Centre for Creative Arts - Poetry Africa 2007

11 th POETRY AFRICA

International Poetry Festival, Durban : 1 – 6 October 2007

POETRY AFRICA 2007 comes to a rousing close

The eleventh edition of Poetry Africa, a non-stop week-long celebration of poetry and poets, came to a climax with a jam-packed mini-festival at the BAT Centre on Saturday October 6. Comprising poetry writing workshops, open mic opportunities, a poetic performance piece by imbongis from different language–groups entitled Emkhathini neziMbongi (Time Travel), and the ever-popular Durban SlamJam, the event culminated with the sold-out Festival Finale featuring farewell performances by all the festival poets, as well as impressive performances by six active Durban poetry groups. A notable feature was the large number of collaborations that took place between festival poets, resulting in hot-off-the-press work, and giving audiences a special insight on the creative process. Ishle (Korea/USA) accompanied by Damien Mandrin (Reunion); Habib Demba Fall ( Senegal ) with Durban 's Zorro; and the sweet mbira-playing Chiwoniso ( Zimbabwe ) was partnered up in performances with Chirikure Chirikure and with Stanley Kenani ( Malawi ). The unique Danyel Waro and his group from Reunion brought the night to a rousing close with his amazing voice and shamanic rhythms, packing the dancefloor with poets and groovers alike.

This left the Department of Arts and Culture poetry workshop on Sunday as the final activity of the festival. It was an appropriate concluding session, nearly four hours long, in which facilitators Zolani Mkiva, Jessica Mbangeni and Masoja Msiza engaged with the largely young contingent of poets at a level of depth and detail, interrogating and exploring poetry writing and performance.

The festival kicked off the previous weekend with vibrant poetry and music showcases at Flavours of Durban and Awesome Africa, before settling into a five-night stretch at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Apart from the evening performances, a wide programme of day activities took place at various campuses and community centres, providing widened access to the array of poetic voices in action. Particularly popular with the poets was the schools visiting programme which reached over 2000 learners at 30 schools. The talent emerging through the local poetry groups and in the schools exchanges, as evidenced in the schools poetry competition, elicited praise from visiting poets. If Poetry Africa is anything to go by the future of poetry in KwaZulu-Natal looks promising.

Dates have been announced for Poetry Africa in 2008: 29 September to 4 October.

Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 11th Poetry Africa festival is supported by the Department of Arts and Culture, Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS), Royal Netherlands Embassy, Stichting Doen, French Institute of South Africa, Ethekwini Municipality, and the City of Durban.

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