Category Archives: South Africa

Thabiso Mokoena

South Africa No Comments

Thabiso’s passion of poetry started in 1995 while he was in secondary school. In pursuit to live out his passion, Thabiso travelled from his hometown in Bethlehem in the Free State to Gauteng in 1999. He attended various poetry sessions and workshops during that time, he was eager to learn and grow as a poet. Upon his return he was offered a job at COPAC as Development Arts Office, he was in charge of co-ordinating poetry, drama and dance classes. In 2010 he published his book, I Forsee. Thabiso currently hosts the Mehlodi Poetry Session in Bethlehem.

Tania van Schalkwyk

South Africa No Comments

Tania van Schalkwyk is the hybrid of a Hamburg sailor and a Mauritian artist, born in Africa, raised in Arabia and matured in Europe. She has studied, taught, edited, served tea, busked, sold useless things, given famous statues make-overs and even tried (and failed fabulously at) a couple of less interesting but ‘serious’ jobs. She has published, performed, exhibited , directed, curated & collaborated on various multi-media artworks across the globe with a sculptor, a choreographer, a carpenter, DJs, photographers, film makers, artists, dancers, musicians,scientists, poets, famous statues, cows, horses, turkeys, sheep and her dog Elvis ; read and performed in theatres, bars, bookstores and bathtubs around the world; written columns, scripts, shopping lists, love letters and once upon a wonder-full time– food reviews.

Tania holds an MA in Creative Writing from UCT and a natural ability to watch the day go by. She is a proud founding member of SEWS (The Society for the Erection of Women Statues). When she’s not writing, Tania reads and reads and reads, and engages in the gentle art of omphaloskepsis. Her work is inspired by the places and spaces in between, the hyphen-states of life, love and home. She currently lives between Cape Town and the Piketberg mountains.

UCT Writers’ Series recently published Tania’s first book of poems, Hyphen. Her poetry has appeared in the following publications: UK: Agenda, Orbis, Decode, South, Focus on Farmers Anthology ( Aune Head Arts),Citizen 32, Intellect Quarterly South Africa: New Contrast, Carapace, Green Dragon, Ons Klyntji, Laugh it Off Annual Online: Triplopia, Muse Apprentice Guild, Itch, Litnet, Unlikely 2.0, Incwadi.

Unathi Slasha

South Africa No Comments

Unathi Slasha under the nom de plume ‘Dark-blood the bard’ is a spoken word artist, performer, literature enthusiast, poet, short story writer born in 1989, emerging from a small township named Dispatch in the Nelson Mandela Bay, infamous of its extremely high rate of illiteracy and dearth of artistic activism. A glimmer of hope carried out by this well-read young man determined to be a positive model and a trendsetter among his peers and set a perfect example for the up-and-coming young people in his community through performance art, with an undisputed aptitude.
His love for performance poetry commenced when he got introduced to poetry sessions by a friend who was a poet. From there, he got influenced and imbued with passion to start writing. He consistently contains an influential and enticing manipulation of words, with a flawless poetry and a unique phraseology and diction. On stage he is known for his spirited and energetic delivery and controversial style that comes out as a blend of street style yet literary poetry that involves socio political issues and historic events that tend to take any audience aback.His love for African literature is evidenced by the allusions and complex metaphors and intertextuality prevalent in most of his poetry – spoken word.
He aims at using his writings as an apparatus to inform and to instigate social reforms: to individuals who wish to be products of change in the society at large: he creates a personal pressure that frog-march them to do research about their identities and roots. Since he commenced his journey of performances and circulation around the different parts of the Eastern Cape, KZN and in the Western Cape, he has been receiving respect and love from each and every single person that has witnessed his pure talent and energy on stage.
One of his short stories and a few of his analytical poems have been published in an annual literary Journal called Ntinga, and as well as in the publication called Expressions within both of these publications were/are initiatives of arts and culture and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s department of language and literature.  During the operation of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, when some of the matches where held in PE, he was one of the performers that kept the crowd intrigued with his revolutionary  and unconventional poetry at the PE Opera House theatre.
He has performed in East London at one of the most prominent platforms known as the Soul Clap Sessions organized and hosted by Ipoetry KaNkqo. The Bard was one of the indelible artists that had an outstanding theatrical performance at the annual Grassroots Arts Festival held in Motherwell. He was one of the four first PE artists to make an appearance in the yearly Hip-hop event – The Final Touchdown in Alice. The bard has performed as a guest poet at the Love Life Music is Life mini Festival that was held In Uitenhage at Willow Dam in 2013. In 2012 he was one of the poets that were chosen to facilitate and demonstrate spoken word to high school pupils during the poetry workshops that were held in September during the National Book week at the Red Location Museum in New Brighton. The Bard has performed at the 2013 Nelson Mandela Bay Book fair that had the likes of Ntsiki Mazwai, Don Mattera, Lesego Rampolokeng, Niq Mhlongo, Motsoko Pheko, Ayanda Billie and other remarkable renowned authors and poets.
He has also co-founded NMMU’s foremost spoken word and poetry society called the Resonance Poetry Movement, along with Sisonke Papu and Azola Dayile – which they have successfully managed to launch.
He has also worked with the NMMU International Office and the Centre for the Advancement of non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD) in the NMMU Africa Week in a public lecture delivered by Prof. James Ogude (University of Pretoria) in remembrance of the late Chinua Achebe and his impact on the African literature landscape. He has been featured as a one of the performers at the first ever two days poetry festival in the Nelson Mandela Bay: Praat Poetry Festival, which hosted Lebo Mashile and Lesego Rampolokeng as guest poets.
He is a regular performance poet at the Elements of Hip-hop sessions that are monthly held in Motherwell and at the Culture Consciousness weekly sessions. He was once headlined at the PE Opera House YiYo (An Opera house initiative that focuses on solo artists granting them a platform for discussion, performance and constructive criticism on their respective art forms.)
Every single person who claims to love poetry and is an art enthusiast is obliged to show respect to the craft of this young wordsmith as he continues to make major moves. He believes to be the embodiment and the rhetorical speaker for the neglected poor through his spoken word that he enthusiastically utters.

Vuyelwa Maluleke

South Africa No Comments

Vuyelwa Maluleke is a Joburg-born writer and poet who grew up in a township. She describes herself as a storyteller: “It is when I am most honest. It is also the hardest thing to do for me, to hand my work over so publicly to audiences. But the sharing between the audience and myself generates an immediacy that is like church. There is so much magic there.”

Vuyelwa began competitive poetry in 2012 winning theTEWOP Poetry Slam and the DFL Lover and Another 2012 Johannesburg Regionals. She has performed on  various stages in Johannesburg. She graduated in 2013 with a BADA at the University of Witwatersrand, and was awarded the Leon Gluckman Prize 2013, for the student with the most creative piece of work.

Vangile Gantsho

South Africa No Comments

Vangi began performing seriously in 2005 but has been writing most of her life. She had her first real break performing at Rhyme Alive at the Moonbox Theatre in Pretoria (2005), where she shared a stage with (amongst others) Lebo Mashile.

Since then she has been privileged enough to perform alongside Makhosazana Xaba, Natalia Molebatsi, SALA Poetry recipient Phillippa Yaa De Villiers and Def Poetry poet Saddi Khali to name a few.

Winslow Schalkwyk

South Africa No Comments

Artist, Model and Facilitator, Winslow Schalkwyk, a self-described “Artist in motion, currently parked at Poetry Station,” is a Cape Town gypsy, living and working in the shadow of Table Mountain. Born in 1980, as South Africa was beginning to experience of a slow waning of the apartheid regime. It comes as no surprise that at the crux of his work is always a prevailing theme of FREEDOM. At age 6 he began his love affair with the stage at a pre-school graduation play and the two have been inseparable ever since. After cutting his teeth the Ikhaya Soul Sessions in 2005, he has been a growing force on the local Spoken Word Circuit.

Adopting the stage persona, Winslow7Star, he has been a featured performer at the Local Goes Vocal stage of the 2007 Cape Town Festival, the PANSA We All Benefit concert held at the Baxter Theatre to raise awareness and funds for the refugees affected by the xenophobia attacks in South Africa during 2008. He was also chosen as one of the emerging poets to participate in the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) Songs Worth Singing/Words Worth Saying project.

Winslow has been the host, stage manager and organiser for Verses Spoken Word and Soul Hop Sessions in Cape Town. He performed, as part of the Verses Project at the 2009 Jazzathon in January 2009. In the same year, he was the face featured on the 2009 Pep bus, taxi and train campaign. In his capacity as a facilitator, Africa Day 2009 saw him facilitating workshops aimed at encouraging young writers to explore what makes them African with The Alliance for Refugees in South Africa (AFRISA). Chosen as a participant in the inaugural Joke Whaller-Hunter Environmental Pilot Programme, he worked with learners from Eben Donges High School in Kraaifontein and Observatory. The project culminated in an Anthology of Poetry entitled Water, Cycles and Cyphers. Upon meeting singer/songwriter/guitarist, Julian Karrsen, the Free Flow Experiment was born, a live poetic, soul rock outfit with Winslow as lead vocalist. He has shared stages with, Khoi Khonnexion, Primrose Mrwebi, Trevor Sampson, Claire Philips, Mbali Vilakazi and Khadija Heeger.

Xabiso Vili

South Africa No Comments

Xabiso Vili is a writer, performer and poet obsessed with social development. He has performed his poetry around South Africa, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Grahamstown and more. He came in the top six in the 2011 Lover + Another national poetry slam and came third in the 2013 poetry slam of the same national event after winning the regional finals.

He has worked as an assistant teacher and run multiple workshops around poetry and improvisational comedy in Cape Town. He is currently staying in Pretoria and working with various organisations to further the reach and effect of poetry. In his spare time he enjoys battling silver-tongued dragons in the hopes of claiming one as his own.

Zabalaza

South Africa No Comments

Zabalaza born Dlamini Moqenehelwa Kleindbooi is a poet based in Bethlehem in the Free State, South Africa.  He works at the Department Of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation in Free State Province as a Cultural Officer. Zabalaza started performing in 2005, his very first performance was at the MACUFE VODACOM open mic session. Since then he has performed all over the country. His recent performance was in Bloemfontein at Naval Hill at the Madiba Statue Unveiling. He is currently working on his first poetry album titled Bafeng Melamu.

Goodenough Mashego

South Africa No Comments

Goodenough Mashego is an editor, artist, publisher, journalist, published author (Journey with me and Taste of My Vomit) and a social commentator based in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga. His poetry has appeared in various anthologies such as Botsotso, Timbila, New Coin, Green Dragon, Fidelities and ten others. Mashego is a literary critic and publishes two arts and culture blogs, Kasiekulture and MSHINI WAM.

Bantu Letter is his first editorial project.

Prayforce Mashilane

South Africa No Comments

Prayforce Mashilane resides in Bushbuckbridge in Mpumalanga, South Africa. His work was recently featured in Bantu Letter, an anthology edited by Goodenough Mashego. His work has also been published in the Daily Sun, on Bushbuckbridge News, and Ziwaphi Investigative Newspaper.
In 2013 Prayforce released his first 18-track Hip Hop album titled A Kgokologa Moholoholo, which has subsequently sold out.

He has shared stages with national icons such as Zahara, Pro, Character, Professor, Kwesta, and Bucie.

Mosubudi Letjeku

South Africa No Comments

Mosibudi Letjeku is  a young emerging and dynamic poet from Polokwane in Limpopo, South Africa. She is passionate about reciting poetry in her home language of Sepedi as way of celebrating her heritage and culture. She hopes to share her words with wider audiences in other provinces.

Brian Ernest Walter

South Africa No Comments

Brian Ernest Walter was born in Port Elizabeth, in 1956. He has taught at Chapman Senior Secondary School in Gelvandale, PE, and at the University of Fort Hare, Alice. For a Rhodes PhD he worked on Sol Plaatje’s use of the romance mode to project a vision that could avert potential tragedy, using cross-cultural knowledge and sympathy to transform (or “translate”, to use Bottom’s word) tragic unkindness into a more human, moral understanding.

Currently he works on educational and community development projects. With the poet Alvené du Plessis, he mentors the Helenvale Poets in Port Elizabeth, and has assisted them with two publications, Uitsig, and Tussen Strate. His books include Groundwork: An Introduction to Reading and Writing about Poetry (1997), which he wrote with Felicity Wood. His poetry collections are Tracks (in which the poem Bushveld appears), Baakens (2000), and Mousebirds (2008). He works with the informal Ecca group of poets, and published in local journals: Unfinshed was published in New Contrast, and Otherwise in Botsotso.

He has won the 1999 Thomas Pringle Award for poetry published in journals and the 2000 Ingrid Jonker Prize for Tracks.