Loftus Marais

South Africa No Comments

The work of Paarl born poet and publicist, Loftus Marais is visual and ironic, rebelling against a traditional Afrikaans poetry, while also acknowledging the handed-down Afrikaans belief in the poet as craftsman, in the importance of formal, structural and musical elements. This makes his poetry a complex modulation of a voice that is both lyrical and bitter, sombre and comical, nostalgic and ultra-contemporary. After being published in several anthologies, his debut collection of poems, Staan in die algemeen nader aan vensters, was published to high acclaim.

Lionel Murcott

South Africa No Comments

Lionel Murcott was born in 1947 in the (then) Northern Transvaal. He studied at Natal University and the Johannesburg Art Foundation. He is a practicing artist who has taught art most of his adult life. His poems have been published in various magazines and books, notably the poetry CD Purple Light Mirror in the Mud, 5 Poetry, and A Private Part.

Linda Gabriel

Zimbabwe No Comments

Linda Gabriel, born in 1985, is one of the crop of exciting female performance poets to emerge out of Zimbabwe. Bilingual, her linguistic versatility is forged into brilliant poems written in either English or Shona, depending on which language effectively expresses what issue. She started performing poetry in high school and has since participated in major literary events in Zimbabwe, the rest of southern Africa and Europe.

Solo Performances

* Cup O Thought, Durban- South Africa, September 2012
* Sanna Africa Festival, Johannesburg ñSouth Africa, May 2012
* Cheukwa fashion show, Harare ñ Zim, May 2012
* Bluntfyre Spoken Word Session, Blantyre – Malawi, Feb 2012
* Blantyre Arts Festival, Blantyre- Malawi, Oct 2011
* Kinshasa Platform of Performing Arts, Kinshasa- DRC, July 2011
* Lilongwe International Arts Festival, Lilongwe ñ Malawi, May 2011
* Super Woman Fest, Lilongwe-Malawi, March 2011
* My World Images Festival, Denmark, September 2010
* BAS ROOTS live performance project, Johannesburg -South Africa, 2010
* Sistaz Open Mic Joburg, Johannesburg – South Africa, 2010
* Dennis Brutus Memorial concert, Johannesburg -South Africa, 2010
* House of Hunger Poetry Slam Joburg, Johannesburg – South Africa, 2009-current
* Arts Alive, Johannesburg -South Africa, 2007, 2009, 2011
* Jozi Spoken Word Festival, Johannesburg – South Africa, 2008, 2009
* Harare International Festival of Arts, Harare – Zimbabwe, 2007,2009,2011,2012
* House of Hunger Jozi , Johannesburg ñ South Africa, 2009 ñ current
* Thuba Lethu/Our Time Youth festival, Harare -Zimbabwe, 2009
* Make Some Noise gigs, Johannesburg – South Africa, 2008
* Freedom for media in Zimbabwe Concert, Graham’s Town -South Africa, 2007
* British Council’s Power in the Voice, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Lusaka, Zambia, 2007
* House of Hunger Poetry Slam Zimbabwe, 2005 ñ Current

Collaborated With

* Myesha Jenkins, Natalia Molebatsi, Lebo Mashile, Khanyi Magubane, Khosi Xaba and Phillippa Yaa De Villers in a theatrical poetry show – Body of Words, South Africa, 2010
* Edmond Nhamoinesu – Zimbabwean Visual Artist, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2010
* Tammy Gore – Zimbabwean Pianist, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2010
* Stanley Masona – Zimbabwean Guitarist, Harare, Zimbabwe, 2009
* Christopher Mlalazi, Zimbabwean Writer and Poet, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 2007
* Papa Zai – Zambian Reggea Artist, Lusaka, Zambia, 2007
* Ticha Muzavazi, Zimbabwea poet and Mbira player, Harare, Zimbabwe, 2007
* Takunda Mafika, Zimbabwean Vocalist and Mbira Player, Harare, Zimbabwe 2007
* Akiko Nakamura, Japanese Pianist and Mbira Player, Harare, Zimbabwe, 2007
* Morgen Gomwe – Zimbabwean Pianist, Harare , 2007 – 2012
* Upmost – Zimbabwean Poet, Harare, 2007
* Finuala Dowling – South African Poet, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2007
* Samantha R Thornhill – US based poet, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2007
* Tawanda Chamisa – Zimbabwean Hip Hop artist, Harare, 2007
* Stanley O Kenani – Malawian poet at HIFA, Harare, 2007

Shared Stage With

* Dudu Manhenga – Zimbabwean Afro Jazz Diva
* Chiwoniso Maraire – Zimbabwean Chimurenga Soul Diva
* Cde Fatso – Zimbabwean Poet
* Outspoken – Zimbabwean Poet/Hip hop artist
* Ethel Kabwato – Zimbabwean Poet/Writter
* Batsirai Chigama – Zimbabwean Poet/Writter
* Victor Mavedzenge – Zimbabwean Poet/Writter/Comedian/fine artist
* Blessing Musariri – Zimbabwean Poet/Writter
* Chirikure Chirikure – Zimbabwean Poet/Writter
* Albert Nyathi – Zimbabwean Poet/Musician
* Mzwake Mbuli – South African Poet
* Gcina Mhlope – South African Story teller
* Napo Masheane – South African Poet
* Ringo Madlingozi – South African Musician
* Phillippa Yaa De Villers – South African
* Poet/Writter
* Flo – South African Poet
* Lebo Mashile – South African Poet
* Natalia Molebatsi – South African Poet/Writer
* Khanyi Magubane – South African Poet
* Khosi Xaba – South African Poet
* Khethi – South African Poet/Musician
* Finuala Dowling – South African Poet
* Damon Berry – South African Poet
* The Lazarusman – South African Poet
* Mutabaruka – Jamaican Poet
* Samantha Thornhill – Trinidad/US Poet
* Zeena Edwards – UK Poet
* Antonio Lyons- US Poet/Musician/Dancer
* Myesha Jenkins – US Poet
* Charlie Dark – UK Poet
* Papa Zai – Zambian Poet/Musician
* Stanley O Kenani – Malawian Poet/Writter

Liam Kruger

South Africa No Comments

Liam Kruger is a 22-year-old writer and student living in Cape Town South Africa.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Legodile “Dredd X” Seganabeng

Botswana No Comments

Legodile Seganabeng hails from the village of Tonota, Botswana. Seganabeng is a recorded poet, spoken word performer, published writer, guitarist and fine artist.

His interest in writing began during his high school days. He holds a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Fine Art from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He also holds a Diploma in Creative Writing. He is currently a senior secondary school teacher of Art & Design with specialties in printmaking, photography and graphics. As a freelance writer, he has published several articles in local and international newspapers and magazines.

Seganabeng is founder and chairperson of the Maun based Poetavango Spoken Word Poetry movement. With his Poetavango team, he has brought to the country an annual poetry and literature gala dubbed the Maun International Poetry Festival. In 2010, he won the Bessie Head Literature Award in the short story category. The book, The Moon has Eyes and Other Stories was published in 2011 by Pentagon Publishers, Botswana. On performance stages, Seganabeng is known exclusively as Dredd X. His poetry album, Poetic Mediations, is due for release soon.

Other than performances in local festivals, Seganabeng performed at the Jozi Spoken Word Fest in 2008, Johannesburg. Before then, he regularly performed with the Timbila collective in Johannesburg between 2002 and 2004. Alongside a renowned South African poet Zwesh Fi Kush, Dredd X has performed at the Oppikoppi Festival in Pretoria 2003. He also curtain raised for the Jamaican poet Mutabaruka and was part of a symposium facilitated by Linton Kwesi Johnson (UK) and Jessica Care Moore (USA) in Newtown, South Africa, in 2005.

In early 2012, his poem Effects of Goodbye was featured, alongside poems by 13 other Batswana poets, in a prestigious literary journal, Prairie Schooner, a publication out of the University of Nebraska.

Laud de Poet

Ghana No Comments

Laud de Poet is a contemporary poet from Ghana who resides in Tema. His real name is Laud Kweku Halm-Quartey affectionately addressed as Laud de Poet or Ldp. A Pan-African, Ldp is a poet and a poetry promoter.

He is also the founder of modeconceptz, an association that supports anything about poetry and the elements of poetry.

Lolani Kalu

Kenya No Comments

Lolani Kalu is a veteran Kenyan journalists, multi-linguist, musician, actor and comedian and Swahili poet. As a Journalist he has had a rare opportunity of interacting with Kenya’s diverse and rich arts and culture.

Lolani is the founder of Safari47.org, which was established as a way to identify, nurture and develop raw talent identified in 47 counties of Kenya.

Lloyd Akin Palmer

Jamaica No Comments

“avenging spirit of the ancestors”

A humble son of the garden parish of St. Ann, Lloyd Palmer born of hardworking rural folks. A mother who is a social worker and an industrious father who tills the soil profusely. Akin grew up in southern Trelawny attending the William knibb memorial high where he was involved in school and community cultural activities.
Such an experience has helped to groom and mold Akin into pursuing the arts as his chosen profession as a poet and a musician. Akin sees poetry as a holistic therapy to spiritually likewise socially uplift humanity. The poet/musician’s role is to express the thoughts, emotion, plight and concerns of the masses. Majority of whom are grassroots people facing inequality and needs a voice to utter for justice, truths and rights.
In 2005 he was the 2nd Runner Up in the 7th Annual Writers’ Award, while in 2007 he was 1st Runner Up in the 9th Annual Writers’ Award. He debuted with his album Tuff Tuff Triangle Urban Journey in 2005 as well as performed in Jus’ Poets, a series of poetry shows which was organized with other poets such as Elaine Thomas-Gifford, Bill Blast and I-Sense in 1994.
Currently working to publish his debut book of poetry SANKOFA. Also preparing for the release of his bands’ “The Uprising Roots Band” debut album SKYFIYA.

Linda Kaoma

South Africa No Comments

Linda Kaoma is a writer, poet and a B.Com graduate from the University of Cape Town. She has been with the Art Africa Centre for four years and project manager for Badilisha Poetry X-change for three years.

In 2013 she performed in Amsterdam at the Afro Vibes Festival alongside Dutch poet Babs Gons in a poetic production entitled “Becoming Another, Becoming you”.

She is also the founder and editor of Unbranded Truth Online Magazine (www.unbrandedtruth.com), an online magazine that serves as a catalyst for self-acceptance and self-evolution.

She has contributed to various publications and continues to freelance.

Liesl Jobson

South Africa No Comments

Liesl Jobson is a Cape Town writer, musician and photographer. Her poetry and prose has appeared in various journals and anthologies in South Africa and internationally. She edits Poetry International, South Africa and teaches poetry online at the SA Writers College. She works for BOOK SA, as a literary journalist, where she also blogs periodically. She is the author of 100 Papers, a collection of prose poems and flash fiction, and View from an Escalator, a book of poems, both published by Botsotso.

Lemn Sissay

Ethiopia United Kingdom No Comments

LEMN SISSAY MBE is associate artist at Southbank Centre, patron of The Letterbox Club and The Reader Organisation, ambassador for The Children’s Reading Fund, trustee of Forward Arts Foundation and inaugural trustee of World Book Night and an honorary doctor of Letters. He has been a writer from birth and foremost he is a poet. 

Lemn is author of a series of books of poetry alongside articles, records, broadcasts, public art, commissions and plays. Sissay was the first poet commissioned to write for London Olympics. His Landmark Poems are installed throughout Manchester and London. They can be seen in The Royal Festival Hall and The Olympic Park. His Landmark Poem,Guilt of Cain, was unveiled by Bishop Desmond Tutu in Fen Court near Fenchurch St Station.

Sissay’s installation poem what if was exhibited at The Royal Academy alongside Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley. It came from his Disko Bay Expedition  to the Arctic alongside  Jarvis Cocker, Laurie Anderson, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Leslie Feist and  KT Tunstall.  His  21st century poem was released on multi-million award winning album Leftism by Leftfield.  A violin concerto performed at The BBC by Viktoria Mullova was inspired by  Lemn Sissay’s poem Advice For The Living.

Sissay’s award winning play Something Dark directed by National Theatre of Wales artistic director John McGrath has been performed throughout the world  and his stage adaptation of Benjamin Zephaniah’s Novel Refugee Boy at West Yorkshire Playhouse tours Britain in 2014.  A BBC  TV documentary, Internal Flight , and a radio documentary, Child of the State,  were both broadcast about his life and his Ted Talk has close to a million views. His documentary on the late  Gil Scott Heron was the first pubic announcement of Scott-Heron’s comeback album.

Sissay describes dawn in one tweet every day. His Morning Tweets. One Morning Tweet  became an award winning building MVMNT Café commissioned by Cathedral group designed and built by Supergroup’s  Morag Myerscough. It is the only building in the world built below a tweet. Cathedral also  commissioned a Landmark Poem,  Shipping Good,  which will be laid into the streets of Greenwich.

He was the first  Black Writers Development Worker in the North of England.  He created and established Cultureword (part of Commonword) where Sissay developed supported and published many new writers who’ve gone on to a life of creativity.  Sissay received an MBE from The Queen  for services to literature and an honorary doctorate from University of Huddersfield who run The Sissay Scholarship for care leavers: It is the first of its kind in the UK.

The Guardian newspaper heralded the arrival of his first book Tender Fingers In A Clenched Fist. “Lemn Sissay has Success written all over his forehead”. He was 21. Between the ages of 18 and 32 he  tracked his family down across the world.  His career as a writer happened in spite of his incredible life story not because of it.

He has made various BBC radio documentaries on or with writers such as Gil Scott Heron, The last Poets, JB Priestley, Edgar Allan Poe and poetry films broadcast to the nation.  His head is in London where he’s based, his heart is in  Manchester where he is not, his soul is in Addis  and his vibe is in New York where his mother lives.  He blogs openly for personal reasons. Google Lemn Sissay and all the hits would be about him. There is only one Lemn Sissay in the world.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Lebo Mashile

South Africa No Comments

The poet, performer, actress, presenter and producer Lebogang Mashile, the daughter of exiled South Africans, was born in the U.S. in 1979. At the age of sixteen years she and her parents returned to their home country. It was while she was studying law and international relations at Wits University in Johannesburg that the desire to work as an artist took hold of her. In her work as a life skills facilitator for adolescents ñ focusing on topics like gender issues, teamwork and sexuality ñ poetry has been her preferred medium. Mashile regards its expressive power as the most effective tool to bring about those changes in mental attitude that are needed in the aftermath of the socio-political changes in post-apartheid South Africa. “The enemy isnít really clear in the way it was before. It’s an incredibly sensitive, complicated struggle with many dimensions, but the site for that struggle is inside. … The language of poetry comes from a place where that transformation has to begin, that sort of intuitive, creative, spiritual searching place that will be the fuel for any kind of transformation process.”

Mashile began to achieve recognition as one of South Africa’s most popular young artists in 2002 when she performed her hip-hop inspired poetry at the Urban Voices Spoken Word and Music Festival to a large audience. She was the presenter and producer of the television programme L’Atitude, a concept that she co-executive produced with Curious Pictures. Throughout its three seasons and seventy-eight episodes she introduced the viewers to the personal stories of a diverse cross section of South Africans and their relationships with their immediate surroundings. These insights were gained from her travels through South Africa. The series reached an audience of over two million households.

Her lyrical and gutsy poems in the collection A Ribbon of Rhythm (2005) also speak about life in the new South Africa. Issues such as the diversity and unity of the “Rainbow Nation”, the status of women, violence and the fragility of individuals are all treated with a sense of urgency, humour and at times with melancholy and a certain rawness. Mashile’s self-produced album Lebo Mashile Live! combines her performance poetry with hip-hop, house and R & B.

In June of 2008, Mashile published her second anthology entitled Flying Above the Sky. This collection marks the poet’s first foray into self-publishing. In October of 2008, Mashile wrote and performed in a cross-media and cross-generational collaboration with renowned choreographer Sylvia Glasser entitled Threads. One can find Mashile’s thoughts in her monthly column, In Her Shoes, which she writes for True Love magazine. She can currently be seen on South African television screens as the presenter of Drawing the Line, a game show on SABC2 dealing with moral issues. The show is now in its second season.

In 2006 she was awarded the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, the premier prize for African literature. The Jury characterised her poetry as of “a distinct oral flavour, developing oral poetry and performance beyond the boundaries of the poetry of the era of resistance”. In 2007, she was the recipient of the City Press/ Rapport Woman of Prestige Award. Mashile lives in Johannesburg.

Lara Kirsten

South Africa No Comments

Lara Kirsten is a pianist and performance poet. She balances the strict discipline of the art music with the writing and performance of her own poetry in Afrikaans and English. On occasion she combines her poetry with movement, visual art, photography and music.

In August 2007 she made her debut as a performance poet with the one-woman piece Ingrid Jonker Dans Weer. She performed her first extensive installation art and poetry piece, Frames, at the Fook Festival in Somerset-East in 2008. This work consisted of eight poems which were performed in eight different rooms with dialoguing installation art, costume and movement. In 2009 she made her debut in The Netherlands in the show Op het Punt van Aanraken (featuring music improvised by Francois le Roux, photography by Carmen Gonzalez and poems written and performed by Lara). In 2009 she was commissioned to write and perform poetry for the 60th Anniversary of the Voortrekker Monument Pretoria, taking a strong view on what it is to be an Afrikaner today. In September of 2010 and 2011 she had the privilege to perform as pianist and poet in the Baxter concert hall in Cape Town. In 2012 a highlight was performing in the Guy Butler theatre at The Settler’s Monument in Grahamstown. She has been invited to write and perform poetry for part of the opening ceremony for the International Aquarium Congress hosted at the CTICC (Cape Town International Convention Centre) in September 2012. From 2010 to 2012 Lara has conceived and performed one-woman poetry happenings at the annual AfrikaBurn festival hosted in the Tankwa Karoo in the Northern Cape.In 2014 she was invited to perform as pianist and poet at the McGregor Poetry Festival. Since 2009 Lara has performed as featured poet at the Off the Wall poetry sessions in Observatory, Cape Town.

Since 2007 Lara’s poetry has been published in various editions of the South African Literary Journal New Contrast. In 2008 she became part of the Eastern Cape poet-group, Ecca, who presents readings and publishes collectively each year.

For more on Lara’s music career, poetry, photos and creative projects please visit her blog at http://laraafrika.blogspot.com/

Onokemi Onojobi

Nigeria No Comments

Onokemi Onojobi (a.k.a Qono) is an artistic, avant-garde persona, a perspicacious lover of words, writing and all things aesthetic. A performance poet and a musician. Onokemi is also an advocate against Child Sexual Abuse amongst other things.

Omnyama

South Africa No Comments

Omnyama (the black one), birth name Asanda Vokwana was born and buttered in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.  Her provocative voice has graced numerous stages in South African. Traces of her Past her debut album – working alongside Bongani Tulwana – is a recollection of the realities of being young, black and female.

Olumide Popoola

Nigeria No Comments

Olumide Popoola is a London-based Nigerian German author, poet, performer and speaker who presents internationally, often collaborating with musicians or other artists. She has published fiction, drama, poetry and essays in magazines, journals, newspapers, memoirs and anthologies since 1988.

The scope of her work concerns critical investigation into the ‘in-between’ of culture, language and public space where a, sometimes uncomfortable, look at complexity is needed.

Olumide holds a BSc in Ayurvedic Medicine and a MA in Creative Writing. She is currently a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of East London for which she is working on a novel that expands on her interest in cross-genre work, and the notion of vernacular or hybrid languages as literary opportunities for social and cultural change.

In 2004 she won the May Ayim Award in the category Poetry in 2004 (the first Black International Literature Award in Germany).

She has received grants, fellowships and residencies from UEL, Djerassi, Künstlerdorf Schöppingen and Hedgebrook, amongst others.

Her novella this is not about sadness is her first book-length work of fiction, published by Unrast Verlag in 2010 through their ‘insurrection notes’ imprint. Her play Also by Mail was published in February 2013 by Witnessed (edition assemblage).

She aims to finish the novel that is her PhD project in 2014/15.

Odia Ofeimun

Nigeria No Comments

Odia Ofeimun, poet, polemicist and polymath was born in Iruekpen-Ekuma, Edo State, Nigeria, on March 16th 1950. The author of ten significant volumes of poetry, Mr. Ofeimun has also published two books of political essays, four books on cultural politics as well as editing two anthologies of Nigerian poetry.

Widely anthologized and translated into many world languages, Mr. Ofeimun has read and performed his poetry in several countries of the world including Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia, India, South Korea, Columbia, Germany, Israel, Great Britain, China, the United States of America, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Sweden, Italy and Cuba.

At home in Nigeria, Mr. Ofeimun’s practice of journalism, spanning the years of military tyranny, has inspired a whole generation of journalists in print and electronic media. The principled stand of Mr. Ofeimun came at the price of random invasion of his residence, seizure of his manuscripts, computer discs and Nigerian Passport to deny him freedom of movement. Undeterred, and while practicing probably the most dangerous vocation of all at the time, Mr. Ofeimun served the Association of Nigerian Authors as General Secretary and President respectively. He has been designated advisor to PEN Nigeria Centre and is a founding member of the Pan African Writers Association.

Mr. Ofeimun is the recipient of many awards the latest of which is the prestigious Fonlon-Nichols Award for literary excellence and propagation of Human Rights which was conferred on him by the African Literature Association in 2010. In a literary career spanning four decades, Mr. Ofeimun has distinguished himself with poetry and essays which challenge both the imagination and the intellect, crossing cultural borders and establishing new benchmarks in the articulation of the African narrative. His essays are valued both for knowledge and analysis, for what to know and for how to think about what is known.

Though only 62, Mr. Ofeimun is fondly called ‘Baba’ by the post-civil war generation of Nigerian writers many of whom have found touchstones in his works or have been individually mentored in writing by Mr. Ofeimun. For his copious literary output while engaged with anti-military rule struggle in Nigeria, Mr. Ofeimun has been called an exemplar of conscionable and consistent writing and the writerly life.

Obii

Nigeria No Comments

Obii is an artist and an art lover. She made her debut in Spoken word at the maiden edition of Bassey Ikpi’s Naija Poetry Slam which she won in October 2012. She has performed in major poetry events in Lagos and Calabar, Nigeria. She works as a copywriter, and in April 2013, she was recognised for her work with a Cannes Young Lions Award for Design. She also dabbles in photography.

Osaze Dolabaille

Canada No Comments

OSAZE DOLABAILLE is a singer, poet and drummer who was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. He was brought to the city of Toronto, in Canada while still very young. It was here that the adult Osaze would be awakened: to the reality of his Afrikan identity, an appreciation of Afrikan history and the validity of Afrikan spirituality. Thus inspired, he has been performing at community events, spoken word and poetry readings, and concerts since 1998.

He is currently the president of Baro Dununba, a Toronto based music ensemble and philanthropic organization. Along with Baro Dununba, he has performed as part of Muhtadi’s World Drummers, Quammie Williams’ JUMP Collective and the New Dimension Steel Orchestra. Poetic collaborations have included the International Festival of Poetry of Resistance and T Dot Griots anthologies. In 2007 he released his first book entitled, Rebirth of the Warrior Poet. This self-publication afforded him the opportunity to participate in both the 2007 Caribbean Canadian Literary Expo and the Organization of Calypso Performing Artistes’ Calypso Tents Music Series as part of Caribana 2007 (aka Toronto Caribbean Carnival).

Omo Faith Oshodin

Nigeria No Comments

Omo Faith Oshodin (I Am I) can only be described as The Renaissance Woman.

She is a Word-smith; a writer currently working on her first book, her work have been published locally and inter-nationally. She also performs her written works at the Free-dom Hall, Bogobiri, Ikoyi, in Lagos- Nigeria– where people from all over come to see her. One of her most popular poems RED SOIL has developed a cult like following.

She is an up-coming Jazz singer as well, who has performed to a standing ovation at the prestigious Terra Kulture during the Jazz forum which took place in the last quarter of 2010.

She has a blog called The Path of Faith which is fast gaining popularity. (www.thepathofomo.blogspot.com).

She is also quite the gifted artist who uses the medium of mixed media, oil on canvas, acrylic on canvas and water colour.

She has handled interior design projects for a number of high profile individuals.

When asked what she does, she simply says, “I am a Creator”.

Omekongo wa Dibinga

United States No Comments

Omekongo wa Dibinga was born to Congolese parents in Cambridge Massachusetts. His first CD, A Young Black Man’s Anthem, won the 2003 Cambridge Poetry Award for “Best CD.” His first book of poems, From the Limbs of my Poetree, was published in 2004 through Free Your Mind Publishing, which Omekongo founded in early 2004. Other CD’s include Reality Show, which is Omekongo’s first hybrid spoken word and hip-hop CD. Omekongo has been published in Essence Magazine, Sister 2 Sister, and several other publications.

A dedicated educator and community activist for over 20 years, Omekongo plans to continue focusing on improving cultural understanding and growing greatness among all of humanity’s children, because, as Omekongo believes: “We are only as humane as our most inhumane soul.”

Octavia McBride-Ahebee

United States No Comments

Octavia’s work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including Damazine; A Literary Journal of the Muslim World, Fingernails Across The Chalkboard: Poetry And Prose on HIV/AIDS From the Black Diaspora, Under Our Skin: Literature of Breast Cancer, Sea Breeze- A Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writing, The Journal of the National Medical Association, Art in Medicine Section and the Beloit Poetry Journal. Assuming Voices, a poetry collection, was published in 2003 by Lit Pot Press. Her newest collection of poetry, Where My Birthmark Dances, was published in 2011 by Finishing Line Press.

Obanya

Nigeria No Comments

A Marketing Communications specialist, Obanya has worked and managed advertising strategy for several global brands in Africa. He is a novelist and a poet with published and unpublished works. His published works are, Him Bone Poetree and Sickles Raised from Dust.

He is in the process of publishing a new novel titled, Ijambody and a new book of poems titled, Ambient Noon and other poems.

He currently lives in Lagos, Nigeria or Accra, Ghana.

Jumoke Verissimo

Nigeria No Comments

At age 7, her class teacher wrote on her mid-term report sheet, “Jumoke loves to write”. While that was just a teacher’s observation, it is one revelation that has remained true. Her love for words has never taken her far from it. She has worked as a printer’s clerk, assistant sub-editor, performance poet and journalist. Now working as a copywriter, she maintains a page in the Guardian Newspaper. Her poems and short stories have appeared in several magazines like Chimurenga, Bathtub Gin, Canopic Jar, Eclectica, Sentinel, African writing-online, Boyne Berries, Farafina, Kwani and several anthologies.

I am Memory is Jumoke’s first collection of poetry.

Julian Curry

United States No Comments

Julian Curry started writing poetry in 1999. Besides receiving the 2003 crown at the Nuyorican, he was also the 2003 Bowery Poetry Club Co-Grand Slam Champion. His poetry is a glimpse into the inner city, Wall Street, family, and a regular guy’s everyday life.

Originally from the Bahamas, Julian now calls Harlem his home. He has been featured in Forbes Magazine & on BET’s Lyric Cafe. He was also featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.

Jitsvinger

South Africa No Comments

Jitsvinger (Quintin Goliath) is an Afrikaaps vernacular and Kyknet Fiestas award winning performer.

He released his debut album Skeletsleutel in 2006. Jitsvinger has collaborated on various projects such as the inter-continental exchange, Rogue State Alliance and Each One Teach One. His versatility has taken him to Holland, Switzerland and Taiwan, where he has performed at international festivals such as the Migration Music Festival, Rock the Docks, Funk Em See, the Buskers Festival, and AfroVibes Festival.

Locally Jitsvinger has performed at acclaimed poetry festivals including Speak the Mind, Poetry Africa, the Cape Town Book Fair, and Spier Poetry Festival. Musically he has performed at Oppiekoppie, Obs Fest, and Cape Town Festival, to name a few.

Jitsvinger composed the music and lyrics for the popular theatre comedy production Joe Barber 5 and is also part of the cast of the critically acclaimed Afrikaaps.

 

Jethro Louw

South Africa No Comments

Jethro is a poet from Cape Town, born in Beaufort West in the Eastern Cape. He lives in a township. He is a ghetto poet, largely considered to be the godfather of spoken word in Cape Town. And alongside poets such as Lesego Rampolokeng, Mzwakhe Mbuli and Mzwandile Matiwana, he ranks as one of the nation’s key voices, a noteable “word-bomber”. Jethro uses the power of his words to bring back to life the discontinued heritage of his culture. His work revitalises the legacy of stories and the wealth of storytellers of the KhoiSan people. For centuries, the members of this community have been silenced by the gun and the bullet and the wall. The results are a lack of formal skills and access to infrastructure to turn those skills into income, subsequently a lack of identity and self esteem.

Jethro Louw’s compositions and performances feature on Volume One of the Coffeebeans Routes’ Bootleg Series, by the Khoi Khollektif, in collaboration with several Cape Town acts. The tracks are all live recordings from shows in Cape Town between 2004 and 2007. Jethro also features on the Goemarati compilation, with his track In a Third World, a collaboration with Black Rose.

Jessica Horn

Uganda No Comments

Poet, activist, interpreter of the ordinary; heiress of a nomadic lineage extending into the Ruwenzori Mountains of Uganda and the shadows of New York’s Yankee Stadium. Jessica Horn won the IRN Fanny Ann Eddy Poetry Prize in 2009 for her poem They have killed Sizakele and the Sojourner Poetry Prize judged by June Jordan in 2001 for her poem Dis U.N: For Rwanda. Her prose-poem Dreamings was profiled in the International Museum of Women’s online exhibition Imagining Ourselves. She is also the author of a collection Speaking in Toungues (Mouthmark, 2006). Jessica works in Africa and internationally on issues of women’s rights, health, violence and peace building.

Jenna Mervis

South Africa No Comments

Jenna Mervis is a poet, short story writer, freelance writer and designer. Her work has been published in various anthologies, including New Contrast, English Academy Review, New Coin, Botsotso, Itch online, Carapace, POWA’s 2008 anthology and New Writing from Africa 2009.

Born and schooled in Durban, Jenna moved to Grahamstown to study Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University (and life at the local watering holes). She then headed to London to test out her newly acquired skills. She polished cutlery at a fancy restaurant, gagged on Guinness in Dublin, fell asleep on a night bus (several times), surfed in Newquay (failed dismally) and worked for the London Science Museum, where she navigated outer space, shrunken heads and ancient mariners to get to her desk each morning. After almost 2 years of travelling, writing and working, Jenna was finally lured back south by a postcard of Camps Bay – after all, who can say no to white sand, turquoise water and a fold of fynbos mountains?

Back home, Jenna obtained her MA Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. She currently lives and works in Hout Bay with two dogs and one human. She’s done with big city life. The mountains help her breathe and think. Woman Unfolding is her debut collection of poetry.

Jeff Plumbline

Nigeria No Comments

Poet, songwriter, political blogger (rantingsofthetalakawa.blogspot.com) and Hip Hop Rap/spoken word artist Plumbline was born in Lagos Nigeria, in his Lagos Island hometown.

Growing up, he was influenced by local poets like the late Mamman Vatsa and later on caught up with the works of the Late Ken Saro Wiwa.

His defining moment was when he heard Kurtis Blow’s Basketball and If I ruled the World in the Early/Mid Eighties. Having been on Michael Jackson’s pop and Boney M’s Discotheque, this was to him a paradigm shift. By the time he was in high school, he started writing his own rhymes but did not go into active recording till 2006/2007, the time he concluded his Masters Degree in Applied Geophysics, five years after a first Degree in Geology.

He is a regular spoken word performer at Taruwa, Lydia Sobogun’s Poetry/Open Mic event hosted by Bez with a fiery delivery that earned him the title Taruwa Favourite. He performs at Anthill, and hosts a Spoken Word event, Chill and Relax at Life House, Sinari Daranijo, Victoria Island. He was also one of the Poets at Rhyme and Reasons for Jos, a gathering of Artists and Comedians to decry the Jos violence.

He has since teamed up with BigFoot (Micworx), Kraft (Kraftwork), and Steady of STOMProductions on an ambitious Hiphop/Spoken Word project.

James Matthews

South Africa No Comments

James Matthews, poet, writer and publisher, has produced five books of poetry, a collection of short stories, a novel and an anthology of poetry, which he edited. Most of his work was banned under the previous government and was translated and published overseas. For 13 years he was denied a passport and was placed in detention from September to December 1976. Solitary confinement was widely used during the apartheid years; its purpose being to disorient, to dehumanize, to undermine the detainee’s sense of self-identity. James Matthews waged a struggle against this agenda with the one weapon the jailers couldn’t take away from him – his ability to turn words into poems.

In 1980 Matthews participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair, and in 1982 he participated in the Cultural and Resistance Conference in Gaborone. He was awarded a Fellowship at Iowa University, U.S.A. and was the founding member of the Vakalisa Art Association and founding member and Patron of the Congress of South African Writers. James Matthews is the first black person to have established an art gallery (Gallery Afrique) in South Africa, and is the first black to have established a publishing house (BLAC Publishing House 1974 -1991) The publishing house closed in 1991 due to constant harassment by the previous government. Matthews is the recipient of the Woza Afrika Award (1978), Kwaza Honours List – Black Arts Celebration, Chicago, U.S.A.(1979) and the Freeman of Lehrte and Nienburg, Germany (1982). In 2010, he was given an award by the City of Cape Town.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download