Sanele Sithole is a passionate poet from Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN), South Africa. Although he’s been writing since the age of 15 his very first performance was in 2011 in Pietermarizburg in KZN. Since then he has performed on many stages across his province. He looks forward to sharing his work with international audiences outside of his province.
Saaleha Idrees Bamjee is an editorial consultant and photographer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is learning how to read and write through Rhodes University’s MA Creative Writing programme.
Quentin “Vercetty” Lindsay is an artist who cares for and knows no boundaries when it comes to his artistic expression. His work includes painting, illustrations, mural works, photography, graphic design and spoken word poetry.
Thus far Quentin has had the opportunity to have his work viewed by well-known and respectable people, including international recording artist K’naan, Melanie Fiona, Kardinal Offishall, The Honorable Jean Augustine and Her Excellency the Right and Honorable Michaëlle Jean.
Believing that art can cause and influence social change Quentin’s artwork and poetry is mainly about uplifting and empowerment through progress and constructive change. Some of Quentin Vercetty’s aspirations are to travel and share his work with different cultures globally, which is how he believes the most artistic growth happens.
Tswarelo Mothobe h.t.b.k.a (Happy To Be Known As) A Scribe Called Tswa is a Bulawayo born and based writer, dramatist and poet.
He has graced the Mlom’Wakho Poetry Slam Stage, The House of Hunger Poetry slam, major local festivals like HIFA, Intwasa, Shoko & Ibumba Arts Festivals and has performed at SANAA in South Africa.
He has also facilitated various writing and performance workshops with school children over the years resulting in new generations of poets being born in Bulawayo. Currently hosting Mlom’Wakho Poetry Slam every month, he is working on his 1st poetry and music project with the working title, Remember and has written and is directing a series of plays.
Tshegofatso Sebitloane better known as “Maikutlo” is a singer, writer and poet from the capital city of the North West in Mafikeng. Poetry and word expression has been and is still a large part of her life. Maikutlo started exploring her passion for poetry and word expression six years ago through the talent development and nurturing programme called Expressions under Lyv Promotions created by Tolamoetlile Kgobokoe aimed at nurturing up and coming artists from all art disciplines. This platform launched her artistic career.
WORKS TO DATE
* In 2007 she worked on Nite of Words – Blood Love which was a Poetry Showcase which went to Grahamstown Arts Festival and later showcased in Mmabana theatre in Mafikeng. The production directed by Modise Ngwato had fresh dose of poetry, comprising of music and writing skills.
* 2008- North west finalist in the Lentswe Poetry Competition
* 2009- featured in Molemi’s Motzamai- Rebel without a pause album under lyv Records track 10 titled Maikutlo A re www.lyv.co.za
* 2010- Performed at the 30th celebration of the North West University Gala dinner with special guests like the Rector Professor Dan Kgwadi and the Alumni of the University from previous years.
* 2011-Took part in the Africa Celebration on the Mmabana Park hosted by the Rastafarian Movement in Mafikeng
* Part of a stage theatre play held in the North West University directed by Kgafela oa Magogodi
* 30 October 2011- Featured in show by Botswana Folklore Artist- Ntirelang Berman hosted at the Mmabana theatre
* 2011- Performed at the Cheese and Wine event hosted by the North West FM radio station
* 4 December 2011- took part as one of the performers in the Art resolve weekend sharing the stage with live performances by Molemi, Quincy K, Kgafela oa Magogodi and Marabele, Mpho ya Badimo former radio presenter of the reggae Show- Moribo wa Raggae.
* 2011- Seta year Closing Gala dinner booked by The Department of Sports Arts and Culture in Mooifoniten
* 13 February 2011- performed at Public Internet Access and Visual impaired library launch- dsac in- Mmabana Taung grounds
* Currently holds the position of vice chairperson of a poetry Group based in the North West University Campus by the name of 5th Groove.
Troydon Wainwright started writing in his late teens to compensate for his dyslexia. Since words were his weakness, he figured, he would work on them until they became his strength.
He’s written a novel that he is currently seeking publication for and a bunch of short stories. He hopes in time to become a professional writer. At present, he works as a facilitator to a disabled student.
He also reads his own poems at various open mic poetry events around Cape Town.
Awards:
1st in Easter Province Inter Schools Sign Writing Contest 1995
3rd SFSA’s Nova Short Story Contest 2009
Runner up in ZigZag’s Surf Magazine’s Reader’s Story 2011
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.
Tina Mucavele is a young Mozambican woman, social activist, writer and a mother of one son. She lives in Maputo, Mozambique, after living in Johannesburg for most of her adolescence and early adulthood.
Her day job is with rural civil society movements, in an attempt to raise consciousness and provide skills for political participation, monitoring of state budgets and quality of social services. In the city, she works with poets and musicians, and is part of the SEM CRITICA MOVEMENT, a performance space created for free artistic expression.
Tina’s poems and short stories are in the editing process, and she hopes to publish a collection of short stories by the end of 2011. Her travels around the African continent, Europe and South America have turned her into a strong Pan-African Citizen, and she loves and advocates for an eclectic African Identity. Tina began seriously writing her poetry in English, given the strong influence of English speaking authors such as Ama Ata Aidoo, Ben Okri, Alice Walker, Ngugi Wa Thiongo amongst other African writers.
However, coming back to Mozambique forced her to learn the Portuguese language as a tool to tell the stories that follow her around like friendly ghosts!
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
Born and bred in Nigeria, Bethel .C. Simeon, a singer, a songwriter, and a preacher, describes himself as “an amalgamation of divers treasures that will retain the stamp of immortality until the call of purpose has been fully answered”.
He earnestly strives to pull down the heinous walls of unacceptable manifestations while entrenching the pillars that aid the actualization of destiny.
B.C. Simeon, a trained journalist and a law student at the University of South Africa, presently resides in Cape Town. He has performed on the church platform to an audience peopled mainly by the youth. He is compiling his first anthology.
Tshepiso Konopi is an academic and Wits Graduate, actor, poet, drama and voice trainer and theatre director. He has been a theatre practitioner for a number of years. Over these years he’s had the opportunity to present his work to a myriad of audiences nationally and internationally. He’s also collaborated with acclaimed artists and academics who have helped to carve his career in the arts.
His interest and focus in theatre has been directed toward developing artists who are skilled enough to compete on national and international platforms. Currently he is involved in the development of an actor training model which concentrates on helping actor peak their performance abilities. With this model he has since produced a number of articles, actors and productions.
Also, he is a Senior Drama Tutor at Mmabana in Mafikeng, a co-founder of Konopi Media – a company that specializes in the production of various media solutions ranging from, publications, audio-visual products to drama based training simulations for sales representatives and managers in the corporate sector.
Tracy K. Smith (born April 16, 1972) is an African-American poet and educator. She has published three collections of poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize for a 2011 collection, Life on Mars.About this collection, Joel Brouwer wrote in 2011: “Smith shows herself to be a poet of extraordinary range and ambition. … As all the best poetry does, Life on Mars first sends us out into the magnificent chill of the imagination and then returns us to ourselves, both changed and consoled.”
Smith is a native of Falmouth, Massachusetts.She was raised in northern California in a family with “deep roots” in Alabama. She received her B.A. from Harvard University in 1994, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 1997. From 1997 to 1999 she was a Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford University. She has taught at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University. In 2005 she joined the faculty of Princeton University, where she is professor of creative writing.
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”.
Uche Uwadinachi also called Flames – Priest of poetry, is a spoken word artist and the author of poetry collection SCAR in the HEART of pain and it’s Spoken Word audio Album.
He is the winner of ANA Lagos (Association of Nigerian Authors) Poetry Performance Festival Prize 2006 and Pakistan June ‘Poetrycraze’ contest 2009. 2nd Prize Poetry Winner of Ken Saro-Wiwa Contest, USA 2010, won the June Loudthotz Poetry contest 2011 and directed the overall winning Poetry performance of district 5 Education Board for the Lagos State Jam Feast Competition 2011, his poems have been published in the ‘Lime Jewel’ collection-London 2010 and other publications. His poetry performances has been seen on Bookshelves-LTV8, 9ja TV, Tinapa Trade Expo 2008, Lagos State Trade Fair EKO-EXPO 20011, Wordslam 1,2,3 & 4, Poetry Potter, Potters Lounge, Anthill, Pen Society among others, presently, he is an independent television presenter with Konto Music and works towards his new spoken-word-rap album titled E’FI MI LE’ joo’or.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shire was born in 1988 in Kenya to Somali parents. She later emigrated to London.
Shire thereafter began writing poetry as a way to connect with her Somali heritage and her roots in Somalia. Her verse first gained notice after her poem “For Women Who Are Difficult to Love” went viral. In 2011, she also released Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth, a poetry pamphlet published by flipped eye.
Shire has read her poetry in various venues throughout the world, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, North America, South Africa and Kenya. Her poems focus on themes of travel and loss, and have been featured in the Poetry Review, Magma, Wasafiri and the Salt Book of Younger Poets. They have also been translated into a number of languages, such as Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
In April 2013, Shire was presented with Brunel University’s inaugural African Poetry Prize, an award earmarked for poets who have yet to publish a full-length poetry collection. She was chosen from a shortlist of six candidates out of a total 655 entries.
In October 2013, Shire was also selected from a shortlist of six young bards as the first Young Poet Laureate for London. The honour is part of the London Legacy Development Corporation’s Spoke programme, which focuses on promoting arts and culture in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the surrounding area.
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Wangari Ngugi is the daughter of the late Ngugi Wa Mirii. She was born in exile in Harare, Zimbabwe and thus goes by the name ‘daughter of exile’. She is inspired to write by her experiences growing up as well as current economic, social and political issues affecting our world today.
She is a passionate performer who hopes to be published by the end of 2011, who is currently working on a book as well as a compilation of her poetry. She has written two poems for the ‘We want Peace’ campaign spear headed by Emmanuel Jal aimed at creating awareness about the need for global action to prevent war in Sudan. Her work can also be found www.myndz-community.com where she blogs occasionally.
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.
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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Zena Edwards is a London-based performance poet, writer and musician. Her vibrant poetry is inspired by her experiences of travel, particularly through Africa, as well as traditional African music and song. She often accompanies her work with mbira, kalimba and marimba (thumb pianos). Zena has performed at WOMAD, The London Jazz Festival, Poetry International at the Royal Festival Hall, The URB Hip Hop Festival (Helsinki), Glastonbury as well as many others.
She has produced two CDs, entitled Healing Pool and Mine 4 Life.
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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 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.
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.