Tag Archives: Amusement

Pamella Dlungwana

South Africa No Comments

Pam Dlungwana is a transplant Capetonian by way of Durban, South Africa. She spends much of her time behind pink rimmed glasses, tea colored pages and when spoken to speaks of herself in the third person, always.

A television writer/researcher and producer she expresses her Swiss cheese opinion best in poetry and has collaborated with visual artists using the media to educate, liberate and incite.

Pam has published in online journals (Poetry Potion, Itch and her wordpress blog) and has used Facebook as her personal bulletin board, screaming her politic, annoyances and passion through verse in the notes section.

Roger Bonair-Agard

United States No Comments

Roger Bonair-Agard is a native of Trinidad and Tobago, a Cave Canem fellow and author of two collections of poetry, tarnish & masquerade (Cypher Books, 2006) and GULLY (Cypher Books, Peepal Tree Press, 2010).

He is co-author of a third collection, Burning Down the House (Soft Skull Press, 2000). An MFA candidate at the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast program, Roger is also a 2-time National Poetry Slam Champion and the co-founder and Artistic Director of the louderARTS Project. He is poet-in-residence at Young Chicago Authors and teaches at the Cook County Juvenile detention Center. He lives mostly in Chicago.

Raul Alves da Silva Calane

Mozambique No Comments

Mozambican writer and essayist Raul Alves da Silva Calane was born in the city of Maputo on 20th October 1945. He grew up and studied in the city. Very early in his life he began and was involved with journalism and literature. He led the Gazeta Artes e Letras da revista Tempo (Gazette of Arts and Letters of the Time Magazine) in 1985, and was appointed in 1987, head of the editorial board of the national television, then called “Televisao Experiemental de Mocambique” (Experimental Television of Mozambique). He also became a founding member and board member of the Association of Mozambican Writers.
He earned a master’s degree in Portuguese Linguistics from the University of Porto, with a dissertation on “Pedagogia do léxico : as escolhas lexicais bantus, os neologismos luso-rongas e a sua função estilística e estético-nacionalista nas obras Xigubo e Karingana wa Karingana de José Craveirinha” (The Pedagogy of the lexicon: the Bantu lexical choices, the neologisms Luso-Ronga and its stylistic and aesthetic function in the works and Xigubo Karingana wa Karingana of Jose Craveirinha).
Calane da Silva is currently a lecturer at the Language Centre of Universidade Pedagogica (Pedagogical University) and the Director of the Centro Cultural Brasil-Moçambique (Cultural Centre Brasil-Mozambique), both in Maputo. He is also the author, editor of several essays, novels and anthologies, which include: Dos meninos da Malanga. Maputo, Cadernos Tempo, 1982 (Poetry); Xicandarinha na lenha do mundo. Maputo, Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos, 1988. Colecção Karingana (Short Stories). Gotas de Sol. Maputo, Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos, 2006 (novel); A Pedagogia do Léxico. O Estiloso Craveirinha. As escolhas leixicais bantus, os neologismos luso-rongas e a sua função estilística e estético-nacionalista nas obras Xigubo e Karingana wa Karingama. Maputo, Imprensa Universitária, 2002 (Thesis Publication); Nyembêtu ou as Cores da Lágrima. Lisboa. Texto Editores. 2008 (Novel).

Sydney Sam

Ghana No Comments

Sydney Fiifi Sam is a Ghanaian undergrad studying Human Resource Management at the University of Ghana, Legon.

He is the co-founder of Trademarkers Inc.; a network that develops business concepts designed to uplift talent and entrepreneurship. He is also the program co-ordinator for Moonlight Cafe, a poetry,comedy and live music show that runs in University campuses around the country.

Siyanda Solilo

South Africa No Comments

Siyanda Solilo who is affectionately known as IThole lomgquba by his fans and dear supporters hails from the talent-rich Motherwell Township in the Eastern cape.

Ithole Lomgquba has been active around the Neslon Mandela Bay steadily building street credibility and networking with the like-minded artists. He has performed at sessions like the Elements Of Hip Hop, Grassroots arts Festival 2012, What’s Up sessions, Bring it to the cypher to mention a few.

Simric Yarrow

South Africa No Comments

Simric Yarrow is a performance poet, award-winning actor, musician and teacher based in Muizenberg, Cape Town. Recent performances have included collaborations with musicians Jamie Jupiter and Chris Tokalon, and visual artists Claire Homewood and Mike van Rooyen, as well as featuring at Badilisha’s Fire Word Fridays and Poetry on Long. His first collection of poetry, Flying on the Lucid Fringe was published in 2009. He is also known for the poetic house he built with his wife Carey – a unique double-storey mud and straw affair proving that you can be eco-friendly in the suburbs.

Shirmoney Rhode

South Africa No Comments

Shirmoney Rhode is a young writer, poet and performer. She grew up in Elsies River, Cape Town. Many of her works reflect on her childhood experiences and give voice to the things that she experienced and continues to experience. She has seven of her poems published in 7de Re‘nboog, compiled by Florris Brown.

She has performed the works of various poets at seminars together with Prof Antjie Krog of the University of the Western Cape. She was also performed alongside Mak Manaka and Karin Schimke at the Badilisha Poetry X-change’s 100 Thousand Poets for Change.

She is studying at the University of the Western Cape and has recently completed her honours in Afrikaans & Nederlands. She is currently completing her post graduate diploma in education and thereafter she wants to pursue a career in journalism. She is passionate about what she does and uses her writing to inspire change; change of mind and change of heart.

Shabbir Banoobhai

South Africa No Comments

Shabbir Banoobhai’s poetry is spiritual, political and personal with the three themes interwoven, the personal poems often having a political dimension and the political, a spiritual. A child of parents who came to South Africa from India, he was born in Durban in 1949, where he lived for most of his life until he moved to Cape Town in 1995. He Of necessity he shared the fate of the larger black community of South Africans, his poetry reflecting that struggle. He qualified as a teacher in 1970, as a Chartered Accountant in 1978, and as a Chartered Management Accountant in 1983. Lectured at the University of Durban-Westville from mid 1977 to the end of 1982; ran a management consultancy practice in Durban from 1983 to 1995; and joined Old Mutual in Cape Town in January 1996.

Retired in November 2005; and is now a full-time writer. Some of his works, in full, include: echoes of my other self; shadows of a sun-darkened land; inward moon outward sun; if i could write: Ramadan letters that can be read at Christmas or on any other day; and lyrics in paradise. He is the recipient of the Thomas Pringle Award for Poetry. What is particularly striking about his poetry is its complete sincerity, described as, “a luminous work of the heart containing profound reflections on the nature of the Divine, Prophetic and human consciousness, love, justice, peace and war. A genuine and original Sufi primer for the 21st-century seeker, reflecting an important development in contemporary ‘South African spiritual thought'”.

Segun Lee French

United Kingdom No Comments

Nigerian-Mancunian Segun is a singer, poet, producer/composer, playwright, film-maker & club promoter, founder member of Manchester’s Speakeasy People poetry collective. As singer for cult triphop band, Earthling, Segun has performed on MTV, BBC1, VH1 & Canal 5.

As a poet and playwright, Segun’s work has been commissioned for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and RadioManchester. Segun’s debut solo show, Bro 9 at Contact Theatre, won Best Fringe Performer & Best Design in the prestigious Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards. In autumn 2005, Segun was nominated for the Arts Foundation Performance Poetry award. Segun’s first poetry collection, Praise Songs for Aliens was published by Suitcase Press in October 2009.

Sandile Dikeni

South Africa No Comments

Sandile Dikeni was born in Victoria West in 1966. He studied at the University of the Western Cape where he served on the SRC. He began writing seriously while in detention in 1986, and was a popular performer at political rallies and community cultural events. Since the coming of democracy, he has worked as a journalist and political commentator. In addition to Planting Water, he has published two previous collections of poetry, Guava Juice (1992) and Telegraph to the Sky (2002), as well as a collection of his articles featured in the Cape Times, titled Soul Fire: Writing the Transition (2002).

Samantha Thornhill

Trinidad and Tobago No Comments

Samantha Thornhill travels the globe performing poetry, delivering lectures, and facilitating writing workshops. Both a poet and published author, Samantha is a rising voice in the world of words. Her performance poem, Little Odetta, inspired by the late folk legend, is forthcoming from Scholastic Press in the form of a picture book. Also, her young adult novel Seventeen Seasons is soon to be published by Penguin Books.

Samantha earned her Master of Fine Arts in poetry from the University of Virginia while coaching the VA slam team. A sought-after educator, Samantha believes that inside each person exists a lover of words.

In New York City she fulfills her position as poetry professor at the Juilliard School. She also serves as writer in residence at the Bronx Academy of Letters where she teaches creative writing and journalism courses to middle and high school youth.

She presents her work in schools, universities, festivals, conferences, museums, places of worship, and poetry venues.

Raw and refined, diverse in subject matter and style, Samantha relates to a wide spectrum of audiences.

She is a native of Trinidad & Tobago.

Sakhi Dongadala Sogcwe

South Africa No Comments

Sakhi Sogcwe, also known as Dongadala, is a traditional poet based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He is a Imbongi Yethongo meaning he receives his poems in dreams. He performs at weddings, traditional ceremonies, and other shows within his community.

Sakhi has won numerous awards and competitions. He is also performance co-ordinator and he mentors people to write and recite poetry.

Synik

Zimbabwe No Comments

Synik is a hiphop and spoken word artist from the vibrant streets of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. The lyrically dexterous MC is one of the most exciting young artists in Zimbabwe right now. Thriving on versatility, Synik switches easily from cleverly crafted soulful hiphop joints to hardhitting lyrical raps and spoken word pieces. A gifted rhyme – storyteller Synik is known for weaving words to create visual poetic pieces. The ever growing artist recently picked up guitar playing and has incorporated acoustic guitar to his performances. He prefers to use his close relationship with words to influence positive change and inspire people, seeking to ‘write songs to right wrongs’. Affiliated with Zimbabwe’s cultural activist movement, Synik understands that art should be used to address society’s ills and he aims to do more than merely entertain with his work. Influenced a lot by conscious hiphop and neosoul music, the artists lyrics are mainly an expression of what the he encounters in life.

“The soul of Harare’s conscious Hip Hop is in the safe hands of a small group of rappers. Among them is Synik who brings some positive and thoughtful messages at a time when just about every cheap African rapper is claiming a million haters and self-stamping themselves as “King of Swag”. (the peoples hub).While in high school a young Synik started putting his thoughts into raps in his school note books having been a fan of hiphop since he got introduced to the culture in his childhood. His high school had a large community of people who were also drawn to hiphop as an art-form. He was briefly part of Bulawayo based underground outfit, Encrypted Minds in 2001. The moniker is a remnant of this phase in his growth when he was influenced by hardcore underground hiphop. He started recording late 2003 in Harare, a period where he worked with the Phranchyze members Phlow and BC. His first release was an EP (The Beta Version 2008) which highlighted Synik’s storytelling skills and lyrical prowess. The EP has been labelled a street classic by some and it earned Synik respect in Zimbabwe’s hiphop community. He also released a single (God within/Find a way 2010) which revealed a more soulful Synik. He has featured on numerous projects including the African hip-hop mixtape 2, as well as collaborations with numerous Zimbabwean and African acts (Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Kenya).

His performing career developed when he got into Harare’s lively spoken word/hiphop scene. He would soon become one of the most regular hiphop and spoken word performers at events such as Mashoko, The Circle, Chimoto Poetry Slams (Alliance Francaise), and the Acoustic Nights (Zimbabwe German Society). In 2010 as part of Poeticause he was involved in the Theatrical/ Poetry production ’Prisms’ with fellow poets Blackpearl, Nebila, Flowchild and Aerosol. Some of his notable performances were at The 2010 Bulawayo edition of the Zimbabwe Social Forum, The One Day Hiphop Festival (Alliance Francaise), 2011 Independence Day Concert (with the hiphop band, the Monkeynuts), The Republic of Pungwe Launch and The Shoko International Hip Hop festival. If he is not on stage Synik can be easily spotted throwing rhymes in a cipher on Harare’s streets.With a number of projects scheduled to come in the near future Synik is set to continue making waves in Zimbabwean hiphop and beyond.

Suné Ashlulita van Rooyen

South Africa No Comments

Suné Ashlulita van Rooyen was born in the small town of Brandvlei in the heart of the Northern Cape. In 2010 she started her BA degree in Afrikaans and Nederlands and Psychology at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), which she completed in 2013. Currently she doing her Honours in Afrikaans and Nederlands also at UWC.

Suné aspires to be a teacher with the option of becoming a paediatric psychologist.

Skietreker

South Africa No Comments

Skietreker ( Reitumetse Richard Segopolo Seape) is a poet, author and performer from Thabanchu in the Free State. He writes his metaphors and similes in English, Setswana, Sesotho and Afrikaans, penning about subjects relating to racism, discrimination, abuse, poverty, Aids, spirituality, love and social ills affecting the youth.

He has performed on stages like Macufe annual festival (2005). In 2007 his poem titled Spiritual Struggle was published in an anthology called A Prayer Away in Durban. He is also a former member of the poetry group Infinite Motions (2008). He has appeared on Frenzy (ETV), Street Journal (SABC 1) and Lentswe poetry project (SABC 2). He was also the founder of Boston Poetry Movement (2008) and the brains behind the initiative of Velocity open mic sessions at iBurst in Durban.

In 2009 he was awarded a certificate of appreciation by the Bloemfontein public library in recognition of valuable contribution to literature in the Free Sate. He published his first collection of poems titled Apartheid Ek Gaan Jou Boks in 2007 and in 2012 he received assistance from the department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation to republish his power packed Apartheid Ek Gaan Jou Boks vol 2. He was also a volunteer for the SA Literary Awards 2012, and he also performed & rendered a creative writing, poetry workshop for Legae Primary School at Africa Century International African Writers Conference and shared a stage with Tinah Mnumzana, Lesego Motsepe, Hector Kunene and Charmaine Mrwebi.

Sitawa Namwalie

Kenya No Comments

Sitawa Namwalie is a poet, writer and performer interested in how Africans are defining themselves in today’s world. In writing she finds her expression. In 2008 her first dramatised poetry show by the name Cut Off My Tongue was successfully performed in different venues in Nairobi. In 2009, her first book of poetry, Cut Off My Tongue was published. Later the same year, the show was performed at the prestigious Hay Festival in the UK. And in 2012 it was performed in Uganda. She was nominated for the Freedom to Create Prize in 2010 for the courage and positive social influence of her poetry.

In 2011, her second show of dramatised poetry called Homecoming was performed in Nairobi to rave reviews. In April 2012 Cut off my Tongue was selected by TED Talks on a global search for the new and undiscovered as a performance worth spreading.

Sitawa has worked in the development sector for many years with NGOs and with UNDP, USAID and IUCN. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany and Zoology from the University of Nairobi and a Master of Arts degree in Environment, Society and Technology from Clark University in Massachusetts, USA. She works as a development consultant in the areas of environment, gender and governance.

Sitawa has achieved excellence in many areas of life, including representing Kenya in tennis and hockey in her youth. She is a mother of three gorgeous children and is married to a man of rare generosity.

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Sage Hasson

Nigeria No Comments

Sage is Nigeria’s premier spoken word poet. He has featured in over 400 events, both small and big, across the country. He has done about a 100 brand poems written specifically for certain organisations and products including MTN, Coca Cola, Harp, Satzenbrau, Gulder, and Unilever. He has performed at different shows including Hip Hop World Awards in 2006 and 2010, Big Brother Nigeria, Arts Alive in South Africa. He has recorded and released two spoken word poetry albums. He is also a regular guest on regular TV and radio.

Before his performance career, Sage was a star reporter with Ovation magazine. He has acted on a stage play, and now he is angling to write his first made movie and is currently establishing himself as a life coach with a newly written inspirational fable that has been snagged by a publisher.

Toni Stuart

South Africa No Comments

Toni Stuart is a poetry writer, performer and developer. Her poetry has been published in numerous anthologies including The Ground’s Ear (Quickfox Publishing, 2011) and Agenda Journal on Teenage Fertility and Desire (Unisa Press and Routledge, 2011).

As a performer she was part of And the Word Was Woman Ensemble, from 2004 – 2007, with Malika Ndlovu and the 2010 Ingrid Jonker Prize winner Tania van Schalkwyk among others. She has performed locally and internationally, at numerous events including Urban Voices International Poetry Festival in 2010, Bridgewater International Poetry Festival in 2013, and alongside UK poet Lemn Sissay in 2012. Her work uses poetry to interrogate a range of social issues such as the stories of place and displacement (The Calllings Performance as part of GIPCA’ Exuberance Project, Emancipation Day Commemoration at Reminiscence Theatre Festival), HIV/Aids (commission of Breath and Blood for University of Cape Town) and gender-based violence (Woman.Object.Corpse exhibition for Centre for African Studies, UCT).

She is the curator of Poetica, at Open Book Festival 2013 and runs The Silence That Words Come From – writing workshops that enable people to explore their own voice.

In 2013, she was named in the Mail and Guardian’s list of 200 Inspiring Young South Africans for her work in co-founding I Am Somebody! – an NGO that uses storytelling and youth development to build integrated communities.

Tanya Evanson

Canada No Comments

Tanya Evanson is an Antiguan-Quebecoise Woman
Multilingual Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Vocalist
Whirling Dervish, Arts Organizer, Educator
Montreal-born and based in Vancouver BC Canada
Done five poetry chapbooks
Two spoken wor-l-d music CDs
Performing across Canada since the 90s
Featured in videopoems, documentaries,
Anthologies, international recordings,
National TV and radio
Often backed by musicians
Classically trained Whirling Dervish
Performed across Europe, Turkey and Japan
As Mother Tongue Media,
Produces art events that bridge
Disciplines and cultures
Open your arms if you want to be held

Togara Muzanenhamo

Zimbabwe No Comments
Togara Muzanenhamo was born in Lusaka, Zambia, to Zimbabwean parents. He was brought up in Zimbabwe on his family’s farm. He went on to study Business Administration in France and The Netherlands. After his studies he returned to Zimbabwe and worked as a journalist, then moved to an organisation dedicated to developing African screenplays. Later Muzanenhamo went to England to pursue an MA in creative writing. He now divides his time between writing and farming.
Togara Muzanenhamo’s poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies in Europe, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Togara is a poet scarcely known in his home country, Zimbabwe. His first collection, Spirit Brides, was published by Carcanet Press in the UK in 2006, and his work has appeared amongst others in Carapace, PN Review, The Zimbabwean Review, Revue Noire, BBC Radio 3 and the BBC World Service.
His poetry is beautifully observed, his imagery finely perceptive, his language and its rhythms hauntingly simple as he pulls back the blinds from a world that is known but too often hidden from view. He does so with an empathy and gentleness that speaks of compassion and yet he cuts and shapes his poems with the precision of a surgeon. Various themes echo through his poetry: the magic and mystery of childhood; departure, loss and death; and love, understated, and in all its many and complex connectivities.

Tinashe Muchuri

Zimbabwe No Comments

He is a performing poet, actor, writer, based in Harare, Zimbabwe. His poems appear in the following anthologies, Jakwara reNhetembo (2008), State of the Nation: Contemporary Zimbabwean Poetry (2009), War Against War (2010), Visions of Motherland (2010), Daybreak (2010), Defiled Sacredness (2010), Mudengu Munei (2010) and several international journals and magazine.

He also contributes to Writers International Network Zimbabwe blogspot under the column, ‘The Regular Writer’, Wealth of Ideas and Izimbabwe. He featured in the following films: Tanyaradzwa, I want A Wedding Dress, NyamiNyami and the evil eggs, Playing Warriors, The Husband, and it the following Television dramas: Suburb D, New Dawn, and Tiriparwendo. He performed poetry at platforms such as NGO events, Harare International Festival of the Arts, Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo, Dzimbahwe Arts Festival, Chimanimani Arts Festival, Arts Alive International Johannesburg, SADC Poetry Festival in Botswana among others.

Tantra-Zawadi

United States No Comments

New York spoken word artist and performance poet, Tantra-Zawadi’s rousing poetry has established her as a force in the genre. Her work has been extensively published and televised and her numerous stage performances include the iconic Nuyorican Poets’. For Tantra-Zawadi poetry is “breathing, walking, doing, loving and awakening – limitless in its ability to reach across genres and varying walks of life”.

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.

Wanjiku Mwaurah

Kenya No Comments

Wanjiku Mwaurah is an African pearl. She has graced numerous performance stages; she has performed alongside some of the leading  African poets like Mphutlane Wa Bofelo (South Africa), Qbibo Intalektual (Swaziland) Napo Masheane (South Africa) at the Johannesburg Arts Alive international festival, held in Johannesburg in 2010. She also graced the stage  at Arusha Poetry club among other events.

She goes beyond poetry and has been heartily involved in awareness raising campaigns for the cerebral palsy condition (art4acause – 2010), while playing mentor and role model to many upcoming artists in the field.

She has achieved a lot; having been crowned Slam Africa Queen (Aug 2009), named as the featured poet severally at Kwani Open Mic, Poetry Spot, Jukwaani Festival in 2009, Sawa Sawa Festival  2011, SAMOSA festival 2012 and was one of the guest artists at a highly charged poetry night at the Story Moja Hay Festival 2012.

Her book, The Flow of My Soul  is a bridge between her spoken word and reflections of a times before her. Currently, she writes screen plays  and facilitates poetry workshops  as well as performing.

Wordbenda

Kenya No Comments

Brought up in the city of Nairobi in Kenya, David Chungi had a memorable and happy childhood. In January 2012 Wordbenda won the poetry competition Slam Africa. Later in the year he completed his studies at Penya Africa’s Sauti Academy artist development program, and ventured out into the Kenyan music industry. In 2013 Wordbenda performed in the U.S.A at various open mic gigs and churches.  He has also been featured as a co-host and performing artiste on local Kenyan T.V.

Jamaican Patois, heavy imagery, metaphorical flow with deep story telling content performed with electrifying energy is a sign that Wordbenda is in the house.

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.

Yrsa Daley-Ward

United Kingdom No Comments

Yrsa Daley-Ward is a writer and poet of mixed West Indian and West African heritage. Born to a Jamaican mother and a Nigerian father, Yrsa was raised by her devout Seventh Day Adventist grandparents in the small town of Chorley in the North of England. Her first collection of stories On Snakes and Other Stories was published by 3:AM Press. Bone is the title of her new book.

Yewande Omotoso

Nigeria No Comments

Yewande Omotoso was born in Barbados in 1980 and grew up in Nigeria with her Barbadian mother, Nigerian father and two older brothers. The family moved to South Africa in 1992.

Yewande trained as an architect at the University of Cape Town, to which she returned after working as an architect for several years, to complete a Masters degree in Creative Writing. The product of her degree is her debut novel Bomboy published in 2011 by Cape Town publisher Modjaji Books. Bomboy was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Literary Awards as well as the MNet Film Award, it won the South African Literary Award (SALA) for First Time Author Prize. Prior to Bomboy Yewande authored several stories, among them The Piano (2nd Place, People Opposing Women Abuse, 2005) and Maude Hastings (Honourable Mention, John La Rose Short Story Competition, 2007). In addition she has published Heroes with online crime fiction magazine Noir Nation and Two Old People in the anthology Speaking for the Generation: Contemporary Stories from Africa. Yewande’s poetry (Stranger and The Rain) has been published in the ‘Baobab Literary Journal’ 2009. The Rain was shortlisted for the Sol Plaatjie European Union Poetry Awards 2012.

Omotoso, for whom writing is a means to make sense of the world, is interested in the complexity of human experiences as well as the incongruities of life. Loneliness is a recurring theme. Omotoso views her writing as a tool for compassion and evoking self-examination. For her talent and the intent to tell stories, she credits her parents and a childhood steeped in reading and the sharing of ideas.

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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.