IanJazzi is an accomplished artist and entrepreneur. Multi-talented and traversing many artistic styles and genres, IanJazzi has made significant contributions to Accra’s music and entertainment scene as a musician, producer, spoken word artist, emcee and actor. In addition to his talents in the performing arts, IanJazzi is also successful as a model and businessman.
PAULINATION is an outspoken voice that captures people in passing and makes them listen,he speaks of human experience in different categories revolving around issues faced by society like drugs, sexual abuse and racial tension. He incorporates dramatical aspects mixed with energetic movements and wonderful click sounds into his stories, what makes him different is the lyrical mixture that cuts through the barrier between Zulu and English.
This outspoken storyteller is originally from a group of poets called Nowadays Poets.
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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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).
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'”.
Nigerian-Mancunian Segun is a singer, poet, producer/composer, playwright, film-maker & club promoter, founder member of Manchester’s Speakeasy People poetry collective. As singer for cult triphop band, Earthling, Segun has performed on MTV, BBC1, VH1 & Canal 5.
As a poet and playwright, Segun’s work has been commissioned for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and RadioManchester. Segun’s debut solo show, Bro 9 at Contact Theatre, won Best Fringe Performer & Best Design in the prestigious Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards. In autumn 2005, Segun was nominated for the Arts Foundation Performance Poetry award. Segun’s first poetry collection, Praise Songs for Aliens was published by Suitcase Press in October 2009.
Sandile Dikeni 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.
Samantha Thornhill travels the globe performing poetry, delivering lectures, and facilitating writing workshops. Both a poet and published author, Samantha is a rising voice in the world of words. Her performance poem, Little Odetta, inspired by the late folk legend, is forthcoming from Scholastic Press in the form of a picture book. Also, her young adult novel Seventeen Seasons is soon to be published by Penguin Books.
Samantha earned her Master of Fine Arts in poetry from the University of Virginia while coaching the VA slam team. A sought-after educator, Samantha believes that inside each person exists a lover of words.
In New York City she fulfills her position as poetry professor at the Juilliard School. She also serves as writer in residence at the Bronx Academy of Letters where she teaches creative writing and journalism courses to middle and high school youth.
She presents her work in schools, universities, festivals, conferences, museums, places of worship, and poetry venues.
Raw and refined, diverse in subject matter and style, Samantha relates to a wide spectrum of audiences.
She is a native of Trinidad & Tobago.
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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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.
Sandile Washington Mhlontlo is a published Xhosa poet who was born in Mbinzana, Lady Frere. In 1971 he qualified as a Primary Teacher at Lovedale College. He started teaching in Mbinzana Higher Primary in 1972. In 1976 he was promoted to Headmaster at St. Peters-on-Indwe.
He was ordained Roman Catholic Church Minister in 2001.
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.
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!
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.
Thabiso’s passion of poetry started in 1995 while he was in secondary school. In pursuit to live out his passion, Thabiso travelled from his hometown in Bethlehem in the Free State to Gauteng in 1999. He attended various poetry sessions and workshops during that time, he was eager to learn and grow as a poet. Upon his return he was offered a job at COPAC as Development Arts Office, he was in charge of co-ordinating poetry, drama and dance classes. In 2010 he published his book, I Forsee. Thabiso currently hosts the Mehlodi Poetry Session in Bethlehem.
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”.
Poet, photographer, essayist, Uche Nduka considers the making of poetry the pivotal drive of his life. He attempts to encompass the world physically and spiritually in each poem he writes and in his words “these poems are questions, celebrations, refusals and prayers that hopefully will move from my being to other hearts”. He has several published anthologies and has travelled widely across the USA, Europe and Africa lecturing and presenting his poetry.
Vincent Nwilo who writes under the pseudonym Nwilo Bura-Bari, Vincent was born on the 15th day of September 1987 in Rivers State, Nigeria. He had his formative education in the city of Port Harcourt under harsh conditions – from dilapidated facilities to subhuman living spaces like the violence-ridden Mile 3 and Ogbunabali. He chose poetry and the short-story as mediums for the expression of his anger. Stories from Bori and other Poems, is his first collection of poems. He is the founder of Words Not Swords. He is a screenwriter.
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.
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.
Brian Ernest Walter was born in Port Elizabeth, in 1956. He has taught at Chapman Senior Secondary School in Gelvandale, PE, and at the University of Fort Hare, Alice. For a Rhodes PhD he worked on Sol Plaatje’s use of the romance mode to project a vision that could avert potential tragedy, using cross-cultural knowledge and sympathy to transform (or “translate”, to use Bottom’s word) tragic unkindness into a more human, moral understanding.
Currently he works on educational and community development projects. With the poet Alvené du Plessis, he mentors the Helenvale Poets in Port Elizabeth, and has assisted them with two publications, Uitsig, and Tussen Strate. His books include Groundwork: An Introduction to Reading and Writing about Poetry (1997), which he wrote with Felicity Wood. His poetry collections are Tracks (in which the poem Bushveld appears), Baakens (2000), and Mousebirds (2008). He works with the informal Ecca group of poets, and published in local journals: Unfinshed was published in New Contrast, and Otherwise in Botsotso.
He has won the 1999 Thomas Pringle Award for poetry published in journals and the 2000 Ingrid Jonker Prize for Tracks.