G.O is a Cape Town based poet who has performed at places such as Touch of Madness, Tagore’s, and Zula Sound Bar. He has appeared on Bush Radio, UCT Radio and Vibe Radio. He has been published in IAM Magazine, Zazi Magazine and IMBO Online Magazine.
He coaches a poetry team called Word of Mouth that won an entry to compete in the Annual Brave New Voices Slam Poetry Competition in the United States.
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Evans Nganga is a Kenyan contemporary artist, dancer, poet, yoga instructor and beadwork craftsman who concentrates on performing arts based on African traditions and modern art. The past few years have included months of varied art projects, workshops and performances with both local and international artists, choreographers and dancers and travel for research and performances.
He has received his artistic academic training through open forums, seminars and self study, while practical training included dance workshops and apprenticeship receiving instructions in choreography and electronic media at the tertiary level. Evans has choreographed a Solo Dance Piece titled the poem performed at Encounters from Africa festival, the annual festival of solos and duests at Goethe Institute in Nairobi and Dance Week in Kampala, Uganda.
Epiphanie Mukusano is originally from Rwanda where she used to be a teacher. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature and now lives as a refugee in Cape Town with her husband and children.
Her poems have been published in Living on the Fence (2007) a collection of writing by women who are refugees from various countries in Africa. Epiphanie contributed When a name is lost to the collection of birth stories Just keep breathing (Jacana, 2008) and Cambridge University Press has published her children’s story Shema and the goat (2009). Epiphanie’s poem comes from her first poetry collection Kilimanjaro on my lap.
Known by her stage name Es Taa, Esther Karin Mngodo is a Tanzanian poet based in Dar Es Salaam. At the age of 10 she was encouraged by her mother to join the choir, which she did. As the youngest member at the time, Es Taa started off as a Saprano and later on as an Alto. She recently discovered her Tenor voice in a band that ahe has been part of since 2006. Not only is the 26 year old a poet and a musician, but a journalist, a storyteller, a playwright, a social worker, a song composer and a woman passionate about her faith in God.
In 2011 she co-wrote a Musical Move: The Time is Now that was staged at The National Museum Theatre in Dar Es Salaam. She recently performed her original poems at The Smart Partnership Dialogue Meeting held in Dar es Salaam that was attended by Commonwealth Heads of States and different dignitaries.
Using her own life experience, Es Taa’s passion is to unearth matters that people would rather not talk about openly, to bring healing through authentic lyrics that have been birthed through her own pain, mistakes and the quest of life’s purpose. She also seeks to use art as a tool of social change by addressing issues of human rights and social justice in a way that people can relate to.
Erin Bosenberg is a multi-disciplinary media and performance artist living in Cape Town. She has an Advanced Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from Humber College (Canada), where she received several awards for radio production and magazine writing. She also has a BFA, majoring in media arts, from NSCAD University.
Her art engages predominantly with place, identity, and bodily experience. She has contributed to numerous group shows, and has also had two solo gallery performances: While I Was Walking (2006) and Gestures for Longing (2008). She recently completed a residency with YEMOYA.
Multi-talented writer, poet, actor, media personality Eric Miyeni’s third and latest offering Mandingo! A Poetic Journey with Eric Miyeni, has been described as honest, raw and compelling. It follows the success of O!Mandingo!, The only black at a dinner party and O!Mandingo! Before Mandela was Mandela, which were launched following the phenomenal response to his e-zine. The work of Soweto-born Miyeni centres on black pride, black strength, black unity and black prosperity.
Oluwadolapo meaning “The Lord has poured (things of) substance together” is an embodiment of her name. Her poetry speaks of her inner experiences, either thought out or lived through. She writes in the hope that her words connect with another’s inner self and begins a deep inner reflection that will cause lasting change from the individual to the entire world.
Dolapo’s spoken word delivery has been described as theatrical and deeply moving. Applying her background in music, dance and stage acting into her live performances, she does not resemble one who only began this genre of artistry in August, 2010.
Born to yoruba parents as Oluwadolapo Ebunoluwapo Ogunwale in the city of Lagos, she hopes to find listening ears and open hearts on the world stage.
Deza is a 26 year old South African male, who has been in love with poetry since his formative years.
Dumisani Slinger is a spoken word artist, writer and performer who hails from the dusty streets of KwaZakhele, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
His love for all things poetic stemmed from his passion for hip-hop. A friend introduced him to the world of poetry & he hasn’t looked back since.
His ferocious delivery and clever wordplay draw the audience in as he continuously drops hard facts on topics ranging from socio-political issues right down to the struggle to know thy self. Like many a writer, his poetry is sometimes inspired by the literature he consumes and also by the toil of life.
He has performed on various stages and platforms in and around PE and has even made an appearance on BayTV. The highlight of his journey in poetry came in 2012 when he was chosen, along with 3 other poets, to facilitate a workshop on Poetry & Creative Writing, which was held at the Red Location Museum during National Book Week.
Using the power of the spoken word, the young man aims to inform, inspire & change perceptions.
Diana Ferrus was born in Worcester in 1953 and completed her high school career in 1972. She completed a postgraduate degree in Women’s and Gender studies at the University of the Western Cape where she works as an administrator in the Dept of Industrial Psychology.
Diana is a writer, poet, performance poet and story-teller. Her work in both Afrikaans and English has been published in various collections and some serve as prescribed texts for high school learners. Her publishing house, Diana Ferrus Publishers has published various publications including her first Afrikaans collection of poetry, Ons Komvandaan. Diana co-edited and published a collection of stories about fathers and daughters, Slaan vir my ‘n masker, Vader in 2006. The mission of her publishing company is to publish writers from previously disadvantaged communities. Her company in association with the University of the Western Cape has published life stories of three former activists and unionists namely, Liz “Nana” Abrahams, Zollie Malindi and Archie Sibeko. These publications contain rich material about South Africa’s past and some are prescribed texts at the University of the Western Cape.
She is a founder member of the Afrikaanse Skrywersvereniging (ASV), Bush Poets (all women poets) and Women in Xchains (grassroots women writers).
Diana has attended numerous literary festivals locally and abroad. In 2006 she performed her poetry at the Klein Karoo Kunstefees with the Mamela band. They received a Kanna-award for the best contemporary music. At this very festival Diana received a Kanna-award for her contribution to Afrikaans.
However Diana Ferrus is internationally known and acclaimed for the poem that she wrote for the indigenous South African woman Sarah Bartmann who was taken away from her country under false pretences and paraded as a sexual freak in Europe.
Diana’s work has had and still has a bearing and influence on matters of race, gender, class and reconciliation. She is popular amongst South Africans of all race groups. She believes in her country’s future and works tirelessly for her people’s emancipation from racial, sexual and class exploitation as well as reconciliation.
A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Desiree has lived in New York for over 13 years. Still, the Caribbean will never leave her.
She believes that the written and spoken word can set fire to the positive action and social change that is waiting in our bones.
Chirikure Chirikure was born in Gutu, Zimbabwe, in 1962. He is a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe and an Honorary Fellow of Iowa University, USA. He currently lives in Berlin, Germany, as a fellow under the 2011/12 DAAD Berliner Kunstlerprogramm (Artists in Berlin Programme). He also works as a performance poet and cultural consultant.
He worked with one of Zimbabwe’s leading publishing houses as an editor/publisher for 17 years, until 2002. After working as a consultant for a while, he went on to work for an international development agency as a programme officer for culture, for Southern Africa, based in Harare, until April 2011.
Chirikure has published the following volumes of his poetry: Rukuvhute (1989, College Press, Harare); Chamupupuri (1994, College Press, Harare); Hakurarwi – We Shall not Sleep (1998, Baobab Books, Harare) and Aussicht Auf Eigene Schatten (Shona and English poems with German translations) (2011, Afrika Wunderhorn, Heidelberg, Germany).
He has also contributed some pieces in a number of poetry anthologies, including Zviri Muchinokoro (2005, ZPH Publishers), Intwasa Poetry (2008, AmaBooks Publishers), Schicksal Afrika (ed. Horst Kohler) (2010, Rowohlt Verlag), No Serenity Here – An Anthology of African Poetry in Chinese, (2010 Moonchu Foundation).
His poetry has been translated into a number of languages. He has also written and translated a number of children’s stories and educational books.
Chirikure’s first three poetry books received first prizes in the annual Zimbabwe writer of the year awards. His first volume, Rukuvhute, also received an Honorable Mention in the Noma Awards for Publishing in Africa, in 1990. His other book, Hakurarwi – We Shall not Sleep, was selected as one of the 75 Best Zimbabwean Books of the 20th Century in a competition ran by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in 2004. In that competition the same book got a prize as one of the best five Shona publications of the 20th Century.
Chirikure performs his poetry solo and/or with DeteMbira mbira music ensemble. With DeteMbira, they recorded an album of poetry and music, Napukeni (2002, Tuku Music/ZMC). He regularly performs and tours with musician Chiwoniso Maraire, with whom he has recorded an album of poetry with mbira music, Chimanimani .
With support from family and friends, he has also recorded an album of his poetry with contemporary music, Chisina Basa (2011, Metro Studios Harare/Inyasha Studios UK).
He has also written lyrics for a number of leading Zimbabwean musicians and he occasionally performs and has recorded with some of these musicians.
He has also contributed lyrics, translations and voice-overs in films and documentaries, and has acted in some theatre productions. He has also been an occasional contributor to the print media and used to run a radio programme for young Shona writers.
Over the years, Chirikure has participated in several international festivals, fairs, conferences and symposiums, as a performer, speaker or resource person.
Performance poet, Koleka Putuma, is based in Cape Town and currently pursuing a degree in Theatre and Performance at the University of Cape Town. She facilitates and hosta writing and dialogue workshops at schools, community projects and interfaith programs in and around Cape Town.
She has headlined at SliPnet’s Inzync Poetry Sessions, JamThat Session and at Off The Wall. She is a resident poet of the collective Lingua Franca. In 2012 she took second place in the Cape Town leg of the Drama for Life Lover + Another National Performance Poetry Slam Competition and represented the city at the national finals.
Her work has travelled to Scotland and New York.
Camille T. Dungy is author of Suck on the Marrow (Red Hen Press, 2010) and What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison (Red Hen Press, 2006), a finalist for the PEN Center USA 2007 Literary Award and the Library of Virginia 2007 Literary Award.
She is editor of Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (University of Georgia Press, 2009), coeditor of From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great (Persea, 2009) and assistant editor of Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade (University of Michigan Press, 2006).
Dungy has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Cave Canem, the Dana Award, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Once the Writer-in-Residence at Rocky Mountain National Park, Dungy has also been awarded fellowships and residencies by The Corporation of Yaddo, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Norton Island/Eastern Frontier Society, and the Ragdale Foundation.
A graduate of Stanford University and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro’s MFA Program, Dungy is currently Associate Professor in the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University. Her poems have been published widely in anthologies and print and online journals.
Hale Tsehlana is the Faculty Advisor for the Stellenbosch University Poetry Society, which she assisted to establish. She is a published poet and has read and performed her poetry in and around South Africa, India, Germany, UK and South Korea. Her collection titled Poems and Songs from the Mirea was relaunched in August 2007 at a special celebration for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions hosted by the South Africa National Library for the Blind in Grahamstown and it has been published in Braille and Audio. In the face of current debates on multiculturalism and multilingualism in South Africa, this book takes a multimedia and multilingual approach to poetry with English, Afrikaans and Sesotho poems. The book encourages local writers to reach out to marginalized communities who may not be able to read and write; hence it is made into Braille.
She recently translated a children’s book Phapo’s Gift that will be suitable for use in primary schools. She is featured in Ink@ boilingpoint, a collection of poems and essays by women from the Southern tip of Africa, (2004) 2nd edition. Voices from the Free State (2004), an anthology of Prose, Verse & Creative Articles by Indigenous Women and Youth of the Free State Province, and Basadzi Voices, an anthology of poetic writing by young black South African Women, published in 2006 by University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. Hale Tsehlana was selected to attend the November 2007 Asia Africa Literature Festival in Jeonju South Korea and in May 2008 she represented South Africa as one of the 20 young writers selected world wide to participate in the Seoul Young Writers Festival. In 2009, she presented the Words on Water Festival – Stellenbosch Satellite event sponsored & co-hosted by the by the Indian Consulate Cape Town Office & Stellenbosch International office.
Austin Bukenya is best-known as a pioneering scholar in the discipline of oral literature, to which he and his teacher, Pio Zirimu, gave the now popular label, orature.
Born in Masaka, Southern Uganda, in 1944, he went to high schools around Kampala and Entebbe and was a first-class graduate of the University of East Africa (Dar es Salaam) in 1968. He also studied at universities in Madagascar and England, and took his higher degrees at Makerere and Kenyatta Universities.
He has taught languages, literature and drama at Makerere University in Uganda and universities in the UK, Tanzania and Kenya since the late 1960s. He has also held residences at universities in Rwanda and Germany. Bukenya is also a literary critic, novelist, poet and dramatist. An accomplished stage and screen actor, he was for several years Director of the Creative and Performing Arts Centre at Kenyatta University, Nairobi.
Antjie Krog was born and grew up in the Free State. She became editor of the Afrikaans current-affairs magazine Die Suid-Afrikaan and later worked as a radio journalist covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, all the while writing extensively for newspapers and journals. She and her radio colleagues received the Pringle Award for excellence in journalism for their coverage of the Commission hearings, from which came the best known of her three non-fiction books, Country of My Skull.
She has won major awards in almost all the genres and media in which she has worked: poetry, non-fiction and translation. But, mainly, she has lived as a poet. Krog’s first volume of poetry was published when she was seventeen years old and she has since released thirteen volumes of poetry and received among others the Eugène Marais Prize, the Hertzog Prize, the FNB Prize, the Protea Prize, and, for non-fiction, the Alan Paton Prize and the Olive Schreiner Award. She has also been a recipient of the Stockholm Award from the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture and the Open Society Prize. She is married to architect John Samuel.
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.
Ama is a young lady born and based in Accra, Ghana. She loves other creative disciplines but writing is a deeply-rooted passion of hers. Writing is her safe haven, writing is her lifeline.
Afurakan, is the crown prince of Johannesburg’s underground slam poetry.
He is best known for his stage improvisations on hip-hop tunes. His style has caught the attention of many slam poets and and writers across Africa with its rhythm and provocative nature.
This is a poet who can cipher with god – and while celebrating the fact that “Blaq people rock” also writes for the miners who beat rock all their lives, for everything that is “less”.
His activity within Jozi’s poetry movement can be traced back to the “So where to” poetry events, and his work with the poetry collective Soul 2 Mouth, among others.
Afurakan has played a vital role in the growth of the spoken word movement in Johannesburg and indeed South Africa; and he’s a regular at schools and community centres, performing for the purpose of spreading the word.
http://muse.book.co.za/blog/2009/10/15/booked-muse-afurakan/
Afurakan is a founding member of THEMISSINGAP, a three piece rhythm and poetry outfit alongside beat box legend _BlastTheHumanBeat and DJ Duce.
TheMissingGap currently host and promote the popular WORD N SOUND BASSLINE SERIES a monthly open mic and talent showcase platform.
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].
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.
Ingrid Andersen was born in Johannesburg, read for a degree in English literature and film and theatre criticism at Wits, has a Masters degree and is presently completing her PhD. Her work has been published in poetry journals for nearly two decades. Excision, her first volume of poetry, was published in 2004 and her second, Piece Work, was published by Modjaji Books in September 2010.
Her influences include the French Romantic poets, Imagism, Ted Hughes and the writings of Basho. She is the founding editor of Incwadi, a South African journal that explores the interaction between poetry and image.
Andersen’s work has been published in local literary journals including Imprint, Slugnews, Carapace, Green Dragon, Botsotso, Incwadi and New Coin, online in LitNet, Peony Moon and Ink, Sweat and Tears as well as internationally. Her work has been anthologized in collections as well as included in English setworks. She presented her work at WordFest at the National Arts Festival in 2004 and 2005, as well as at the Hilton Arts Festival in 2009. She contributed the libretto for a musical which was staged twice in the early ’90s. Her creative writing workshops focus on allowing creativity to overcome disabling self-critique.
Ingrid worked as a theatre publicist in the 1980s, the days of political protest theatre, at the Market Theatre and PACT, amongst others, working with some fascinating people.
As South Africa began to rebuild after the first democratic elections, she became active in community activism and development, at The Salvation Army Territorial Headquarters, as CEO of the Rosebank Homeless Association and then as Community Engagement Manager at Rhodes University. She co-ordinated the Pietermaritzburg Anti-Xenophobia Coalition during 2008-2009. She worked thereafter for the Centre for Adult Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and presently is General Manager of the Midlands Meander. Ingrid celebrates her tenth anniversary of ordination as an Anglican priest this year. She works in healing and reconciliation ministry. She was nominated for Rhodes University Amnesty International ‘Woman of the Year’ in 2007 and is a member of the Golden Key Society.
Ingrid has lived most of her life in Johannesburg, worked in Grahamstown for five years and relocated to the KwaZulu–Natal Midlands in 2007. She lives with a two cherished cats, Dickens and Catriona.
Poetic Pilgrimage are an exciting female Hip Hop and spoken word duo from the UK who are set to take the world by storm with their unique sound, intelligent lyrics and unparalleled charisma. They are a rare act, being one of the few Muslim female outfits around and are unafraid to express themselves through the art of rhyme.
Poetic Pilgrimage brings a refreshing perspective on issues of identity, immigration, and global politics and as one of the very few Muslim, female Hip Hop acts in the world, their music reflects this unique experience. The world has much to learn from the lyrics of these two women.
Muneera Rashida and Sukina Abdul Noor were both born in Bristol to Jamaican parents, and have been performing together as Poetic Pilgrimage for 6 years. The early part of their career saw them as favorites on the London poetry circuit where they performed alongside some of the biggest names, placing them at the forefront of the fast-growing International Muslim Hip Hop scene. They use their music to unite their community with the greater hip-hop and music scene.
Their musical goals are to make progressive Hip Hop music that fuses their African and Caribbean roots with their musical tastes such as Jazz, Afrobeat, Soul and beyond, providing a creatively comparable backdrop to their message of peace, unity and freedom.
The group has toured all over Europe and the United States and have performed alongside artists such as Talib Kweli from the USA, K’naan from Somalia and Mutabaruka from Jamaica. They have received critical acclaim and press coverage from many of Europe’s most notable publications.
Whether helping youth learn to write heartfelt poetry, or rapping at the most male-dominated Hip Hop venues, Poetic Pilgrimage has become one of the most well-known and well-respected Muslim hip-hop crews in the world.
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.
On stage he is known as Mista Poke. At 24, he is the youngest member of the Poetavango Collective. Mista Poke was born and bred in the village of Maun, Botswana. He studied accounting and business management.
Mista Poke wrote his first poem when he was 16 years old. His main influence came from listening to the music and poetry of the South African Mzwakhe Mbuli. He is a fanatic of African indigenous ways of life, and when he writes his poetry, his pan-African views and inclinations can be seen. He also writes heavily on socio-political issues.
Mista Poke is a spirited and energetic performer with a voice a highly commanding voice. He has performed in various public activities in his home town of Maun. He also performed at all Poetavango shows including the international poetry festivals.
Multi-award winning poet, playwright and performance artist, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers is a graduate of the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris. Her poetry ranges from the private to the political, exploring matters serious, satirical and sensual. She has a prolific portfolio of national and international stage and television productions. Taller than Buildings is first collection of poetry.
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Rantoloko ‘The Truth’ Molokoane is a writer from the unknown township of Tumahole in the Free State, South Africa. He went to Primary School at Botjhabatsatsi Intermediate until grade 4, and then changed schools to Hendrik van der Bijl in Vanderbijl Park where he completed his grade 7. He matriculated in 2003 from Suiderlig High School. He has an S4 in Chemical engineering and is currently studying for his BA with Unisa.
He is the author of Read, Write Dreams Into Life published in August 2011. Read, Write Dreams Into Life is Rantoloko Molokoane’s debut literary text. It is the culmination of a decade of writing. The book is a collection of poems and prose writing that carry his signature view of the world in which reality is not only viewed at face value, but holistically. This view is the foundation of his philosophy that reality isn’t as rigid as it is deemed, as most of what we experience is the creation of men. The book deals with reality in its creation paradigm and not its existent paradigm, so as to provide the reader with the confidence to face their realities however diverse.
For a decade now he has been practicing his craft, nurturing it and learning ways to better tell the Afrikan story. In two thousand and one he turned his mind away from academics and began to observe human behavior in all its absurdity and from there the writing began. In 2008 he quit his job after finding himself immersed in unending depression because of a lack of utilization of his mind which led to extreme drinking. Since then he has been working tirelessly at his writing. Now with only a few years passed he has expanded from merely just writing poetry to even fiction novel (still being written). His work has been featured on One-2’s album ‘Microphone blank cheqk and on Inaudible poetry’s ‘Comprehension’ compilation. Besides writing he has horned in on his experience of performing poetry for seven years to produce edgy performances that shatter limitations with their fusion of enactment and poetry so as to bring life to poetry. He has performed around Gauteng tertiary institutions like VUT where he was exposed to the world of performing; TUT, NWU, UJ and at venues like Cramers coffee at Balladry composition’s poetry shows. He has also had the pleasure of performing at the Word N Sound Series hosted by Afurakan at the Bassline coming second on two occasions and at the KPN session held at Market Theatre Lab hosted by Jefferson Tshabalala. He has performed alongside some of the greatest poets like Romeo the poet, Inaudible poetry, and Quaz, and musical talents such as The Soil and Travellin Blak.
His writing is driven by the rich spiritual heritage of Afrika and the immense creativity that lies in the depth of its heritage. Driven by that he has found ways of writing material that awakens all to the realization that what we deem to be reality is but a mere fragment of a bigger reality that exists where creation moulds what we finally see. Adamant that imagination is the key to breaking the bondages that anchor us in a reality that seeks to diminish us into the confines of a reality of those who have learnt to use creation to their bidding, he writes awe-inspiring image centred writing that challenges the reality that Afrikans are faced with by exposing the hidden boundaries of what is. A strong believer in the quest to findings ways of celebrating Afrikan indigenous knowledge systems so as to once again instil pride in the Afrikan, especially the one battling with a township reality that instils despair in the minds of the Afrikan.
‘More than a writer I am a mere township boy who read to the point of seeing beyond the blinding surface of all.’
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.