Chantal-Fleur Sandjon is at the forefront of artists of colour in Germany that reclaim words, voices and the visibility of the subaltern. Based in Berlin and Johannesburg, she has been part of numerous art projects and publications in Germany and abroad. As a member of the collectives Blaque Reinnecarnation as well as The Critical Witness, Chantal-Fleur ignores the alleged boundaries between different media, art forms and the academics.
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.
Herbert Woodward Martin, born in 1933, served as professor of English and poet-in-residence at the University of Dayton in Ohio, United States of America, for more than three decades where he taught creative writing and African-American literature. He is the author of nine volumes of poetry and has devoted decades to editing and giving performances of the works of the poet and novelist Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).
Martin’s publications include:
Editor:
Helen Moffett is a freelance writer, editor, academic and poet, whose lectured as far afield as Trinidad and Alaska. Her academic writings include a great deal of gloomy but necessary work on sexual violence in the post-apartheid context. She writes about cricket because it reminds her why she likes men (and because she loves the game with a passion).
She has also published a university textbook on poetry, an anthology of South African landscape writing and several short stories. Poetry is her first and last love, she went from teaching it to students to eventually writing her own. Her debut collection of poems, Strange Fruit, was published by Modjaji Books in 2009.
As the inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, NM (2012-2014), Hakim Bellamy is a national and regional Poetry Slam Champion and holds three consecutive collegiate poetry slam titles at the University of New Mexico.
His poetry has been published in Albuquerque inner-city buses and various anthologies. Bellamy was recognized as an honorable mention for the University of New Mexico Paul Bartlett Re Peace Prize for his work as a community organizer and journalist and was recently bestowed the populist honor of “Best Poet” by Local iQ (“Smart List” 2010, 2011 & 2012) and Alibi (“Best of Burque” 2010, 2011 & 2012). He is the co-creator of the multimedia Hip Hop theater production Urban Verbs: Hip-Hop Conservatory & Theater that has been staged throughout the country. He facilitates youth writing workshops for schools and community organizations in New Mexico and beyond.
Hakim is currently finishing his MA in Communications and Journalism Department at the University of New Mexico. He is the proud father of a 4 year-old miracle and works as the Strategic Communication Director at Media Literacy Project.
Hakim’s journey as a poet has come full circle as of late, wearing the hat of musician. A product of the Hip Hop generation and influenced by his parents extensive wax collection (which included the likes of Janis Joplin, Sly and The Family Stone, Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles, The Grateful Dead, Gil Scott Heron, The Temptations, Teddy Pendergrass & The Last Poets), Bellamy is equal parts musical artist, archivist and archeologist. He digs music. Piano lessons, recitals and many years singing in the church choir prepared him for the funk-infused, experimental yet melodic brand of Hip Hop that he produces today with creative partner Colin “Diles” Hazelbaker. He’s shared the musical stage with Zion-I, The Wailers, The Last Poets, Amiri Baraka, Cecil Taylor & Blacklisted Individuals.
As an actor, Hakim has grown his talent on both the screen and the stage. He made a cameo in the independent film Romeo & Juliet Vs. The Living Dead (2009) and has made multiple appearances in local commercials (Television and Radio). He has done voice work for television and radio, worked for two years as a radio journalist at KUNM 89.9FM in Albuquerque, NM and has been cast as an extra in such films/tv shows as Gamer (2009), Swing Vote (2009) & Crash the Television Series, Season II (2010). On the stage Hakim was cast in a major role in the 2009 Albuquerque production of The Exonerated, produced by NMRepeal.org. In the summer of 2011, Hakim secured a major role as the Friar in the Vortex Theater’s Summer Shakespeare Festival production of Romeo & Juliet for a 14 show run. He has since co-written and starred in Urban Verbs: Hip Hop Conservatory & Theater with his creative partner Carlos Contreras.
Hugh is a Baby Boomer Brat. He was born in 1946 on Nelson Mandela’s 28th birthday (Hugh’s closest brush with fame) at Tavistock in Devon, England. Rondebosch Boys’ High attempted to educate Hugh without much success. Later, Essex University endured similar disappointments, but got over them.
He has (had) three wives, and three children. Each marriage was happy in its own way and in its own time. The children are more beautiful than he expected. Hugh has had a job as a small, and sometimes negative, contributor to the technological revolution. He also produced bug-free code, but very rarely.
Despite being commonly left-brained, and occasionally no-brained, Hugh writes poetry that is sometimes published. He attends the Off-the-Wall poetry gig Mondays in Obz, and hosts monthly gigs in Kalk Bay and Kommetjie. He edits New Contrast. And, aside from a natural tribal arrogance, he is kind and tolerant, even of dogs.
Hellen “Poeticbee” is proudly Kenyan. She is a student pursing fashion design,she is also a performing spoken word artist,a recording musician, and 46th Slam Africa queen. She was born into a creative family where her life quickly started revolving around pen, paper, words and melodies.
Born in 1981 in Hammarsdale just outside Durban, Hector S Kunene first journeyed into poetry at the young age of 16 and immediately his love for his art emerged. It was his love for poetry that saw one of his first poems Bloody Corpuscles published in the Sunday Times newspaper. Hector later moved to Bloemfontein where he pursued his childhood dream of publishing a book because “I want to see people reading, I want people to start appreciating poetry again like they did in the days of Don Mattera and the likes of Mzwakhe Mbuli and Keorapetse Gkositsile”.
His first book Through The Tunnel released in 2010 not only received exceptional reviews but was also internationally recognized. He went on to publish a literary study of Omoseye Bolaji that same year which as well was well received by literary pundits, newspapers and numerous other local publications. The successes of both books resulted in him being awarded the Free State Writer of the Year award in 2010 in addition to the Free State Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation purchasing his works for libraries across the province.
Hector, who additionally serves as a Manager at SAA’s Airchef’s division, was also billed to perform at the Howick Writers Festival in Durban and was honored by Darrel David for Midland Literary Festival and Boekbedonner in the Karoo to name but a few. With a third book in the pipeline, the literary protégé is bound to receive further acclaim.
The rising star, who has even learnt other languages in order to resonate with his audiences, sites Dr. Don Mattera, Keorapetse Gkositsile, Napo Mashiane, Jah Rose, Lebo Mashile, Gcina Mhlophe and QwaQwa native Kwazi as his sources of inspiration.
His unique traditional poetry style laced with inspirational spiritual messages has undoubtedly endeared him in the hearts of his followers. “This is what I live to do. I worship God with poetry. I long to see the church appreciating God in Poetry. I yearn to see young children play in the rain singing ‘Re Ne Sa Pula’. I would love to see the libraries filled with our books and us being celebrated all over the world for doing what we love”.
Hector has worked with:
* Afurakhan
* Dr. Cool
* Dr. Don Mattera
* Flaxman Qoopane
* Kgafela
* Icebound
* Jahrose
* Lebo Leisa
* Lesego Rampolokeng
* Myesha Rose Jenkins
* Napo Mashiane
* Natalia Molebatsi
* Omoseye Bolaji
* Raselebeli Khotseng
* Rita Chihawa
* Sheila Khala
* The Archives
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.
Haidee Kruger is associate professor in the School of Languages at the Vaal Triangle Campus of North-West University in South Africa. She holds a PhD in translation studies, and is primarily involved in research in descriptive and theoretical translation studies. Her most recent research publication is Postcolonial polysystems: The production and reception of translated children’s literature in South Africa (John Benjamins, 2012).
Her poetry and short stories have been published in, amongst others, The Common, Big Bridge, New Contrast, New Coin and Green Dragon. Her debut collection of poetry, Lush: poems for four voices, was published in 2007 by Protea Book House. Lush was praised in the judges statement for the 2006/2007 Ingrid Jonker Prize as an “innovative volume of poems” that was “a close contender for the prize”. The reckless sleeper (Modjaji Books, 2012) is her second collection.
Kruger lives in Vereeniging, South Africa, with her husband and three children.
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Azila Talit Reisenberger is an award winning author who has had poetry, short stories and a novel published in Israel, the USA, UK, Germany and South Africa.
Two of her plays: Adam’s Apple and The loving father, were staged at the Grahamstown Festival.
She heads the Hebrew section in the School of Languages and Literatures at the University of Cape Town, and renowned for her passionate lectures and articles on gender issues and feminist theology in the Bible. Since 1990 she has served as the Rabbi of Temple Hillel, a progressive Jewish community in East London. She lives in Cape Town with her husband and three children.
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.
Ari Sitas is a poet, dramatist and sociologist. A founder member of the Junction Avenue theatre company in Johannesburg, he was involved in most of its productions until 1982 when he moved to Durban.
Sitas’s involvement in popular and worker theatre since the 1970s has been widely celebrated, his broader writing and involvement as a leading intellectual in anti-Apartheid movements has left a trail of robust engagements within and outside the country. In 1978 the theatre company received the Olive Schreiner Award for his play Randlords and Rotgut, and in 1981 won an award for the video/film Howl at the Moon. His first collection of poetry Tropical Scars (1989) met with much critical acclaim, and he followed this with a collection experimenting with musical form, was included in the anthology, Essential Things (1990). Sitas’s book, Slave Trades (2000), a result of seven years of research and writing has been highly praised. His last collection, The RDP Poems (2004) was his most disturbingly controversial with their precise and bleak analysis of current traumas in South Africa’s transition. Rough music (2014) is his current collection of poetry. Sitas has also penned a libretto for an opera for composer Jurgen Brauninger, Dead Fish and Dreams of Love Again.
Ari Sitas is considered to be one of the country’s leading sociologists and has been elected by the International Sociological Association on the executive of its world council. Locally, he is seen to be a central thinker around the African Renaissance and of social justice and labour movements. He is currently working on a collection of his plays, a take on Around the World in 80 days (of which the India section has been completed) and a series of lyrics titled Insurrections done in conjunction with other poets and composers from South Africa and India.
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.
Annie Moyo’s poetry that has been inspired by an upbringing that was rich in exposure to various traditions.
She currently resides and works in Cape Town, but her work draws strongly on her experience of being raised and schooled in Zimbabwe. She maintains close ties with her family and the people of Zimbabwe, a bond that resonates powerfully in the way she interprets the world around her.
Anne Moraa is first and foremost a writer. A powerful spoken word artist, she has won several competions (Slam Africa, Kwani Open Mic) and has performed pieces at major festivals (Kwani Litfest, StoryMoja Hay Festival).
Her strong feminist perspective and willingness to challenge norms led to commissioned performances on gender and sexuality, including the 2013 “Festivale CulturElles” at Alliance Francaise. A law graduate, she writes fiction prose as well as scripts, social commentary and basically anything she can get her hands on.
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.
Amir Sulaiman is an accomplished poet, activist, recording artist and a 2 time HBO Def Poet. Host and performer for national Breed Love Odyssey Tour with Mos Def and Talib Kweli and special guest on KRS-ONES Hip Hop Lives Tour there is a steady but ever increasing buzz building around Amir quickly gaining the attention of everyone from Kanye West and Russell Simmons (who referred to Amir as “blessed”), to Dave Chapelle. In addition, organizations such as the ACLU, Amnesty International and Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition have used Amir’s poetry and voice to bring life to multiple campaigns dealing with social justice and art.
His growing popularity garnered him a record deal with UPRISING Records, the label that delivered the hugely successful multi-platinum band, Fall Out Boy. His national debut album, Like a Thief in the Night, has been released nation wide to critical acclaim. The album fuses disparate genres with impassioned narratives of tragedy, redemption, and revolution. Boasting guest appearances from Mos Def, Goapele, and The Last Poets, Like A Thief in The Night has created a soundscape that could easily serve as the score for a classic Martin Scorcese film. In a nutshell, this ground-breaking album signals a desired change bringing about a level of consciousness sorely needed in today’s music industry and society in general.
Amir has been performing at countless colleges, universities, high schools and community centers. As a member of Youth Speaks in the Bay Area California, Amir works regularly teaching kids by way of spoken word and focusing on the union of art and education.
Consistently working across the United States and Canada, Amir has shared the stage with artists such as Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Common , Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Pharoah Monch, Floetry, Black Thought of The Roots, Goapele, Stevie Wonder, The Last Poets, Dead Prez, Ghostface of Wu-Tang Clan, MOP, and more.
Mthokozisi Gumede and Mtungabantu Myeni are passionate young Zulu poets that came together to form the group Amagcokama Osonkondlo. Their love and passion for their art is evident in their dynamic delivery of their work.
Highlights of their career thus far have been performing at the ceremony where Dr. Kenneth Kaunda received a Mahatma Gandhi International Award at the Durban City Hall and also performing at the UMngeni Municipality Councilor.
They’ve also been featured and performed at numerous events.
Kalimbakatha Albert Chitsanzo is a Malawian poet who developed the interest of writing way back in primary school. Having his voice in print was his long-held desire. He has written numerous poems which have been published locally and internationally. On the international scene Snail’s Lament was published in The Penguin Book of Modern Poetry in 1998 edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier. Africa Hunted was broadcast on South African Broadcasting Corporation in 2003.
In Malawi his poem Mangoes was published in 1993 in the standard 6 text book Primary School English Activities published by Malawi Institute of Education. Fiery Ball is anthologized in Unsung Song published in 2001 by Chancellor College Publications for O level students. Other poems have been broadcast in The Writers’ Corner Program on Malawian radio and Published in various Malawian newspapers. Albert is a founding member of Malawi Writers Union who uses his poetry to help develop a deep appreciation of literature in the minds of Malawian students.
Tolar is a front line activist, a social crusader, and the publicity Secretary of the Campaign for Democratic and Workers Right CDWR, what was formerly known as Campaign for Independent Unionism (CIU) which was one of the pro-democracy groups in CD, UAD and JACON, in the struggle to end military dictatorship in Nigeria. He also doubles as the publicity Secretary of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and the Editor of the Socialist Democracy, the organ of the DSM.
He is also a school teacher, and an active member of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, (NUT)
The African Noise Foundation is a shape-shifting collective of post-everything: poets, musicians and artists’ will include:
Adjei Agyei Baah is a Strategic Management Lecturer of University College of Management Studies, Kumasi and a Co-founder of Poetry Foundation Ghana.
His poems have been published in many anthologies such as Sun And Snow [Canada, 2010], We Come From One Place [2010, Mensa Press], Whispers in the Whirlwind [2010, Mensa Press] and had also been published in haiku sites such as Shamrock.
Azziz is a poet, music lover, blogger, computer scientist, accountant and entrepreneur. His life purpose is to make the world a better place. He is passionate about inspiring others and mentors the youth in attempt to make them better individuals. In his spare time he is a football fanatic, rugby player and wanna-be singer.
Avaes Mohammad is a playwright, poet, performer and research chemist. In 2005, he received the Amnesty International Media Award for his poem Bhopal, broadcast as part of the BBC’s commemoration of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster. Avaes is currently Director of the ‘British South Asian Aesthetics Project’, an initiative committed to the exploration of theatrical forms deemed representative of contemporary British South Asian identities. Works written for theatre include touring productions of In God We Trust and Shadow Companion, for radio Bora Bistrah (BBC Radio 3) and for short film Take It Slow (Contact Theatre/BBC Co-production).
Also committed to participatory work, especially with young people, Avaes regularly delivers creative workshops, using theatre, rap, poetry and science, in education, community and organisational settings. Teacher-practitioner roles have included facilitation for Unheard Voices writing programme (Royal Court) amongst others. Avaes Mohammad is an alchemist-artist creating challenging, provocative work in response to a challenging, provocative world.
Aryan Kaganof (born 1964 as Ian Kerkhof) is a South African film maker, novelist, poet and fine artist. His books include Drive-Thru Funeral, Tombstone Dues, Post-Mortemist Poems as well as the much funnier Ballad Of Sugar Moon And Coffin Deadly. Best known for inventing the “feelbad” movie genre with such audience pleasers as SMS Sugar Man.
Anthony Joseph is a poet, novelist, academic and musician. He was born in Trinidad, moving to the UK in 1989. His publications include Desafinado (1994), Teragaton (1997), The African Origins of UFOs (Salt, 2006) and Bird Head Son (Salt, 2009).
In 2004 Joseph was selected by renaissance one, Decibel and the Arts Council of England as one of fifty Black and Asian writers who have made major contributions to contemporary British literature, appearing in the historic Great Day photo. In 2005 he was selected as the British Council’s first Poet in residence at California State University, Los Angeles. Joseph “voodoo punk” band The Spasm Band released their debut album Leggo de Lion (Kindred Spirits) in 2007. Their most recent album is Bird Head Son (Naive/Heavenly Sweetness, 2009).
His work has also been included in several anthologies, including Identity Parade (Bloodaxe, 2010), Red (Peepal Tree, 2010) and Black, Brown & Beige (University of Texas Press, 2009). He performs and lectures internationally and tours with his band The Spasm Band. Joseph lectures in creative writing at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is an AHRC scholar and doctoral candidate at Goldsmiths College.
Annelie De Wet works as a freelance journalist, copy writer, scriptwriter, translator, editor & educational video maker.
In 2004 she began training as a Sangoma in Pondoland by way of a calling that changed her life. Poetry became the only way in which she could express this mystical journey and personal healing process. Currently learning isiXhosa and training in Family Constellation Therapy, spiritual and cultural pioneering is her life’s passion.
Anelisa Mbotyana “Dizadala” considers herself as one who was called to reveal secrets. This 19 year old has lived in Port Elizabeth, South Africa her whole life. Her ancestors bestowed on her the gift to be a praise poet from the tender age of five.