Tag Archives: Jubilation

Tshepo Blackhole

The name, Tshepo Molefe. Also known as Blackhole on stage. This pseudo name is a reflection of who and what I am, from my short nature (which I inherited from my mother) to the anger that I bring on stage and the hatred I am still trying to extinguish with my pen.

I write to change perceptions and hopefully to inspire change in a person’s life and view on things such as love, what poetry is and the misconception of man being invulnerable. I feel like as poets, it’s our duty to not only just write to be dope or to compete, but we need to touch life with our craft and build a better society through our wordsmith. That is what my art aims to do, and one day will.

Livhuwani Mashao

Livhuwani Mashao was born Livhuwani Takalani Mashao on March 8, 1993, in Vosloorus, Gauteng. As a young boy he was exposed to Edgar Allen’s anthology and he grew up with a great passion for poetry and music. At the age of 15 he was introduced to Nasir Oludara Jones’, Nas, music and he fell in love with his writing style, fashion sense and demeanor.

Livhuwani began to write poems and raps, performing at school and church as he was being inspired by the divine life of Jesus Christ. Still growing and studying theology, Livhuwani hopes to reach out to his peers in style using witty rhyme schemes and word play. Livhuwani is currently taking theatre classes at Johannesburg theatre with the well known Souht African film director, Mr. Duma Ndlovu, being his lecturer. “Stage presence is a good trait to an all-round performer” Livhuwani alludes in most of his interviews.

Dan Wylie

Dan Wylie teaches English at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. He has published two books on the Zulu leader Shaka (Savage Delight: White Myths of Shaka and Myth of Iron: Shaka in History, both UKZN Press); a memoir; Dead Leaves: Two Years in the Rhodesian War (UKZN Press); and several volumes of poetry. Most recently, he has concentrated on Zimbabwean literature and on ecological concerns in literature. He founded the annual Literature & Ecology Colloquium in 2004, and edited the collection of essays, Toxic Belonging? Identity and Ecology in Southern Africa (Cambridge Scholars Press). His latest publications are Elephant and Crocodile, both in the Reaktion Books animals series, and Slow Fires (poems with etchings by Roxandra Britz; Fourthwall Books).

Robert Berold

Robert Berold has published four collections of poetry and four books of non-fiction. As editor of New Coin from 1989 to 1999, he sought out and published much of the groundbreaking new poetry being written in that period, later editing a selection of these into the anthology It All Begins. He has edited over 40 books by South African poets, several of them published under his Deep South imprint. For most of his working life he has been a rural development worker and a freelance editor of technical books. Currently he coordinates the MA programme in creative writing at Rhodes University.

Thabiso Malepe

Thabiso Malepe is the co founder of Slum Literature,an audio visual poetry experience that fuses Slam Poetry with Hip Hop. It is rooted in social consciousness and seeks to tell the stories and illustrate the brilliance of where it originated, the township.

Pakama Mlokoti

Pakama Mlokoti, born on May 12 1994 in Mthatha, is currently based in Port Elizabeth pursuing a career in poetry. She is a writer, peformer and film maker in progress.

Pakama began competitive poetry in 2013 winning the Candlelight slam and Consent is Sexy Poetry slam. She also came second place on the Udubs Got Talent finals. 

She has performed at various stages across the country including the Inzync Sessions in Cape Town, the Word N Sound stage in Johannesburg as well as Atheneaum Little Theatre in Port Elizabeth.

She also represented Eastern Cape in the National Slam For Your Life finals at the Soweto theatre where she won and is current a National Slam Champion.

Jeannie Wallace McKeown

Jeannie Wallace McKeown writes poetry and prose creatively; works at a desk in a university but has also been a freelance writer for the past six years covering academic lectures, seminars, book launches and interviewing interesting people; has had creative pieces published in literary journals and online; mother of two boys who can no longer be described as small; in a steady co-parenting relationship with an ex-husband, resolutely single and using poetry as one means of meeting this life head-on.

Wandile Ganya

Wandile Ganya grew up in Western Cape South Africa. He is currently a student at the University of Stellenbosch. He started writing poetry at a very young age, he enjoys both classic and contemporary poetry, and also has a keen interest in philosophy

His first collection of poems titled Divine Interspace is available as an ebook on Amazon, Kalahari, Exclusive books, and GoodBooks.

Rethabile Masilo

Rethabile Masilo blogs at Poéfrika and co-edits Canopic Jar. He is a Mosotho poet from Lesotho and enjoys reading and writing. Today he lives in Paris, France, with his wife and two children. His work has been published in various hard and soft-copy magazines, including Canopic Jar.

Rethabile was born in 1961 in Lesotho and left his country with his parents and siblings to go into exile in 1981. He moved through the Republic of South Africa (very short stay, on account of the weight of apartheid), Kenya and the United States of America, before settling in France in 1987.

In 2012 his first book of poems, Things That Are Silent, was published by Pindrop Press. The second book, Waslap, will be published in 2015 by The Onslaught Press.

Tapiwa Mugabe

Tapiwa Mugabe is a writer who was born in Zimbabwe and raised in England, UK. As a writer and poet he has recently published his first collection of poetry titled Zimbabwe. Tapiwa’s poetry introduces a fresh and bold voice into the rich current that is emerging from young African millennial artists.

http://tapiwamugabe.tumblr.com/

Ashraf Booley

Ashraf Booley is a young poet from Cape Town whose love for writing birthed at the age of sixteen. He works as a digital content producer by day, where he keeps his other passion alive – food. His poetry has featured in a handful of anthologies and his tenacity has seen him recite poetry alongside two of his favourite poets – Rustum Kozain and Gabeba Baderoon. Ashraf writes to challenge oppressive institutions, as a form of catharsis, expression and firmly believes in poetry as a medium to voice the voices of those who have been silenced.

Darren Carolissen

Darren Carolissen was born and raised in Stellenbosch, South Africa. He started writing at the age of 13. He started writing lyrics and eventually found his way to poetry. Since then he has been chasing this form of storytelling with a fierce passion.

Andrew Manyika

Andrew Manyika, is a Writer, Performance Poet, Comedian and MC based in Johannesburg. He has performed at Poetry Festivals and Fashion shows, hosted Award Shows and weddings, and taken to prominent comedy & poetry venues in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Sometimes referred to as “the Gentleman of Poetry” due to his penchant for wearing 3-piece suits, Andrew began to make his mark on the local poetry scene when he won the Gauteng Drama For Life Slam in 2011; and he placed second in the DFL National Grand Slam. Preceding this was a victory in the University of Johannesburg International Students poetry competition, and being published in a departmental university diary. In November of 2011 he took 3rd place at the WordnSound Poetry Festival Open Mic Finale and has been extensively involved in WordnSound from that time, now consulting as their Marketing Officer.

Highlights of his poetry career include having performed at the BAT Centre (Durban 2012); the State Theatre Pretoria Night of The Poets; Johannesburg International Motor Show 2011 (for team Mazda); TEDx Johannesburg 2013; The opening of the Living Arts Emporium Gallery.

In 2012 his poem “Make Up (Your Mind)”( http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DO_4Ck4FEva8 ) was nominated for the inaugural Word N Sound “Perfect Poem” award, and has gone on to receive generous airplay on Radio2000, featured on SAfm and flighted on EDTV and LoveWorld Sat (DStv). Other media appearances include: E-tv Sunrise; Zoned.tv; Soweto Tv, Mzansi Insider, Power FM, VOW fm and UjFM.

In 2012 Andrew emerged from a national audition process as one of ten poets to be selected for the Macufe Festival. He has subsequently been host or performer at the Word N Sound Festival (2011-13), Melville Poetry Festival (2012 & 2013); The Gospel Revolution Conference; The 2013 Izimbongi Poetry Festival and co-produced the inaugural “Slam For Your Life”. In May 2014, Andrew made his Debut appearance at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (on both their comedy and poetry stages).

It is this peculiar mix of comedy and poetry that has enabled Andrew to bring a fresh perspective to MCing. He is the current host of the Word N Sound Awards (where he is a 2-time nominee) and has hosted Night of the Poets 2014, and co-hosted the Glory-to-Glory Revival Centre Year-End of Year function. In 2013, he MC’d the Divine Adoration Concert; and Given Illustratives 1-man show.
He has taken to the stage performing stand-up comedy at Wish, the Comedy Underground; Kitchener’s; The Box; Parkers, and the “Bang Bang Comedy Club” (Zim).

Alongside Napo Masheane and rapper ProVerb, Andrew is profiled in the 5th Anniversary edition of the online poetry magazine: www.poetrypotion.com.

Being a born-again Christian, Andrew strives to represent Christ well through his art.
He is the holder of BCom Marketing Management & BCom (Hons)Strategic Management degrees and is an emerging entrepreneur.

Catch him on: @drewmannshow Andrew Manyika

Matchadjé Yogolipaka

Mathadjé Yogolipaka is publisher, poet and literary critic from Cameroon. He is also the managing director of the organization Lupeppo International.

Fatou Dioffé Bâ

Born in the 1988 on Saint-Louis in the Senegal, Fatou Dioffé Bâ first started dabbling in poetry in college. Although she is a graduate of a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Finance, poetry is her number one passion.

Enyam Scandalocks

Enyam Scandalocks is both an actor and a poet. He is a philosophy graduate from the University of Lomé in Togo. He is widely recognized as the forefather of Slam poetry in his home country.

Ka Mau

Ka Mau is a multidisciplinary performance artist born and raised in San Francisco, California. For the last ten years Ka Mau has lived in Bali, Indonesia and traveled throughout Asia, using the art of poetry, rap and dance to connect cultures, inspire creative thought and action and motivate youth to use their creativity as a means of personal and collective empowerment.

Ka Mau was named Best Poet in the 2002 Oakland, California Slam Finals. He is the winner of the 2004 & 2005 Ubud Writers Festival International Poetry Slam where he has also been the host and featured performer in 2010 & 2013. Ka Mau was selected as Artist Ambassador to represent the San Francisco Bay Area and perform at the 2004 World Social Forum in Mumbai, India. He has also been invited three times as a guest artist, lecturer and workshop coordinator, to board the Japanese activist/educational cruise ship Peace Boat.

He currently hosts Bali’s longest running open mic and produces eclectic performance productions in Bali incorporating music, dance, poetry and visual arts.

Deanna Rodger

Deanna Rodger is an actor and spoken word poet. She is the youngest UK Poetry Slam Champion (2007/8) and completed vocational acting training in The National Youth Theatres (NYT) REP Company 2012.

She has written and performed as a poet and actor in 2012 Olympic Team Welcome Ceremonies (NYT commission), Buckingham Palace (NYT commission), Speakers House (NYT commission), 10 Downing street (somewhere to_ commission) and Honey Coated Dream (Lyric Hammersmith commission) as well as delivering two TedX performances (Southwark and EastEnd). She has recently completed the audio book recording of ‘Feral Youth’ by Polly Courtney and is currently writing her one woman show ‘LondonMatter’ which has received support from POP Productions (IdeasTap, Sky Arts), Roundhouse Camden, The Albany and the Arts Council.

She is co founder of two popular spoken word events Chill Pill and Come Rhyme With Me (Spread the Word, New Writing South) and is in poetry collectives: Point Blank Poets (Biennale UK Artist International award 2011) and Keats House Poetry Forum, as well as leading on Podium Poets (Spread The Word) and workshops in and around the UK.

Naledi Agatha Ntini

Naledi Agatha Ntini was born in 1974 in Mpumalanga, South Africa. She performs her poetry mainly at community gatherings, weddings and memorial services. In 2007 she was invited to take part in the 13-part television show, Voices of Africa. iMphumlanga a praise poem for her province is her most celebrated poem. Her work has been anthologised in Tivunguvungu and Bantu Letters. Naledi is nurse by profession, a mother to two boys and a wife.

Dzomolavenda

Ndivhuho Aluwani Mabonyane, popularly known as Dzomolavenda, is an award winning traditional praise poet from Limpopo, South Africa. His talent and passion were evident from a very young age; in grade three he could effortlessly recite poems like Ramaremisa written by legendary Z Matsila.

In 2006 he started penning his own poems including Tshivhoni and Zwa lino shango. After graduating from high school in 2010 he trained and mentored people in poetry and stage drama and still continues to do so now.

His first poetry album titled Vhalemba includes hits like Shandukani, and Luvha la Africa. In 2013 he won an award for best poetry song/album at the prestigious Tshivenda Music Awards.

Samkela Stamper

Samkela Stamper is a poet and community artist. She volunteers her time in programs that use the arts as a tool to impart social skills to children and youth from communities that need it the most.
She is a Nelspruit, White River based author of the self-published memoir, Not for All the Apples, Peanut Butter & Jam. Samkela first read her memoir at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in Scotland in 2012. This led to an invitation to launch the book at the 2012 edition of the Open Book Festival in Cape Town. Samkela is an official participant of the Edinburgh World Writer’s Conference 2012/ 2013.

More recently, Samkela re-launched her book upon invitation by the NELM (The National English Literal Museum) as part of the National Arts Festival Grahamstown.

Samkela is currently a features writer for Lowveld Living Magazine. She is also an MC and the founder of the Single Hand Project and is on a mission to sell five million copies of her book.

Titilope

When Titilope first stepped to the microphone in 2007 at a local open mic, to gracing stages from Lagos to Cape Town, New York to California, Edmonton to Toronto and places in between, her goal has been to remind people that the ties that bind us transcend all of the borders we have created. She will tell you that no poem is brand new. In the telling and re-telling we are reminded that someone has walked this path before.

Titilope is a Nigerian born civil engineer, author and spoken word poet and the winner of the 2011 Canadian Authors’ Association Emerging Author Award for her first collection of poems, Down To Earth. In 2013 Titilope released her first spoken word album Mother Tongue and her second collection of poetry, Abscess, in 2014 with Geko Publishing in South Africa.

She was a resident artist at the 2011 Yemoya Artist Residency under the mentorship of acclaimed Jamaican-Canadian Dub poet and educator, D’bi Young. She was the recipient of the 2013 RISE award for achievement in the arts and the 2014 National Black Coalition of Canada Fil Fraser Award.

She has featured on stages across Canada and internationally, performing with Sonia Sanchez, Jayne Cortez, Yusef Komunyakaa, Obiora Odechukwu, Bassey Ikpi, Twin Poets and Offiong Bassey, at the 2011 Achebe Colloquium on Africa at Brown University. In 2013, Titilope was selected from over 200 writers to meet legendary poet and author, Dr. Maya Angelou.

She is the creator of Rouge Poetry, a weekly open mic that has feature local and international poets and musicians for over 5 years. She is the founding member of the Breath In Poetry Collective, home of the 2011 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) championship winning Edmonton Slam Team. Titilope also adds acting to her list of accomplishments, starring as Eki in the Ndani TV hit series, Gidi Up that will air across Africa in 2014.

Even with the soil of continents beneath her feet, the stories that are surer with each passing year, she has not forgotten where it all began. She will tell you it is simple; when your heart is cracked open and a multitude of words begin to leak from your chest, before you stain everything you dare to touch, put it in a poem.

Bulelwa Basse

Bulelwa Basse is the Founder of Lyrical Base Project, an arts and culture organisation which seeks to elevate the profiles of writers from marginalised communities through community-publishing projects and performance poetry (merged with music, dance, visual arts) at cultural and corporate events.

She has collaborated nationally with various arts education institutions and literary establishments, such as Kgare Ya Africa, Centre for the Book, Iziko Museum’s Education Department, Cape Town Language Committee, Artscape Theatre, Badilisha Poetry and the City of Cape Town, in the capacity of Language Facilitator, Published/Performance Poet, Guest Speaker and Events Co-ordinator.

Her writing has been published by the Poetry Institute of Africa, University of KwaZulu Natal Press, Department of Arts and Culture, The British Council and Oprah Magazine.

Basse is passionate about aligning herself with women empowerment projects such as Bona Magazine’s Women Empowerment Club, True Love Magazine’s Winning Style and Move Magazine’s empowerment initiatives, for which she’s both hosted and performed her poetry as a motivational tool.

Bulelwa is former Editor of Muse, an online poetry publishing and profiling magazine, and has earned herself a performance platform on, Poetry Delight, where she’s affectionately known on stage as, Miss “Sassy” Basse, following her satirical poem entitled: My Lyrical Sass, which confronts the societal nature of portraying women as sex-objects.

Her creative and business path has seen her represent her country as an arts and cultural-exchange ambassador in India (Coimbatore and Kerala) and tour the UK (England). But South African stages have always been her favorite arena of her work at play.

Bongiwe Dlamini

Bongiwe Dlamini was born in Swaziland on the 29th of September 1973, and grew up in Simunye in the Lowveld. While in Swaziland, she engaged with people from all parts of the continent and the world; Swaziland was during the 70s and 80s an alternative destination and exile for many due to Apartheid in South Africa. She relocated to Johannesburg in the 90s and began performing professionally as a musician in Johannesburg in 1995.

Whilst living shortly in Italy, she sang in a cruise ship for six months, coming down from Italy, though, Israel, Egypt, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar and South Africa. Bongiwe is a member of the Trio Spirits Indigenous, a Afrocentric musical group that has performed in several spaces in Mbabane, at the Bushfire Festival and at the Grahamstown Cape Town. The other band members are Thobile Magagula and Gcebile Dlamini. Bongiwe has chosen Maputo as her creative base, where she now lives.

Mwalim Morgan Peters

Mwalim (Morgan James Peters) is a Black Wampanoag performing artist, writer, educator and filmmaker. Born in the Bronx, NY and raised in both the Bronx and Mashpee, MA, Mwalim was immersed in the oral traditions of both his Bajan (Barbados) mother and Mashpee Wampanoag father.

Emerging on the east-coast spoken-word scene in the early 1990’s as a storyteller, performance poet and theater artist, Mwalim’s work is known throughout the USA, Canada, the UK and the Caribbean. A contributor to numerous edited volumes and periodicals, Mwalim is the author of one short fiction collection, A Mixed Medicine Bag (2007, Talking Drum Press) and over 25 plays, and several sound recordings. His latest CD, The Liberation Sessions features collaborations with a host of A-List artists. He is a tenured Associate Professor of English and African/ African American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye

Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye is one of the most prolific women writers, not only in Kenya, but also in Africa. She has distinguished herself as a writer of novels, poetry, and children’s stories. She was born in Southampton, England, in 1928 and came to Kenya as a missionary bookseller in 1954. She married D.G.W. Macgoye in 1960 and subsequently integrated into her husband’s extended family and the Luo community. This feature is well manifested in her literary works which have been acknowledged all over the world. Coming to Birth won the Sinclair Prize for fiction in 1986, while Homing In won second place in the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 1985.

Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie

Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is a writer, educator, and performer. She has been a featured speaker at universities, festivals and events throughout Europe and North America. She is the Poetry Editor of the literary magazine African Voices.

Her work  deals with silence, sexism and racism and it has been published in Crab Orchard Review, BOMB, Paris/AtlanticGo, Tell Michelle (SUNY), Listen Up! (One World Ballantine) and Revenge and Forgiveness (Henry Holt). Tallie’s work has been the subject of a short film “I Leave My Colors Everywhere.” Her first collection of poetry, Karma’s Footsteps, was released by Flipped Eye Publishing in September of 2011. She is the recipient of a 2010 Queens Council on the Arts grant for her research on herbalists of the African Diaspora. She has taught literature and composition  at York College and Medgar Evers College in New York City.

Mzi Mahola

Mzi Mahola was born in 1949 as Mzikayise Winston Mahola. Mzi Mahola is his nom de plume. He started writing while he was at school. The Special Branch confiscated his first poetry manuscript in 1976 (That year, South African students rebelled against the government, which cracked down without restraint. Read more about the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Ed.) and he lost interest in writing for twelve years. After this period he started writing again, submitting work successfully to national and international journals, magazines and publications. His work has been published in more than eight anthologies.

His first book with poems is titled Strange Things and was published in 1994 by Snail Press. This volume received positive reviewing and was amongst those to represent South Africa in Geneva in a World Book fare in 1995. There was interest in translating the book into German and Danish, but this has not materialised to date.

His second volume When Rain Comes was published in 2000 by Carapace and won the Olive Schreiner Book prize.

At the moment he is editing and finalizing a semi-biographical novel called The Broken Link.

He has presented papers and given speeches at the National Arts Festival and at other venues for school children. He gives poetry readings for University groups and community projects. Now and then he runs poetry workshops for interested groups of writers.

Mufasa

Mufasa is a spoken word artist, actor and singer born and raised in Kenya. He popped into the spoken word scene after winning a spoken word slam competition. Since then Mufasa has been performing in all major poetry events in Kenya. Raised by a single mother, Mufasa is a passionate performer on stage and hides no emotions when he speaks about his life and disturbing issues in the society.

Mr.rE

Jesu Robert Crentsil aka Mr.rE is a passionate poet from Ghana. He is the founder of mzOne (mOrality zOne), a poetic group/movement in his hometown.

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.”