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26th Poetry Africa Festival announced
The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) will host the 26th Poetry Africa International Festival from 6 to 16 October 2022. With the theme: Poetic (In)Justice: Voices That Breathe, Move and Transform, the festival is an ode to the depth of perspective that poetry affords us in seeing and articulating (in)justice. This year the festival is taking place in Johannesburg and Durban, and some of the sessions will take place virtually.
The Centre for Creative Arts and the University of Johannesburg’s Arts & Culture Department have, for the past decade, informally collaborated to bring down a small cohort of poetry students from Jo’burg to participate in the Poetry Africa Festival. This year they have made their relationship official and are launching the first Poetry Africa On Tour.
Poetry Africa On Tour is a 3-day Live Programme from 6 to 8 October that breaks Poetry Africa out of its geographical shell and extends its footprint and imprint to Johannesburg and other local cities and provinces. This staging has created a space for the poetry community outside of Durban to shift into the role of engaged makers of the festival and expanded the repertoire of what can be experienced through it. It also marries mobility with accessibility by delivering some of the live offerings of the festival to the doorstep of an audience in Johannesburg who may not have the capacity to attend the main event.
“We hope that this instalment of the festival will afford poets, who are doing the unsung labour of nurturing poetic practices and reach in their respective locales, the opportunity to plug into the thriving and enabling ecosystem that has formed around this unprecedented platform for poetry on the continent.” Says Quaz Roodt, Art Coordinator at UJ.
On 6 October, the festival presents “What’s a Woman’s Worth”, featuring Philippa Yaa De Villiers, Lebo Mashile, Roche Kester, vangile gantsho, Nomashenge and Belita Andre. It is a first-of-its-kind focus on women by women performance is a cross-generational probing into the vast spectrum of degradation to a celebration that determines the worth of a woman. The show will take place at the Keorapetse Kgositsile Theatre, Kingsway Campus.
7 October is the day poets will battle it out in the semi-final of the 20th iteration of the Slam Jam competition, an annual festival highlight. The finals will take place in Durban, and the winner will walk away with an accumulative price of R22 000 and an international trip to participate in the World Slam Competition 2023.
On 8 October, South African poets Thando Fuze, Siphokazi Jonas, Xabiso Vili, Sabelo Soko and Modise Segkothe. Joining them will be Mana Bugallo from Argentina and Lydol from Cameroon will show if it is possible to tilt the scales of poetic forms toward abstracted and experimental dimensions in “Tilting the Scales”. The audience can expect an evening of defiant poetry in its content and presentation.
For the 26th year in a row, the Poetry Africa festival in Durban sets the stage for poetry with a curatorial focus on quality, variety, renewal, and reflection. Poetry Africa offers a stage to well-established and beginning poets and gives audiences an overview of modern poetry’s new developments and current topics. In 2022, most of the festival programme will be presented live in Durban, with an On Tour programme with performances in Johannesburg and throughout KwaZulu-Natal. Lastly, a selection of seminars and readings will be presented online. During the ten-day programme, one can expect over 35 poets from South Africa, Africa, and the world.
The entire programme will be available on poetryafrica.ukzn.ac.za.
Johannesburg events listing
What’s A Woman Worth?
Date: 06 October
Time: 19:00
Keorapetse Kgositsile Theatre
UJ Kingsway Campus
Corner of Kingsway Ave and University Rd,
Auckland Park
Johannesburg, 2092
Slam Jam – Semi Final
Date: 07 October
Time: 20:00
Keorapetse Kgositsile Theatre
UJ Kingsway Campus
Corner of Kingsway Ave and University Rd,
Auckland Park
Johannesburg, 2092
FREE entry, bookings open on 23 September
Tilting the Scales
Date: 08 October
Time: 19:00
Bunting Theatre
31 Bunting Rd,
Cottesloe,
Johannesburg, 2092
Ticket Pricing:
R30 Students/Pensioners
R50 General
Tickets available on TicketPro
Background information
The annual Poetry Africa Festival has been traditionally presented at venues across the city of Durban, and in 2020 it presented its first virtual festival due to the pandemic. In 26 years, the festival has built up a loyal following of poetry lovers and introduced new audiences to poetry. Many established poets, such as Lebo Mashile, Siphokazi Jonas and Dennis Brutus, have graced the festival’s stages, but also, many upcoming poets have their first festival experience at Poetry Africa. The Festival aims to be a voice for social change and redress.
The 26th Poetry Africa festival is made possible with the support of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, South African Department of Sports, Arts and Culture. The French Institute of South Africa, Total Energies and the University of Johannesburg.
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