothertongue Project, a women performing artists, writers and visual artists collective.
Malika has four of her own poetry collections, besides her work being featured in several local and international publications, namely Born in Africa But , Womb to World: A Labour of Love, Truth is both Spirit and Flesh and Invisible Earthquake: a Woman’s Journal through Stillbirth a poetic memoir published by new South African Women’s press, Modjaji Books.
Her published plays include the award-winning drama A Coloured Place and most recently Sister Breyani.
In 2007 she co-curated The Africa Centre’s 5-day international poetry festival and is currently a presenter for BadilishaPoetry.com, an online poetry radio station podcasting Pan-African poets.
As an independent artist Malika operates under the brand New Moon Ventures, which is dedicated to creating indigenous, multi-media and collaborative works in line with her personal motto “healing through creativity.”
Marvin Trimm aka (Native Son) is a writer, poet, spoken word artist, motivational speaker and musician. He has been engaged in the world of literary and performance art for 20 years. It is this passion for the arts that has led him to be showcased globally in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Caribbean.
A native of the small island of Bermuda, it was there that he honed and developed his craft his craft. In the late 80’s he was able to write, produce and direct his 1st one man show entitled “Life Signs on Planet Earth” a collection of monologues depicting real life characters in social situations.
Today, he continues in the capacity as a writer of performance poetry/spoken word, which he performs at various venues such as spoken word series, poetry slams, music festivals, community events, conferences, universities and prisons. Marvin describes his poetic literary speech as spontaneously truthful. A self pro-claimed “Empowerment Poet”, he often writes about self development, self awareness and self improvement. Marvin is a charismatic storyteller that combines history , social, political issues to enlighten and bring new perspectives about the world we live in.
Nana Yaw Sarpong is a poet, writer, radio presenter and producer of Writers Project on Citi, a weekly literary radio programme for Ghanaian writers. He currently works with the Writers Project of Ghana. Nana Yaw lives in Ghana where he teaches English and Linguistics.
Kobus Moolman was born in 1964 in Pietermaritzburg. He is a senior lecturer in creative writing in the Department of English at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. He holds a PhD in English Studies from UKZN.
In 2013 he received the 2013 Sol Plaatje European Union poetry award. In the same year, he was the Mellon Writer in Residence at Rhodes University for three months, and he also published his most recent poetry anthology, Left Over (Dye Hard Press). The collection has been widely acknowledged as his strongest to date.
In 2012 he was commissioned by the Performing Arts Centre of the Free State to adapt Zakes Mda’s the novel, The Madonna of Excelsior, for the stage. The production has travelled to several theatres in the country, including the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and the State Theatre in Pretoria.
In 2010 he published Light and After (Deep South Press). The collection was launched at the 14th Poetry Africa festival in Durban. In the same year he received the South African Literary Award for Poetry for his collection, Separating the Seas. Founded by the national Ministry of Arts & Culture, the South African Literary Awards honour South African literary practitioners, while encouraging the advancement of literary heritage and practice.
In 2010 he was a special guest, for two months, of the Creative Writing Research Group of the University of Calgary in Canada. During this period he gave readings of his work and lectured, including at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He was also an invited guest at the 2010 Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, during which time he performed at the Banff Centre for the Arts and in Canmore. In the same year he edited and published, Tilling the Hard Soil: poetry, prose and art by South African Writers with Disabilities (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press). He was also the invited dramaturge on a two-week residency for South African and Dutch scriptwriters organized by the Twist Theatre Development Project during the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. He was invited back as dramaturge in 2011 and 2013.
In 2009 one of poems was nominated for a US Pushcart Prize. At the beginning of 2008, he participated in a three-week collaborative residency at the Caversham Centre for Writers and Artists in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. During this residency he produced a limited edition, hand-bound collection of poems entitled Anatomy. This cycle of poems was later published in the Journal of Disability Studies (OhioStateUniversity). It also won the Dramatic and Literary Rights (DALRO) Prize for the best poem to appear in New Coin magazine in 2008.
A collection of his radio plays, Blind Voices, was published by Botsotso Publishers in 2007. The collection is sponsored by the British Council and features a CD of the BBC production of his earlier award-winning play, Soldier Boy.
In 2008, he was on the panel of adjudicators for the Ingrid Jonker award, and in 2009 he was a judge for the Thomas Pringle Award for Poetry.He was the founding editor of the annual KwaZulu-Natal poetry journal, Fidelities, which ran from 1995 until 2007. As co-ordinator of the Fidelities Poetry Project he conducted creative writing workshops and readings for a variety of interest groups, from offenders in prison to high school youth. From 2000 to 2009 he edited the poetry titles for the University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, working on collections by Karen Press, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Kelwyn Sole and Makhosazana Xaba, amongst others.
In 2007 he was also named joint winner of the 2007 NLDTF/PANSA Festival of Contemporary Theatre Readings of New Writing for his new play, Stone Angel. This is the second time he has won this major South African award for theatre writing. In the same year he was the chairperson of the selection committee for the Olive Schreiner Poetry Prize sponsored by the English Academy of Southern Africa.
In 2004 his play, Full Circle, was awarded the Jury Prize for Best Script in the Performing Arts Network of South Africa (PANSA) Festival of Reading of New Writing. The play premiered at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 2005, directed by Charmaine Weir-Smith, and was critically acclaimed. It was subsequently produced at the Hilton College Theatre in Pietermaritzburg and at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. The play was also produced as part of the Southern African theatre season at the Oval House Theatre in London in 2006. The script was published in 2007 by Dye Hard Press. And in 2008 it was produced by the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
In 2004 he was commissioned by Bush Radio (Cape Town) to adapt Gomolemo Mokae’s short story, Milk and Honey Galore, for the radio.
In 2003 he was a runner-up in the BBC African Performance radio drama competition. His winning play was produced for the BBC World Service. In the same year it was also read at the Moscow Theatre Festival of New Writing. His collection, Feet of the Sky was published by Brevitas Press.
In 2001 he was one of five South African poets featured in a collection by Botsotso Publishers, entitled simply, 5 Poetry.
In 1998 he was awarded the Helen Martins Fellowship which enabled him to spend a month in the Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda working on an anthology of poetry. This collection, entitled, Time like Stone was published by UKZN Press in 2000. The collection was awarded the Ingrid Jonker Prize for 2001, the premier South African award for a debut anthology.
In 1992 he was a finalist in the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award. He is the recipient of the BBC African Radio Theatre Award (1987), the Macmillan Southern African Playwriting Award (1991) and in 2000 he won a merit award in the Noupoort Reward for Playwriting.
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kemba king is an artist. healer. storyteller.
she has been writing and sharing her art for over 10 years. in 2009 and 2010 she was a part of the anitafrika dub theatre playwrights-in-residence program where she wrote and co-produced the biomyth monodrama where the stories are told. during the same year, she participated and culminated from the sacred leaders mentorship program from sacred women centres international. she hosted and co-produced a radio show entitled womyn’s words for over 10 years. she also co-directed and co-facilitated the medina collective – an organisation committed to informing and engaging young women of colour in media literacy primarily via hip hop.
Linda Kaoma is a writer, poet and a B.Com graduate from the University of Cape Town. She has been with the Art Africa Centre for four years and project manager for Badilisha Poetry X-change for three years.
In 2013 she performed in Amsterdam at the Afro Vibes Festival alongside Dutch poet Babs Gons in a poetic production entitled “Becoming Another, Becoming you”.
She is also the founder and editor of Unbranded Truth Online Magazine (www.unbrandedtruth.com), an online magazine that serves as a catalyst for self-acceptance and self-evolution.
She has contributed to various publications and continues to freelance.
Lara Kirsten is a pianist and performance poet. She balances the strict discipline of the art music with the writing and performance of her own poetry in Afrikaans and English. On occasion she combines her poetry with movement, visual art, photography and music.
In August 2007 she made her debut as a performance poet with the one-woman piece Ingrid Jonker Dans Weer. She performed her first extensive installation art and poetry piece, Frames, at the Fook Festival in Somerset-East in 2008. This work consisted of eight poems which were performed in eight different rooms with dialoguing installation art, costume and movement. In 2009 she made her debut in The Netherlands in the show Op het Punt van Aanraken (featuring music improvised by Francois le Roux, photography by Carmen Gonzalez and poems written and performed by Lara). In 2009 she was commissioned to write and perform poetry for the 60th Anniversary of the Voortrekker Monument Pretoria, taking a strong view on what it is to be an Afrikaner today. In September of 2010 and 2011 she had the privilege to perform as pianist and poet in the Baxter concert hall in Cape Town. In 2012 a highlight was performing in the Guy Butler theatre at The Settler’s Monument in Grahamstown. She has been invited to write and perform poetry for part of the opening ceremony for the International Aquarium Congress hosted at the CTICC (Cape Town International Convention Centre) in September 2012. From 2010 to 2012 Lara has conceived and performed one-woman poetry happenings at the annual AfrikaBurn festival hosted in the Tankwa Karoo in the Northern Cape.In 2014 she was invited to perform as pianist and poet at the McGregor Poetry Festival. Since 2009 Lara has performed as featured poet at the Off the Wall poetry sessions in Observatory, Cape Town.
Since 2007 Lara’s poetry has been published in various editions of the South African Literary Journal New Contrast. In 2008 she became part of the Eastern Cape poet-group, Ecca, who presents readings and publishes collectively each year.
For more on Lara’s music career, poetry, photos and creative projects please visit her blog at http://laraafrika.blogspot.com/
Olumide Popoola is a London-based Nigerian German author, poet, performer and speaker who presents internationally, often collaborating with musicians or other artists. She has published fiction, drama, poetry and essays in magazines, journals, newspapers, memoirs and anthologies since 1988.
The scope of her work concerns critical investigation into the ‘in-between’ of culture, language and public space where a, sometimes uncomfortable, look at complexity is needed.
Olumide holds a BSc in Ayurvedic Medicine and a MA in Creative Writing. She is currently a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of East London for which she is working on a novel that expands on her interest in cross-genre work, and the notion of vernacular or hybrid languages as literary opportunities for social and cultural change.
In 2004 she won the May Ayim Award in the category Poetry in 2004 (the first Black International Literature Award in Germany).
She has received grants, fellowships and residencies from UEL, Djerassi, Künstlerdorf Schöppingen and Hedgebrook, amongst others.
Her novella this is not about sadness is her first book-length work of fiction, published by Unrast Verlag in 2010 through their ‘insurrection notes’ imprint. Her play Also by Mail was published in February 2013 by Witnessed (edition assemblage).
She aims to finish the novel that is her PhD project in 2014/15.
Jumi who holds qualifications in Dental Surgery and Medical Informatics is the Creative Enthusiast behind IMOLE, Jumi’s Spoken Cabaret is an innovative compilation of ten inspirational tracks of ironic weaves of recitals, songs, poetry, word games, wit, metaphors and subtleties set to varying genres of music.
Jumi sees poetry as a fascinating tool that gives expression to a passionate and unorthodox voice. She clearly feels very much a part of her audience and believes that in listening incisively they will find twists, turns and whimsies of our collective destiny food for inspired thought.
A “proudly Nigerian” poet, vocalist and lyricist with a tender tough stripe of cultural louche and spiritual commentary, Jumi’s artistic style is bold and imaginative with a conversational voice that sounds almost reticent.
In Jumi’s Spoken Cabaret, she maximizes this compelling and inimitable style to ride hot currents for the pain and pleasure of swooping around spiritual, pure, social, maternal and fragile subjects. Whilst doing this, she clings to images of reality that are firmly embedded in what she perceives to be the public’s consciousness, acknowledging issues people feel they are familiar with or can relate to, offering a speculative but entirely plausible view.
Exposure to Yoruba griot sounds, classical forms of music plus a need for and hunger to express truth’s tale becomes tension released in distinct ways in each of the ten tracks on the CD. From deep sentiments to an indigenous groove set to a lush vocal background to epics of gratitude carrying a sensual earthiness, the entire production is a consolidation of international and traditional styles fused into a deeply personal approach.
Jumi is happily married to her friend Kola and has three daugthers.
Jon Goode is an Emmy nominated writer raised in from Richmond, VA and currently residing in Atlanta, GA. Jon’s work has been featured in CNN’s Black in America, HBO’s Def Poetry, BET’s Lyric Café and TVOne’s Verses and Flow. Jon has also written radio commercials for McDonalds, print ads for Nike, and appeared in commercials, vignettes and interstitials for Chick-Fil-A and TVLand/ Nick @ Nite. In 2006 Jon’s work with Nick @ Nite earned him an Emmy nomination alongside the 2006 Promax Gold award for best copyright North America.
Jesse writes under the pseudonym William Saint George. He is a Computer Science major at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with an avid interest in the arts and global issues, history, and diplomacy. He is also am an amateur photographer and a blogger.
Gabeba is the author of the poetry collections The Dream in the Next Body (2005), The Museum of Ordinary Life (2005), and A hundred silences (2006). The Silence Before Speaking, a volume of her poetry translated into Swedish, is published by Tranan publishers. The Dream in the Next Body was named a Notable Book of 2005 by the Sunday Independent in South Africa and was a Sunday Times Recommended Book. A hundred silences was short-listed for the 2007 University of Johannesburg Prize and the 2007 Olive Schreiner Award.
In 2005, Gabeba received the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Poetry and held the Guest Writer Fellowship at the Nordic Africa Institute, the second person after Ama Ata Aidoo to receive this honour. In 2008, Gabeba was the recipient of a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship in Italy and a Writer’s Residency at the University of Witwatersrand. Gabeba has read at international literary festivals such as Winternachten in the Netherlands, Poetry International in Rotterdam and London, the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica, the Stockholm Poetry Festival, the Bristol Poetry Festival, the Franschhoek Literary Festival, Spier and Poetry Africa. Her fiction appears in Chimurenga, Twist (Oshun, 2006), Cape Town Calling (Tafelberg, 2007) and Art South Africa (6.2, Dec 2007). Gabeba is also a scholar, and writes for the media. Details of her academic writing and her articles in Newsday, the Sunday Independent, Mail & Guardian, Oprah and Real Simple magazines can also be found on gabeba.com.
G.O is a Cape Town based poet who has performed at places such as Touch of Madness, Tagore’s, and Zula Sound Bar. He has appeared on Bush Radio, UCT Radio and Vibe Radio. He has been published in IAM Magazine, Zazi Magazine and IMBO Online Magazine.
He coaches a poetry team called Word of Mouth that won an entry to compete in the Annual Brave New Voices Slam Poetry Competition in the United States.
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Elizabeth is a dynamic and energetic performance poet, short story writer and theatre director. From 2006 to present day Elizabeth has performed her poetry on various stages and at various events in and out of Harare, Zimbabwe. Elizabeth’s short story Positive Death was published in The Zimbabwe Women Writers’ Magazine in 2006.
She also wrote an article entitled Telling our Stories and Perspectives in early 2010 which was on Pepeta blog and was later on published in a MISA-Zimbabwe Magazine called Women Speak. Her short story Radio Culture Is Dead was short listed in the Intwasa Short story competition for the year 2011.
In march 2008 Elizabeth got an opportunity to be part of the cast for a HIFA-DIRECT production Silent Words and from then on the theatre bug had caught, seeing Elizabeth assisting on a production in 2009 and directing two productions in 2010 namely Just Papers and Wedding Day. In 2011 she also took part in the HIFA-DIRECT program as an assistant director for Colours of Dreams. She went on to co-direct a play Miss Julie in June 2012 and also assist in the direction of The Father as part of the August Strindberg project which is carried out by Global Arts Trust and Complete Arts Project.
Elizabeth believes that it is important to know one self, to accept one’s history, the past and the present in this quest for shaping the future.
Hailing from the Cape Flats, Emile Jansen aka Emile YX, B-boy War-lock or A-free-Can I, has been involved with Hip Hop Culture since 1982. He is widely recognised as one of the pioneers of South African Hip-Hop, making his name as a founding member of legendary Hip Hop ensemble, Black Noise. Emile has released several CD compilations, appeared on stages world-wide and has associations with celebrated performers in his genre.