Mark Espin was born in Cape Town in 1964. He is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of the Western Cape. His first volume of poems, Falling from Sleep, was published by Botsotso Publishing in 2007.
Mark Espin
Category Archives: South Africa
Marí Peté
Durban poet Marí Peté writes in Afrikaans and English. Marí was born and schooled in the Mpumalanga province in South Africa.
Marí wrote her Street Poems Collection while driving to and from various campuses of the Durban University of Technology where she has worked as an e-Learning specialist for almost twenty years. During Poetry Africa 2010, the Mail and Guardian described Marí’s performance of the poem Durban Taxi (a conglomeration of taxi names) as “a delicious success”. The poem Warwick Junction was shortlisted for the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award in 2012.
Various tensions and juxtapositions arise from Marí’s Cambridge Poetry Collection, which could be ascribed to the fact that the poems were originally written in Afrikaans, during the year before South Africa’s first democratic elections. Halfronde / north and south was written upon receiving the news of the death of Chris Hani.
Marí has published two bilingual poetry collections namely Amytis (2007) and Begin (2002). With Bianca Bothma, Marí was editor of Art for Humanity’s book Women Artists and Poets Advocate Children’s Rights.
Mandlenkosi Bewuzana
Mandlenkosi Bewuzana is an artist, a poet, short story writer, novel writer, inspirational and general philosophy book writer based in Eastern Cape, South Africa. He contributed to Ingqaka Yesihobe published by Oxford University Press. He also contributed to Isingqi Sesihobe which is still to be published by Oxford University Press.
Malika Lueen Ndlovu
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.”
Nina Femme
Nina Femme is a poet-feminist who is trying to master writing, protesting and finding balance in the pursuit of love and justice. Flowers and Feminism, a personally inspired poem, earned her second place in the national Drama for Life Lover and Another poetry competition in 2013. “I wrote my first piece ten years ago, but it never gets easier because the issues never get easier.” When she isn’t in an existential state, she contests her title as “the worst pool player in the Westrand”.
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Natalia Molebatsi
Natalia Molebatsi is a writer, performance poet, workshop facilitator and programme director who has presented shows such as An Evening with Alice Walker, Urban Voices International Spoken Word Festival, and an evening with the father of Ehio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke.
The Tembisa-born and raised Natalia has performed in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Holland, Italy, Nigeria, Senegal, Arzerbaijan and England. She is founding member of the South African/Italian band Soul Making.
Nandi Nothando Mabel Khumalo
Nandi Nothando Mabel Khumalo became a poet under the teachings of Mr Edmund Mhlongo of Ekhaya Multi Arts Company in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.
In 2008 she performed at the IIC for the former President Thabo Mbeki sharing the stage with the famous Lady Smith Black Mambazo, and also appeared on SABC1’s SHIFT, Street Journal by Night and on Izwi Labantu.
During 2010-2013 she coordinated for Durban International Film Festival.
During the FIFA world Cup 2010 South Africa Nandi was one of the program directors for the Durban North Beach Fan Park.
She owns her own company called Legends of Purpose which promotes artists in her province.
Naledi Raba
Naledi Raba is a 21 year old poet from Nyanga, a township in Cape Town, South Africa.
She first performed in New York in 2008 and has since been performing in various places in Cape Town. Naledi won the Slam Poetry Competition at University of Cape Town in 2012 and in 2013 she won the national DFL Lover + Another Poetry Challenge in 2013.
Newman Sigenu
Newman Sigenu was born in Fort Beaufort, South Africa. It is in Fort Beufort where he qualified as a teacher, taught in primary school and was later promoted to be Headmaster.
Under the mentorship of Dr. M.M.M Duka, he co-wrote poetry series called Isihobe se-Afrika. He lends his time at community uplifting projects and is a member of the Writers Association in Chris Hani Disctrict.
Natasha Tafari
Natasha Tafari considers herself a Hip Hop poet and is driven by her observance of life. She feels that artists serve as a medium of expressing the spiritual essence of life through various creative mediums. Poets express with Words, Expression and Resonance. Natasha Tafari is also a singer, songwriter, scriptwriter, emcee and events manager.
Natasha has organized her own events including Wordsworthsaying (2010), Hip hop custodians and Community jam. She has facilitated workshops at the Grahamstown festival, Artscape theatre in Cape Town and the Language commission. She has performed across venues in Cape Town including the Sparkling Women’s Gathering, WordsWorthSaying Raga’zzi, Verses and the former Badilisha’s Fireword Fridays.
Napo Masheane
Embodying the energy of a young, urban South African generation, acclaimed proponent of spoken-word poetry, Napo Masheane is a fresh and innovative voice in this genre. Born in Soweto and raised in Qwaqwa, Masheane who holds a Marketing Management and Speech and Drama Diploma, is a writer, director, producer, poet and an acclaimed performer on both international and national stages.
She is a founding member of Feela Sista! Spoken Word Collective. She is also the co-director of Colour of the Diaspora, an international collective of black women from the United States and South Africa. Masheane was a nominee of the 2005 Daimler Chrysler South African Poetry Award and has studied at or worked in: the Market Theatre, the Windybrow Theatre, the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, the University of Johannesburg, the Civic Theatre (Actors Centre), the SABC, Fuba School of Dramatic Arts, the University of California, Jungel Theater (Germany), Soweto Youth Drama Society, Farnebo College (Sweden), and The Lion King (New York City).
She has performed at Maitisong Theatre in Botswana and the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA). Masheane is currently the Managing Director of her own production company Village Gossip Productions through which she self-published her poetry and essay anthology Caves Speak In Metaphors. Her provocative and humorous one woman show My Bum Is Genetic Deal with It was received to wide acclaim.
She has performed and shared stage with, amongst others, Don Mattera, Lebo Mashile, Kgafela Magogodi, Jessica Care Moore, Toni Blackman and Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Nama Xam
Pseudonyms: Nama Xam ( Xam – pronounced Gam / Jy7even (Pronounced – Jey sev-uhn) / Syllabic / isja! /
! Ga re’ (Listen)
With charged lyrics reflecting and animating the experiences of a young Khoe Khoen and Bushman (1st indigenous people of sub Saharan Africa) trying to survive within a marginalising system, this is the Poetry and music of Nama Xam.
Nama Xam has always been into music one way or the other. Since a young age he has been receiving instruction in classical piano, later moving to Jazz and at this time being influenced by the urban music revolution happening within the ghettos of the Cape Flats. He recalls,” I was introduced to Hip Hop through the dubbed cassettes my brother had featuring artists such as Public Enemy, X clan, LL Cool J, NWA. I was hooked! I started to frequent spaces where Hip Hop was. The benefit of growing up in Mitchell’s plain (an apartheid Group Areas Act scheme) was that Hip Hop was everywhere”. He then became a member of the Universal Zulu Nation and started with break dancing not knowing that he’d return to it later in his life being a student of Capoeira. Capoeira is the mother of break dancing.
Over the years Nama Xam has been producing and performing with many artists such as Jean Pierre (!Khu-aob), Streetmatterphysics (School Of Thought), Blaq Pearl, Brandon Florus (Flo4Soul), Ej Von Lyrik (Godessa), Dj Azhul (BVK), Brendan Adams ( Adam Speaks), Linkris, SiepSokkie, Chase Lutron and Perspektif and many more. Also doing community edutaiment drives through park jams on the Cape Flats such as Mitchells Plain, Kuilsriver, Belhar, Lavender hill and Eerste River. Nama Xam is the founding member of the group Jy!7 (pronounced – Jey sev-uhn) and along with partner Flo4Soul bring “soulfully social” music to the people. As a poet Nama Xam has been a regular at the Verses poetry session and the group jy!7.ven has featured as well.
Through record company African Dope records he was given the chance to remix a track of Cape Town based group Moodphase 5. The track is called Violation. It featured on the 2005 release called African Dope which won a SAMA (South African Music Award) for that year.
Performances that Nama Xam has been involved in:
2004:
National Arts and Culture Awards, UWC Poetry Festival
2005:
Red Cross Society annual Christmas outreach show
Live performances for Gam Sushi @ Obs Café
2007:
The Wonders of Being Out There (WoBoT) @ Zula Soundbar
Halman Walk Youth Development annual Christmas outreach in Hanover Park
Neutral Ground @ Katalist
CVET gig @ Athlone technical college
Friends of Cuba fundraiser @ Salt River community centre
Verses @ Zula Soundbar
Youth day Gig @ Alliance Frances
2008:
Launch of the Western Cape Music Association’s Benevolent fund
All Elements Hip Hop gig @ North Pine Community Hall
2010:
Nekkies Hip Hop Festival
2011:
Infecting the City festival
Verses
2012:
Best of Ekapa Hip Hop underground
At present Nama Xam is busy with recording his solo album titled – The Chastising of Xam.
Naima Mclean
Naima is an enormously talented writer, poet and vocalist born in New York City and raised in numerous cities across South Africa.
She has earned a degree in theatre and performing arts from the University of Capetown, performed, acted and sang in South Africa and Europe.
Naima performs as a poet in her personal capacity as well as with the collective Rite 2 Speak, a group of young South African theatre practitioners, who felt that the voices of their generation were not represented in theatre. The collective fuses the performance of poetry, music and theatrical aspects as a vehicle to encourage physical engagement with the audience.
Naima’s current TV roles include cameo features on one of South Africa’s most watched TV dramas Generations, presenting for South African Coca Cola game shows as well as a feature character in the internationally renowned UK TV series Wild AT Heart.
Kyle Louw
Kyle’s poetry is by no means conventional; it does not follow grammar rules or structure. It definitely won’t go down in history as some of the best-written work. Kyle does not care about that! He cares about changing people’s perspective on topics of the mind and spirit, topics like society norms, love, and social media. He cares about sharing that feeling you get when you hear something that resonates with you, when the goosebumps shoot up your arms and that inspirational shiver slides down your spine. He wants people to be able to relate on a human level and say, “I understand where he is coming from because I feel the same emotions he does on a daily basis.”
Kobus Moolman
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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Kgoshii Tshwarelo Mogakane
Inspirational speaker Kgoshii Tshwarelo Mogakane is an Author, Speaker and Hip Hop/Poetry Writer/Vocalist who lives and works in Mpumalanga’s capital city, Mbombela in South Africa.
Kgoshii is a leader in his own right and uses his ability to speak as a transformation tool for audiences around his home province of Mpumalanga and beyond.
Kgoshii Mogakane believes that self-transformation is the most powerful path to real economic empowerment.
Furthermore Kgoshii, is a professional managing sub editor working with Southern Africa’s leading news agency, African Eye News Service (AENS). He is responsible for quality control on all newswire content published by AENS through their myriad of mainstream and community newspaper clients.
His writings have been widely published in national newspapers such as City Press, The Star, Mail & Guardian, Sunday Independent, Sunday Sun, Sowetan Sunday World and Daily Sun among others. He has also written for magazines such as Bona, News Weekly, Enterprise, Sunrise, Lowveld Living and Capital Magazine. His other writings have been widely published on international news website, news24.com and the South African government’s SA News site.
Kelwyn Sole
Kelwyn Sole grew up in Johannesburg and has degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand and the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London. He has published widely in local and international books and journals, mainly on issues pertaining to South African and postcolonial literature and culture, as well as being involved in published debates and polemics. He has also published six individual collections of poetry. He has won the Olive Schreiner Prize, the Sydney Clouts Prize and the Thomas Pringle Award for poetry, and was a runner-up for the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. He has won the AA Mutual Life/Vita Award and the Thomas Pringle Award for his critical work.
Books:
The Blood of Our Silence (Johannesburg, Ravan, 1988)
Projections in the Past Tense (Johannesburg, Ravan, 1992)
Love That is Night (Durban, Gecko Books, 1998)
Mirror and Water Gazing (Pietermaritzburg, Gecko/University of Natal Press, 2001)
Land dreaming: prose poems (Pietermaritzburg, University of Kwazulu-Natal Press, 2006
Absent Tongues (Cape Town, Hands-On Books, 2012)
Kneo Mokgopa
Kneo was born and raised in Johannesburg, with a mother who built a home for him and his siblings out of nothing. His mother raised him with considerable effort and some comfort but he had to find his own feet, and as such he is studying law at the University of Cape Town. His poetry emerged from his love of love, philosophy and history, as well as his experience of being a part of the liminal class of the ‘born frees’.
Khadija Heeger
Khadija Tracey Carmelita Heeger was born Cape Town. She was raised on the Cape Flats in the township of Hanover Park. She started performing when she was nine years old, her dream was to be an actress, but at 15, she started writing seriously and this is how she expresses herself now. She is a well-known and popular performance poet.
In 2007 she was commissioned to write a multidisciplinary theatrical poetry piece in collaboration with indigenous soundscape artists, Khoikonnexion, for the Spier Poetry Festival in 2008. These performances were greeted with standing ovations. This piece was later taken to Grahamstown Festival in 2009 (funded by the National Arts Council of South Africa).
Beyond the Delivery Room is her first collection of poems. Beyond the Delivery Room is the first part in a trilogy called Separation Anxiety. She is currently writing the second, Blood Words, following the crooked lines of DNA. She has also performed in Amherst in the USA, as part of an artist’s exchange programme.
Kerry Hammerton
Kerry Hammerton has published poetry in various South African and UK literary journals. Some of her poems were included in the anthology Difficult to Explain (Finuala Dowling ed.) and Africa, My Africa (Patricia Schonstein ed.). These are the lies I told you, her debut poetry collection, was published by Modjaji Books in 2010.
Keith Gottschalk
Keith Gottschalk published his collection of prison & other protest poems, Emergency Poems, in 1992. He served on the executive of the Congress of South Africa Writers, COSAW, in the 1980s, and today hosts the Lansdowne Local Writers’ Group. He has performed and published over 160 poems, the latter in many magazines.
A Fulbright scholar, Keith lectures in Political Studies at the University of the Western Cape.
Kate Ellis-Cole
Kate Ellis-Cole is an enigma. Always perfectly styled, she carries herself with a secret confidence that’s almost regal. Grace and eloquence spill from her lips in conversation and it’s difficult not to form certain preconceived expectations when this soft-spoken lady steps on stage: she’s white, she’s a woman and she clearly sounds privileged. And then she opens her mouth. Kate’s poetry and subject matter is far from what the initial impression would lead one to expect. From political satire to the strong cross-cultural ties she experiences with land and country, her poetry reflects magnitudes of conscientious and sensitive living and there’s something about her and the unapologetic sincerity with which she speaks and performs that’s endearing and mesmerising.
Karin Schimke
Karin Schimke is a widely published journalist and columnist, and the Cape Times books editor. She also works as a writing tutor and mentor, an author of non-fiction – including the best-selling Fabulously Forty and Beyond, co-written with Margie Orford – of children’s books and of short stories. She edited Open, an anthology of erotic short stories written by some of South Africa’s best known women writers. Her poetry has appeared in South Africa Writing, New Contrast, New Coin and Carapace magazines. Bare & Breaking her first collection of poems won the Ingrid Jonker Prize in 2014.
Kai Lossgott
German-born, Kai Lossgott lives and works in Cape Town. In search of poetry, he travelled from paper to canvas, from theatre to film, and into digital media. In his performances, poems, experimental films and plant leaf engravings, he investigates biophysical language patterns and the vulnerable instincts which drive them sensitivity, silence, and acts of sensing. In a human-centred world, his aim is most often to work from a life-centred perspective.
Lwanda
Loftus Marais
The work of Paarl born poet and publicist, Loftus Marais is visual and ironic, rebelling against a traditional Afrikaans poetry, while also acknowledging the handed-down Afrikaans belief in the poet as craftsman, in the importance of formal, structural and musical elements. This makes his poetry a complex modulation of a voice that is both lyrical and bitter, sombre and comical, nostalgic and ultra-contemporary. After being published in several anthologies, his debut collection of poems, Staan in die algemeen nader aan vensters, was published to high acclaim.
Lionel Murcott
Lionel Murcott was born in 1947 in the (then) Northern Transvaal. He studied at Natal University and the Johannesburg Art Foundation. He is a practicing artist who has taught art most of his adult life. His poems have been published in various magazines and books, notably the poetry CD Purple Light Mirror in the Mud, 5 Poetry, and A Private Part.
Liam Kruger
Liam Kruger is a 22-year-old writer and student living in Cape Town South Africa.
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Linda Kaoma
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.
Liesl Jobson
Liesl Jobson is a Cape Town writer, musician and photographer. Her poetry and prose has appeared in various journals and anthologies in South Africa and internationally. She edits Poetry International, South Africa and teaches poetry online at the SA Writers College. She works for BOOK SA, as a literary journalist, where she also blogs periodically. She is the author of 100 Papers, a collection of prose poems and flash fiction, and View from an Escalator, a book of poems, both published by Botsotso.
Lebo Mashile
The poet, performer, actress, presenter and producer Lebogang Mashile, the daughter of exiled South Africans, was born in the U.S. in 1979. At the age of sixteen years she and her parents returned to their home country. It was while she was studying law and international relations at Wits University in Johannesburg that the desire to work as an artist took hold of her. In her work as a life skills facilitator for adolescents ñ focusing on topics like gender issues, teamwork and sexuality ñ poetry has been her preferred medium. Mashile regards its expressive power as the most effective tool to bring about those changes in mental attitude that are needed in the aftermath of the socio-political changes in post-apartheid South Africa. “The enemy isnít really clear in the way it was before. It’s an incredibly sensitive, complicated struggle with many dimensions, but the site for that struggle is inside. … The language of poetry comes from a place where that transformation has to begin, that sort of intuitive, creative, spiritual searching place that will be the fuel for any kind of transformation process.”
Mashile began to achieve recognition as one of South Africa’s most popular young artists in 2002 when she performed her hip-hop inspired poetry at the Urban Voices Spoken Word and Music Festival to a large audience. She was the presenter and producer of the television programme L’Atitude, a concept that she co-executive produced with Curious Pictures. Throughout its three seasons and seventy-eight episodes she introduced the viewers to the personal stories of a diverse cross section of South Africans and their relationships with their immediate surroundings. These insights were gained from her travels through South Africa. The series reached an audience of over two million households.
Her lyrical and gutsy poems in the collection A Ribbon of Rhythm (2005) also speak about life in the new South Africa. Issues such as the diversity and unity of the “Rainbow Nation”, the status of women, violence and the fragility of individuals are all treated with a sense of urgency, humour and at times with melancholy and a certain rawness. Mashile’s self-produced album Lebo Mashile Live! combines her performance poetry with hip-hop, house and R & B.
In June of 2008, Mashile published her second anthology entitled Flying Above the Sky. This collection marks the poet’s first foray into self-publishing. In October of 2008, Mashile wrote and performed in a cross-media and cross-generational collaboration with renowned choreographer Sylvia Glasser entitled Threads. One can find Mashile’s thoughts in her monthly column, In Her Shoes, which she writes for True Love magazine. She can currently be seen on South African television screens as the presenter of Drawing the Line, a game show on SABC2 dealing with moral issues. The show is now in its second season.
In 2006 she was awarded the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, the premier prize for African literature. The Jury characterised her poetry as of “a distinct oral flavour, developing oral poetry and performance beyond the boundaries of the poetry of the era of resistance”. In 2007, she was the recipient of the City Press/ Rapport Woman of Prestige Award. Mashile lives in Johannesburg.