Annie Moyo’s poetry that has been inspired by an upbringing that was rich in exposure to various traditions.
She currently resides and works in Cape Town, but her work draws strongly on her experience of being raised and schooled in Zimbabwe. She maintains close ties with her family and the people of Zimbabwe, a bond that resonates powerfully in the way she interprets the world around her.
Anis Mojgani is a two time National Poetry Slam Champion and winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam. A TEDx Speaker and former resident of the Oregon Literary Arts Writers-In-The-Schools program, Anis has performed at numerous universities, festivals, and venues around the globe and has performed for audiences as varied as the House of Blues and the United Nations. His work has appeared on HBO, NPR, and in the pages of such journals as Rattle, Forklift Ohio, Used Furniture Review, and Thrush.
A founding member of the touring Poetry Revival, Anis is also the author of three poetry collections, all published by Write Bloody Publishing: Songs From Under the River (2013), The Feather Room (2011), and Over the Anvil We Stretch (2008). A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, he still tries to make tiny spaces for visual art, doing the covers for his own books, and occasionally providing work for others, be it illustrations, the random poster, or whatever else may spark up. Originally from New Orleans, Anis currently lives in Austin TX in a little house with his wife and their dog, Trudy.
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Anele is a 28 year old poet raised in East London, South Africa but now based in Cape Town. Dead Prez and Tupac Shakur have been his main inspiration throughout his career.
Anele is well known for his witty poetry recited in his mother tongue Xhosa. He has been performing with Lingua Franca since its first Naked Word Poetry Session. In 2013 he performed at the Zabalaza Mini festivals, and he was a headlining act with Lingua Franca during the Naked Slam Poetry 2013. Anele is also part of a Floetry project run by Nanziwe Mzuzu under Bozza.mobi. He won the Cape Town leg of DFL Lover + Another Poetry Challenge in 2013 and was placed fourth at the Nationals.
In 2012 he wrote and performed a poetry production called People from no People at the Black Box Theatre in Delft.
Amir Sulaiman is an accomplished poet, activist, recording artist and a 2 time HBO Def Poet. Host and performer for national Breed Love Odyssey Tour with Mos Def and Talib Kweli and special guest on KRS-ONES Hip Hop Lives Tour there is a steady but ever increasing buzz building around Amir quickly gaining the attention of everyone from Kanye West and Russell Simmons (who referred to Amir as “blessed”), to Dave Chapelle. In addition, organizations such as the ACLU, Amnesty International and Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition have used Amir’s poetry and voice to bring life to multiple campaigns dealing with social justice and art.
His growing popularity garnered him a record deal with UPRISING Records, the label that delivered the hugely successful multi-platinum band, Fall Out Boy. His national debut album, Like a Thief in the Night, has been released nation wide to critical acclaim. The album fuses disparate genres with impassioned narratives of tragedy, redemption, and revolution. Boasting guest appearances from Mos Def, Goapele, and The Last Poets, Like A Thief in The Night has created a soundscape that could easily serve as the score for a classic Martin Scorcese film. In a nutshell, this ground-breaking album signals a desired change bringing about a level of consciousness sorely needed in today’s music industry and society in general.
Amir has been performing at countless colleges, universities, high schools and community centers. As a member of Youth Speaks in the Bay Area California, Amir works regularly teaching kids by way of spoken word and focusing on the union of art and education.
Consistently working across the United States and Canada, Amir has shared the stage with artists such as Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Common , Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Pharoah Monch, Floetry, Black Thought of The Roots, Goapele, Stevie Wonder, The Last Poets, Dead Prez, Ghostface of Wu-Tang Clan, MOP, and more.
Tolar is a front line activist, a social crusader, and the publicity Secretary of the Campaign for Democratic and Workers Right CDWR, what was formerly known as Campaign for Independent Unionism (CIU) which was one of the pro-democracy groups in CD, UAD and JACON, in the struggle to end military dictatorship in Nigeria. He also doubles as the publicity Secretary of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and the Editor of the Socialist Democracy, the organ of the DSM.
He is also a school teacher, and an active member of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, (NUT)
Razaq Ivori is a prolific writer who began his career in writing as a ghost pen for the rich and famous. He wrote their auto biographies for a fee until his last book Elevating the Women for Mrs Titi Atiku. He moved on to the institute of journalism where he studied multimedia techniques and began working for an Abuja firm soon after his HND in journalism.
His literary works include blood and kin a Sci-Fi African drama piece and the adventures of illinick slyed a radio drama written for the BBC but was never submitted.
His current literary scheme is to bring back the art of the quintessential Town Crier poetic semantics: he dubs narrative news. A system where actual news content is infused in free flow prose rendition though in English but not without the characteristic melodic chant of the past.
For six months Ivori premiered this art at the Bogobiri lounge in ikoyi, where some say the uproar it generated prompted the proprietors to establish a full scale stage house next door for performance poetry.
Today the poet, writer, journalist has put all away to make his theatric experiment a reality. The full content like he humbly puts it will give birth to SAO [THE STANDERD AFRICAN OPERA].
Born in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria ‘1984, Inua Ellams is a Word and Graphic Artist, a writer with a style as influenced by Classic literature as it is by hip hop, by Keats as it is by MosDef. Rooted in a love for rhythm and language, he crosses 18th century romanticism & traditional story telling with contemporary diction, loose rhythm and rhyme. However, his first love was visual art; the first time he toyed with a pencil, he fell for the magic of line and form. He works extensively as a graphic designer / visual artist and also tries to mix the old with the new juxtaposing texture and pigment with flat shades of color and digitally created designs. He works in online and print.
Isabella Motadinyane was born in 1963 in Mofolo Central, Soweto. She went as far as Grade Five in her formal schooling. She studied piano at the so-called “Five Roses Bowl” and attended dance and acting classes in Jozi. As a result of creative writing workshops she wrote the poem One leg in which contains the phrase die is mos botsotsos. This phrase afterwards gave rise to the name of the Botsotso Jesters, the poetry performance group of which she was a founding member in 1994, and whose publishing arm, Botsotso Publishing brought out the two collections, We Jive Like This (1996) and Dirty Washing (1999), from whom the poems in this collected works are taken.
She was brought up by her grandmother and adopted the surname Motadinyane even though, when she traced her roots and the whereabouts of her absent father, she discovered that he was from the Mabalane family of Meadowlands and Ndofaya. At the time of her death on 19 February 2003 – her fortieth birthday – she was living with her mother in Orange Farm.
As a stage presence she was unique – confident, varied, vivacious. Her rich voice both sang and spoke, infusing her poems with great musicality; as significant, they worked equally convincingly on the page. Her voice is captured on the Botsotso Jesters cd, Purple Light Mirror in the Mud (2001). Indeed, Isabella Motadinyane used Isicamtho and Sotho to create a powerful legacy of performance, poetry and song. A collection of her poems (as previously published with the Botsotso Jesters) entitled Bella was published in 2007.
Poppy Seed, Angela Harvey, is a performance poetry act that delivers a concept of conscious poetry and live music that educates, entertains and inspires. It has been described as being “on the cusp of poetry and song. Poppy Seed’s latest release ‘Coming Through’ features some of her hottest grooves and unique genre”.
Poppy Seed is a life coach and committed to Human Rights by using her art to highlight Social justice campaigns; and to celebrate cultural diversity. In this light her eloquent activism has ‘won’ her title ‘Warm Revolutionary.’ Her music has coloured soundtracks, most recently Motherland another groundbreaking award winning film by Director Owen ‘Alik Shahadah about the incredulous journey of African people. and won awards including Best Poet from Black Women in the Arts UK, and ‘The Nina Simone Award for Black Women in Jazz’ 2009. Coming Through is the current defining Album. Preceded by the taster album A Taste that is available through online outlets as a limited edition and a gem.
Pippa Little was born and raised in Tanzania. She is Scots but has lived mainly in England. A teacher, editor, higher education lecturer and literacy tutor, she has now begun writing full-time. Married with three sons, two in England and one in Mexico, and a labrador dog, she has a poetry collection titled Overwintering.
Philippa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa is a Ugandan South African poet, storyteller, coach and facilitator. She is the youngest daughter of Ugandan poet and civil servant, the late Henry Barlow. Both her parents loved literature – her father the writer, her mother the teacher, researcher and narrator. While she most commonly called Philippa, she always signs Namutebi at the end of her poems. “Namutebi is the creative side of me. She is the one who writes.”
She sees her poems more as stories – portraits of moments in her life. Her poems draw images of growing up in Uganda in the 60s and 70s and in the later years as an immigrant in various parts of Africa – touching on both the personal and political as it impacted her. Having lived in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Namibia and South Africa, she often wrestles with the question of identity and belonging. She also explores her triumphs and struggles as a woman.
Namutebi also has a passion for folktales and myths – the wisdom of centuries, the tried and tested imagery, the archetypal characters that give new perspective to the perennial questions that we struggle with. She says, “When a story gets my heart beating faster, or an image in a story stirs something inside me, I know that that story has come to teach me at this moment in my life! I believe this is true for everyone.”
Namutebi lives in Cape Town with her husband, Victor, and 3 children – Faye, Senteza and Chris.
Peter is a 22 years old, living in the North-eastern part of the Tanzania in the city of Arusha. He started writing poetry when he was 16 years old while still a high school student. He initially mainly wrote for his friends and for his own benefit due to a lack of platforms in his hometown.
In 2012 he met George Kyomushula the founder of Arusha Poetry Club,who inspired him to participate in the club’s weekly sessions. This is where he has met a lot of great poets like Charlotte Hill O’neil. Till now he has participated in more than four international events and other six local events within the club. And performed local events at The University Of Dodoma,where he pursues a degree of Film and Theatre.
Pieter Odendaal started out as a boerseun in Bloemfontein and has a BA and half of an abandoned BSc-degree. He is the co-founder and project manager of SLiP, the Stellenbosch Literary Project, which creates and nourishes analogue and digital platforms of creative engagements with words. The project’s website focuses on contemporary South African books, “poetries”, cultures and initiatives around multilingualism and translation. He also co-coordinates the popular InZync Poetry Sessions and high school poetry workshops with his partner in rhyme, Adrian Different.
He hopes to publish his debut poetry collection sometime soon. A handful of his Afrikaans poems appeared in Nuwe Stemme 5 (2013). In 2015, he’ll be studying things about sustainable development and how to save the world.
Philani Amadeus Nyoni is a Zimbabwean poet, short story writer and actor. His writings have been published in newspapers and magazines including The Sunday News, Zimbabwe Metro, South Africa Metro, Consciousness.co.za and Ghana Poetry Foundation.
In 2006 he was awarded a First Class Award in the ‘Girls’ College Literary Competition, the following year he was awarded ‘Honors’ and won the Best Poem Award in the senior category. In 2010 his poetry was read at a cultural night in Wales organised by Kushinda Publishing, in the same year he co-wrote and acted in Cletus Moyo’s stage play titled And Now We Speak. He took part in the Drama For Life Festival in South Africa where he was part of the ‘A Lover And Another Poetry Slam’ where he represented Gauteng in the national championships.
In 2011 he co-wrote an opening act with Simo Mpapa-Majola for the festival. In that year he also featured in Lindela, a short film written and directed by Lilly Million about Lindela camp in South Africa where illegal immigrants are held before being deported to their respective countries. In 2012 he was part of the team that resurrected “Mlom’ Wakho Poetry Slams” in Bulawayo which was the second poetry slam in Zimbabwe after ‘House Of Hunger’ in Harare. He took part in the ‘Breaking Barriers Poetry Slam’ held in Harare during the Shoko Festival and also shared his works at Intwasa Festival. He is working with John Eppel as an editor on Philani’s first book, a forty-five poem anthology entitled Once A Lover Always A Fool.
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Patricia Smith is the author of five books of poetry, including Blood Dazzler, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series selection.
Her work has appeared in many literary journals, including Poetry, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, and she has received a Pushcart Prize.
Smith is a professor at the City University of New York/College of Staten Island, and is on the faculty of both Cave Canem and the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine.
Roché Kester hails from Cape Town and considers herself a writer, performer and director. She implemented these passions in the acclaimed feminist production Reclaiming the P…word, where she has graced the stages of the Baxter theatre and the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
As a poet, Roche placed second in the Africa day poetry competition in 2009. More recently Roché placed in the top six in the Lover +Another national poetry competition . Roché believes in the transformative power of words and sees her expression as a means to ignite love and growth and unity.
Raya Wambui started writing poetry consistently thirteen years ago. She began performing in July 2011 competing in the Carnivore Star Search of that year. She began her blog in March 2012, where she has been sharing her poetry and some other writing since then (rayawambui.wordpress.com). Her poetry tends to fall under revolutionary poetry, but is not exclusively in that genre.
Since she began performing, she has performed at the following events:
* Carnivore Star Search of 2011- Auditions, Semi Finals and Finals
* Wamathai Spoken Word- Severally since 2011
* Slam Africa- Performed severally, competed five times: I am the 39th Slam Queen
* Kwani Open Mic- performed three times, was the April 2013 featured poet
* Word Up Live- Severally
* Panari Ice Skating Festival
* Chords For Cords
* Streams, Where Haven Art
* Creatives Garage Portfolio Review
* POWO
* Teto Tetuma and the Purple Warriors Band, Live at Kitengela
* Global Voices Summit 2012
* The BOGOF
* Sitawa Ignited
* GBC show: JCs love letter
* Sentimental Spot (Arts Talk Show)
* Nairobi University Chiromo Campus Cultural Day
* Nairobi University Main Campus, Class presentation
Rustum Kozain was born in 1966 in Paarl, South Africa. Studied for several years at the University of Cape Town; spent ten months (1994-1995) in the United States of America on a Fulbright Scholarship. Returned to South Africa and lectured in the Department of English at UCT from 1998 to 2004, teaching in the fields of literature, film, and popular culture.
Poetry published in local and international journals; debut volume, This Carting Life, published in 2005 (Kwela/Snailpress). Awarded the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize.
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).
Stephen Derwent Partington is a teacher in Kenya, and a poet. He lives and works just outside Machakos and is a member of Concerned Kenyan Writers. His collection of poems, SMS & Face to Face, was published by Phoenix to critical acclaim in East Africa.
In addition to having his poetry widely published in UK and African journals he writes academic articles on regional literature for leading post-colonial journals and East African regional media. Previously he was poetry editor of the first three editions of Kwani East Africa’s ‘only literary journal’.
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’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'”.
Of English and Sri Lankan descent, Seni Seneviratne’s work as a poet and live- artist is widely acclaimed. Her performances are a delicate mix of spoken word and folk/jazz song, offering a poetic landscape that echoes themes of migration, family, love and loss and reflects her personal journey as a woman of mixed heritage. She is published in the UK, Denmark, Canada and South Africa, and has presented readings and performances on various international stages.
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).
Sandhya was born on the North Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal in 1987. She grew up in the quaint village of Seatides which is situated along the sugar-cane belt of the Tongaat district. As a child her irrepressible curiosity often resulted in painful consequences. She was not content with the banal knowledge that the switch turns on the light. No. She had to know how hot the bulb actually burnt. Fortunately this precocious, mischievous mind was soon harnessed by the creative outlets of poetry and short story writing. She matriculated from Seatides Combined School at the age of 16. After working an assortment of part-time jobs she moved to Cape Town to complete a diploma in Audio Engineering at the Cape Audio College. Since then Sandhya has completed a B.A. (Hons) degree in English Language and Literature Studies at the University of Cape Town.
She has always written poetry, sometimes in secret, sometimes for the amusement of friends and family. Most often her cautious, quiet scribblings were the cathartic, emotional outpourings borne of personal trauma or victory. Now she writes outside of herself. Some of these latest poems form a triptych of sorts which probe and subvert idiosyncratic aspects of diasporic Indian culture. Persistent themes in these pieces include: the patriarchal appropriation of Hindu scriptural teachings, the conflation of fear and respect by young ones” towards “their elders”, and finally the preoccupation with masking familial discord and domestic abuse in order to keep up appearances within one’s community.
Sandhya currently plans to forge links with local NGOs that share her vision for equitable access to tertiary education across the nation’s polarised socio-economic landscape.
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 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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Shunshine, born Nonjabulo Tshabalala, is a Kwa-Zulu Natal(KZN) born poet, who now resides in Cape Town.
She moved to Cape Town after high school, to study Fashion Design. It was during those years that she started attending open-mic sessions, and had her first taste of the stage.
Since then, she has worked with many artists, and performed in many shows between KZN and Cape Town. She has also helped to organize a handful of events, in order to create platforms for other upcoming artists.
In KZN, she has worked with artists such as Raheem, Lexikon, Moonchild, Tumelo Khoza, Busiswa Gqulu, Thando Ngcobo and Siyabonga Skhakhane. She has performed at DUT’s Pour-A-Tree Sessions and Nowadays Poets. She was also a part of Poppunut’s ‘Sounds 031’ Women’s Edition Project in 2009.
In Cape Town, she has worked with Bulelwa Basse of the Lyrical Base Project, City at Peace, Dejavu, Uzinzo, and is a part of the Black Ink Arts Movement, based in Du Noon, Milnerton.
In 2009, she recorded and released an album titled My Space, which was quite successful considering that it was released independently. Since then, she has been featured in albums and songs by other artists.
Since her return to Cape Town in 2013, she has worked with Radikal Xpression, Sounds of The South (SOS), 4D Multimedia, and an Observatory based monthly session known as Poetics ‘music not for the sake of it’.
In 2013, one of her poems, I bargain with the mist, was published in the Sol Plaatje European Union Vol III Poetry Anthology.
As someone who has a hip hop background, and a general love for music, Nonjabulo sometimes blends her poetry with musical sounds. She loves experimenting with different writing styles.
She is inspired by love and life. She writes because it heals her, and shares it because she believes that it has the potential of healing other people.
She is driven by her great interest in spirituality, and quest to spread positivity across the dividing lines of culture, race and religion. She believes that we are all from the same source.
“When we learn to love our stormy days
as much as easy breezes;
there’s always something beautiful
for us to sink our souls in.” – Shunshine
Sfiso Riccardo Shezi also known as Imprint has been writing poetry for what feels like a lifetime to him. He started exploring the poetry scene in his hometown of Pietermaritzburg, but his love for art form has seen him travel across other provinces too. He mainly writes in his mother tongue isiZulu.
Sello Daniel Maputle is a poet based in Thaba Nchu in the Free State. He started writing poetry in 2003 when he joined a writing group called Untitled Poets in his hometown. The highlight of his career is when he performed at the Macufe Wordfest.
Sam Umukoro has written for Vanguard and The Guardian newspapers in Nigeria. He has recently published an anthology of poetry, Heartstrings and he is also the author of Once Upon A Monday (collection of short stories) and currently working on another collection of short stories.