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.
Checkmate Mido
The ever-resilient Checkmate Mido is a human beatbox, poet, musician and actor. He is known for his thought provoking poems and incorporating beatboxing into his performances.
In December 2010, at the annual Kenya Music Week, held at the Sarit Centre, he co-released his 6 track EP called Broken City with Kennah as his first foray into recording an album, which apart from the two, features various artists such as world renowned percussionist Tenpar Tella.
Broken City was again relaunched at the secrets lounge on the 3rd of March 2011. http://nairobinow.wordpress.com/concertalbum-launch-kennah-checkmate-live-unplugged-mar-3-2011-secrets-lounge/
Apart from writing his own music and poetry, he had a hugely successful debut as an actor appearing in the popular play Mayors’ Diary performed by Ethnic Productions in collaboration with Adcents media (now Kilele Productions), in which he starred as the title character the Mayor. He also played a role in the thriller Death & The Estate (as Spencer-The Family Lawyer) staged at the Kenya National Theatre from 9th-11th December 2011.
He featured in the 2012 edition of The Theatre Company’s Fire By Ten series playing multiple roles.
Having featured in festivals such as Wapi (words and pictures) in 2011 and Kinanda Arts Festival he has performed at various other poetry nights such as Slam Africa, Kwani and Wamathai.
Hannah Lurie
Hugh Hodge
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.
Antjie Krog
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.
Aka Teraka
Aka Teraka has been described as “a postmodern polyglot, a man of many forms” who writes in three languages: Igbo, English and German. He is the author of several poetry collections and works of prose.
He grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and worked for over ten years in the aviation industry before recently turning his attention fully to literature and the arts. He currently lives in Frankfurt, Germany.
Imani Woomera
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1981 and raised in Nairobi, Kenya from the age of 11, Imani has worked as a multidisciplinary artist since 2000. As a performer, teacher, radio presenter, author, producer, recording artist, and co-founder of the Slam Africa Movement, Imani has played an integral role in the spread of the Spoken Word art form in East Africa. She is the author and producer of two poetry books and Spoken Word audio albums, Morning Rain (2006), and Pearls (2009).
Imani has delivered multiple performances and workshops at festivals, theaters, schools, and universities throughout the world. Blessed with the ability to move diverse audiences, she has worked closely with the United Nations Habitat for Humanity, as well as with Africa’s leading underground Hip-Hop art’s platform, WAPI. Over the past 10 years, she has had extensive experience working with youth as a mentor and poetry teacher both in and beyond school systems, and has written, directed, and produced a number of successful youth poetry theater performances including Poetic Identity (2004), Morning Rain (2006), Internal Imani (2007), and Free Verse (2010).
Imani has lit up stages as a featured artist in cities across the globe such as Minneapolis, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Bangkok, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Salvador da Bahia, and New York City; including the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café where she held the stage as a featured poet in 2006. In addition, she has worked as a radio presenter at one of Nairobi’s top radio station’s, Capital FM, for over three years, producing and presenting the World Groove Show.
Pamella Dlungwana
Pam Dlungwana is a transplant Capetonian by way of Durban, South Africa. She spends much of her time behind pink rimmed glasses, tea colored pages and when spoken to speaks of herself in the third person, always.
A television writer/researcher and producer she expresses her Swiss cheese opinion best in poetry and has collaborated with visual artists using the media to educate, liberate and incite.
Pam has published in online journals (Poetry Potion, Itch and her wordpress blog) and has used Facebook as her personal bulletin board, screaming her politic, annoyances and passion through verse in the notes section.
Rustum Kozain
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.
Sipho Mbulelo Ntlangu
Sipho Mbulelo Ntlangu is one of the upcoming multi-talented artists in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Sipho was born and bred in Port Elizabeth, in the dusty streets of Kwazakhele eNobatana and from a very young age he has been involved in many art forms and activities.
INGCING’ENTLE is Sipho’s first album, the album has powerful lyrical content which addresses social ills. He fuses poetry with Afropop, Afrojazz and Reggae.
Shabbir Banoobhai
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'”.
Siphiwe Ka Ngwenya
SIPHIWE KA NGWENYA was born in Soweto in 1964. He is a writer, theatre director and performer. He has a diploma in Speech and Drama from Fuba Academy and participated in a Voter Education play commissioned by the Matla Trust in 1994. He was a member of the Rishile Theatre Project that presented plays by Nadine Gordimer and Don Mattera and since 1994 has been a member of the Botsotso Jesters poetry performance group.
Ngwenya has performed internationally in countries as diverse as Denmark and Pakistan. A selection of his poetry was published in the 1992 anthology, Essential Things. Other publications that have included his work are Ingolovane, Botsotso, New Coin, Timbila, Kotaz, It All Begins and Writing from Here. A collection of his poems, Soul Fire, was published in 2005 by Botsotso.
Sfiso Riccardo Shezi
Sfiso Riccardo Shezi also known as Imprint has been writing poetry for what feels like a lifetime to him. He started exploring the poetry scene in his hometown of Pietermaritzburg, but his love for art form has seen him travel across other provinces too. He mainly writes in his mother tongue isiZulu.
Saaleha Idrees Bamjee
Saaleha Idrees Bamjee is an editorial consultant and photographer based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is learning how to read and write through Rhodes University’s MA Creative Writing programme.
Queen Lariuskus
Queen Lariuskus, aka, Lara Mondlane is a Mozambican born poet, photographer and film professional. She moulded herself and her passions in the course of her travels around the world, particularly whilst living in London, and Cape Town. In Cape Town, Queen Lariuskus formed the group LAGAMA, together with Gabriela and Marina, two close friends. They performed live in various spots in Cape Town and brought the project to Maputo.
Now back in Maputo for an indefinite time, Queen has been involved in promoting various artists and cultural events. Recently, she worked as a continuity supervisor in prize winning Short Films produced by Mahla Filmes for Nweti-Communication for Health (an affiliate of SOUL CITY INSTITITUTE). Queen has chosen cinema and photography to express what she often would say in words and is enjoying the ride.
Tina Mucavele
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!
Vuyelwa Maluleke
Vuyelwa Maluleke is a Joburg-born writer and poet who grew up in a township. She describes herself as a storyteller: “It is when I am most honest. It is also the hardest thing to do for me, to hand my work over so publicly to audiences. But the sharing between the audience and myself generates an immediacy that is like church. There is so much magic there.”
Vuyelwa began competitive poetry in 2012 winning theTEWOP Poetry Slam and the DFL Lover and Another 2012 Johannesburg Regionals. She has performed on various stages in Johannesburg. She graduated in 2013 with a BADA at the University of Witwatersrand, and was awarded the Leon Gluckman Prize 2013, for the student with the most creative piece of work.
Xabiso Vili
Xabiso Vili is a writer, performer and poet obsessed with social development. He has performed his poetry around South Africa, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Grahamstown and more. He came in the top six in the 2011 Lover + Another national poetry slam and came third in the 2013 poetry slam of the same national event after winning the regional finals.
He has worked as an assistant teacher and run multiple workshops around poetry and improvisational comedy in Cape Town. He is currently staying in Pretoria and working with various organisations to further the reach and effect of poetry. In his spare time he enjoys battling silver-tongued dragons in the hopes of claiming one as his own.
Yewande Omotoso
Yewande Omotoso was born in Barbados in 1980 and grew up in Nigeria with her Barbadian mother, Nigerian father and two older brothers. The family moved to South Africa in 1992.
Yewande trained as an architect at the University of Cape Town, to which she returned after working as an architect for several years, to complete a Masters degree in Creative Writing. The product of her degree is her debut novel Bomboy published in 2011 by Cape Town publisher Modjaji Books. Bomboy was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Literary Awards as well as the MNet Film Award, it won the South African Literary Award (SALA) for First Time Author Prize. Prior to Bomboy Yewande authored several stories, among them The Piano (2nd Place, People Opposing Women Abuse, 2005) and Maude Hastings (Honourable Mention, John La Rose Short Story Competition, 2007). In addition she has published Heroes with online crime fiction magazine Noir Nation and Two Old People in the anthology Speaking for the Generation: Contemporary Stories from Africa. Yewande’s poetry (Stranger and The Rain) has been published in the ‘Baobab Literary Journal’ 2009. The Rain was shortlisted for the Sol Plaatjie European Union Poetry Awards 2012.
Omotoso, for whom writing is a means to make sense of the world, is interested in the complexity of human experiences as well as the incongruities of life. Loneliness is a recurring theme. Omotoso views her writing as a tool for compassion and evoking self-examination. For her talent and the intent to tell stories, she credits her parents and a childhood steeped in reading and the sharing of ideas.
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Zena Edwards
Zena Edwards is a London-based performance poet, writer and musician. Her vibrant poetry is inspired by her experiences of travel, particularly through Africa, as well as traditional African music and song. She often accompanies her work with mbira, kalimba and marimba (thumb pianos). Zena has performed at WOMAD, The London Jazz Festival, Poetry International at the Royal Festival Hall, The URB Hip Hop Festival (Helsinki), Glastonbury as well as many others.
She has produced two CDs, entitled Healing Pool and Mine 4 Life.
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