Christine Coates

and

Robin Winckel-Mellish

An Archaeology of the Heart

Christine and Robin will read their own intimate work from the heart: an excavation of the ongoing narrative of love, love of the natural world, romantic love, the end of love as a calendar of pain. Christine will read from Sixty Leather Wings, her new collection; poems of a garden destroyed by fire, drought, poems of restoration.

Robin will read from her forthcoming collection Etchings in Dust, poems illustrating her connection to wilderness and the journey of losing a loved one.

“To a poet the human community is like the community of birds singing to each other. Love is one of the reasons we are singing to each other, love of language, love of sound, love of singing itself and love of other birds.”  Sharon Olds.

 Bio:

 Christine Coates is a poet and writer from Cape Town. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. Her poems and stories have been published in various literary journals. Her debut collection Homegrown, published in 2014, by Modjaji Books, received an honourable mention from the Glenna Luschei Prize. Her poems have been selected for the EU Sol Plaatje Poetry anthologies every year since inception: 2011 – 2016, Best “New” African Poets 2015, 2016 Anthologies, and literary journals. Her short stories have been highly commended; “The Cat’s Wife” in ADULTS ONLY, the Short.Sharp.Stories anthology 2014, “How We Look Now” in WATER, the Short Story Day Africa anthology 2015. “A Night to Remember” won the runner-up prize in The Short Story Is Dead! Long Live The Short Story! Vol. 2, 2016. She recently participated in the inaugural Rutanang Book Fair in Potchefstroom. She was a judge in the PEN International New Voices Award 2016.

South African born Robin Winckel-Mellish works as a freelance journalist and has lived in the Netherlands for many years. She runs a poetry critique group in Amsterdam. All the colours of southern Africa are threaded through her poems infusing both the light and shadow of life. She is widely published and is working on her forthcoming second poetry collection. Her first collection A Lioness at my Heels was published in 2011 by Hands on Books.

Jane De Sousa

and

Lynda Jennings

Roots Exposed

Two artists’ heart journeys reflected through their poetry and photographs. Poet Jane De Sousa and Photographer Lynda Jennings have explored the intersections between a poem’s wordscapes and a photo’s visualscapes. They have collaborated in reflecting on how their different artistic mediums merge and meld. They have explored how the wordscapes poem’s create in our imaginations can relate to visual images and how a visual image can inspire a poetic response. In working together, Lynda has created photographs in response to Jane’s poems and Jane has written poems in response to Lynda’s photographs. The poems and photographs reflect the heart journey of these two artists – from uncertain youth to adulthood with deep roots that yet allow their heart trees to bend and sway and dance in the winds of life.

Bio:

Jane De Sousa has always had a passion for poetry, but was “sensible” and did a BSc before abandoning the laboratory and following a career as an organisational and management consultant and trainer. She found her way back to poetry in 2016 after completing The Artist’s Way – a 12 week recovery programme for blocked artists. Since then she has been part of a poetry group mentored by Wendy Woodward and enjoying the process of finding her poetic voice. She has always been fascinated by the wordscapes poems create in our imaginations and how these relate to actual visual images. She has found the process of working with Lynda, who is a visual photographic artist, inspiring.

Lynda Jennings grew up in the beautiful environment of Cape Town. Her interest in photography began when her parents gave her, her first camera, a Kodak instamatic, at the age of 8. She bought her first “good” SLR camera about 16 years ago and her passion for photography just exploded.  Her first endeavours were with film, before moving into the digital realm.  Digital photography brings with it the added fun and personal expression of image manipulation and enhancement.  It opened up a whole new dimension.  The collaboration with Jane for the poetry festival has been enriching and rewarding; stretching her imagination and photographic techniques.

James Skilton first appeared on stage in a 1976 production of the musical “Camelot” and he has since gone on to appear, both here and in the UK, in over fifty productions. When not on stage James can be periodically spotted on TV screens around the world, appearing in a (thankfully) “ever growing” number of TV commercials.

Mark Jennings hails from Fish Hoek and has spent his life in radio.  He is currently the station manager at Fine Music Radio.  Mark also runs a business operating in-store radio services for corporate companies, does MC work and does voice-overs for ads and audio visual productions.  He also has been involved in community theatre, and loves running and canoeing.

Leonie Williams

&

Brian Walter

Helenvale ‒ in words and image

Helenvale is an impoverished area in Port Elizabeth, ridden with drug and gang-related violence, with socio-economic issues exacerbated by high levels of unemployment, housing shortages, over-crowding of dwellings and a lack of stimulating and creative opportunities for the youth. The Helenvale Poets project works to provide creative space within this community.

Leonie Williams (assisted by Brian Walter) presents, in words backed up by images, the poetry of the Helenvale poets. The presentation will be in English and Afrikaans.

Leonie will discuss the Helenvale Poets project, implemented by the Southern Africa Development, Research and Training (SADRAT) Institute over the last six years. She will describe the project and its poets, and range through the work produced over the years, highlighting both the work of the late Byron Armoed and her own work. She will be backed up with photographs of Helenvale, evoking a visual context.

Bio:

Leonie Williams is a founder-member of the Helenvale poets, a community group of writers formed under the auspices of Southern Africa Development, Research and Training (SADRAT) Institute.

Helenvale is an impoverished area in Port Elizabeth, ridden with drug and gang-related violence, with socio-economic issues exacerbated by high levels of unemployment, housing shortages, over-crowding of dwellings and a lack of stimulating and creative opportunities for the youth. The Helenvale Poets project works to provide creative space within this community.

Leonie Williams has contributed to three collections published by the project:

Uitsig (Port Elizabeth, SADRAT, 2011).

Tussen Straate (Port Elizabeth, SADRAT, 2012).

Kinderharte (Port Elizabeth, SADRAT, 2016).

She was co-editor of Kinderharte.

She has in 2017 compiled a solo collection, Broken Living: Poems from Helenvale (Port Elizabeth, SADRAT, 2017). She also co-edited a posthumous collection for another Helenvale poet, Byron Armoed, called Nagedagte.

Her writing, which is in both English and Afrikaans, is vibrant and “upfront”, giving her “take” on life and events in her community and the battles to raise a family as an unemployed mother of four.

She facilitates writing workshops for the Helenvale poets “New Generation” group, as well as for other poetry groups. She has recently embarked on an Early Childhood Development course.

Brian Walter is a Port Elizabeth based poet.

His poetry collections are:

Tracks, Lovedale, Alice (1999)

Baakens, Lovedale, Alice (2000)

Mousebirds, Seaberg, Port Elizabeth (2008)

Otherwise and Other Poems, Echoing Green (2014)

Poems Packed for Travel, Poetree (2016)

A collection of poems by Walter, Cathal Lagan and Basil Somhlahlo entitled Mendi ‒ a 1994 publication reflecting on the Mendi disaster ‒ has just been reprinted by the poets. His books include Groundwork: An Introduction to Reading and Writing about Poetry, Macmillan Boleswa, Manzini (1997), which he wrote with Felicity Wood. He has also edited and compiled texts for schools.

After leaving Fort Hare he worked on educational and community development projects.

He mentors the Helenvale Poets in Port Elizabeth, and he, with the Afrikaans poet Alvené Appollis-du Plessis, assisted them with two publications, Uitsig, and Tussen Strate, and ‒ with Leonie Williams ‒ with two 2016 publications, Kinderharte and  Byron Armoed’s Nagedagte, and in 2017, Leonie Williams’s Broken Living: Poems from Helenvale. He also works with the informal Ecca group of poets, who put out an annual collection of poetry. See eccapoets.blogspot.co.za

He has worked on the Rhodes MA in Creative Writing course, and has offered writing workshops for the directorate of Arts and Culture, NMMU.

He has won the 1999 Thomas Pringle Award for poetry published in journals and the 2000 Ingrid Jonker Prize for Tracks, as well as national and provincial awards for Arts and Culture.

Walter was born in Port Elizabeth, in 1956. He has taught at Chapman Senior Secondary School in Gelvandale, PE, and at the University of Fort Hare, Alice. For his PhD he worked on the writings of Sol Plaatje.

The BEATS:

Maura Talbot,

Tauriq Jenkins

and Kris Marais

BRAVEHEARTS – THE Beats – Outlaw Poets Transcending  the Stultifying Morass of Post War Morality

This production is a celebration of the work of the Beat Poets who raised poetry from its post war torpor by reviving its throbbing, beating impassioned heart. Not for them the barely discernible pulse.  No, they reignited the heartbeat of poetry magnificently and without strictures. They liberated poetry through the inversion of structural constraints imposed on artistic work.  Unashamed of expressing their sexuality for example, they produced beautiful and brutally honest heart-speak, shifting the aesthetic of what comprises good poetry.  It was at times ugly, incomplete, chaotic, yet often reconciled the dark heart with its golden counterpart.  Opposite to controlling and cultivating nature – they sought poetic integrity through symmetry.  The influence of the Beats ran in brooks, streams and rivers through the second half of 20^th century literature, indeed its flow is extant.  Like the human heart beat, their poetry is flexible and variable and responsive to all stimuli. The Beats restored the rhythms of the cold heart of mid 20^th century poetry.

The BEATS, (20^th Century Poets and writers) were social dissenters who significantly impacted the western world.  They questioned authority and humanity’s purpose, and turned away from conventional subject matter and methods of expression. They overcame censorship, lack of dependable communication, even incarceration, and being banned/outlawed by the ruling hegemony.  They refused to be suppressed, challenging the severe conservatism of post WW2 and McCarthyism’s America.

They abandoned the rote of contemporary literary norms and experimented with free verse, colloquial speech, and unstructured composition, spawning spontaneous prose infused with jazz and blues rhythms which powerfully expressed their unconventional ideas.  Allen Ginsbergs’ 1955 three-part poem “Howl” became a manifesto of the ideals of The Beat generation.

The central and essential tenets of Beat philosophy resonate strongly today.

“They asked the relevant question themselves. It was one of the things that united the writers and adventurers we call Beat – and their answers looked both backwards….and forwards, nostalgically (to face looming death, the rags of old age and the ruins of civilization) and heroically (to face the unknown, that which lies beyond the little bit of ourselves we know). ……..they matter because, at their best, they inspire us to look back for what’s been lost and forward to what we need to lose. (Oliver Harris)

Presented by poets Tauriq Jenkins, Maura Talbot and Kris Marais, supported by music and visuals, the audience will be taken on a 50 minute journey to various places in the BEATs’ New Vision.  Each of them will present several of their favourite Beat poets plus one of their own compositions.

Additional information on this poetry can be sourced from the following sites: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-beat-poets

Bio:

Maura Talbot’s poems are of a deep personal and confessional nature and reflect on her experiences as a child and adult.  They give voice to her process of understanding, healing and re-parenting herself.  Maura has 25 years of experience working as a socio-economic and environmental researcher, lecturer, consultant and activist in Southern Africa, and has a Master of Arts Degree in Human Geography from Rhodes University, Grahamstown.  She is currently setting up Tri Nexus Social Capital Services and collaborating with Kris and Tauriq to explore ways poetry and stories can help people re-connect and relate with themselves, each other and the broader society in affirming ways.

Tauriq Jenkins’ vocational trajectory directly answers several calls to action. From founding the Independent Theatre Movement of South Africa and directing Shakespearean productions with incarcerated youth in Cape Town, to teaching chess classes at New York’s Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, his work traverses institutional and societal barriers to seek transformation. He has a Masters Degree in Fine Art from Colombia and is Colombia’s  2015-2016 Oral History Merit Scholarship recipient. His Shakespearean performances are legendary in Cape Towns’ Observatory his South African home. Tauriq is currently directing Tri Nexus’ “Conscripts” production.

Kris Marais’ poetry has appeared in African Sun Press’s  Africa Ablaze and Heart of Africa anthologies, Stanzas and in the 2012 Off The Wall anthology. He reads whenever possible at Off The Wall in Observatory where he lives. His poetry is by turn, intense, sensitive and at times challenging. He has recently worked for NGOs engaged in Resource Restoration and Community Development and is currently engaged in start-up projects with Tri Nexus Social Capital Services. He will be presenting his Conscripts production at the National Word Festival 2017 with collaborators, Tauriq Jenkins and Maura Talbot.

TRI NEXUS SOCIAL CAPITAL SERVICES 

KRIS MARAIS (AUTHOR)

TAURIQ JENKINS (DIRECTOR)

AND MAURA TALBOT (PRODUCER)

State Property: the Conscripts of Apartheid – ‘Unwrangling’ the Heart of a socially constructed silence.

Author: Kris Marais

This performance of composed and found poetry (the poetry of the spoken word) speaks to a host of post-Apartheid South African hearts that are congested – with silence.  Hearts that have haemorrhaged silently, and mostly out-of-view, for decades.  Many unwittingly bearing crudely cauterized wounds.  SA’s post-Apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, sincere as it was, was too intimidating, too premature and unwittingly threatening to Conscripts of the SADF.  This performance creates an opportunity to thaw these frozen hearts, and initiate another chapter in South Africa’s healing. In this performance, the Karpman Drama Triangle, the human drama of the oppressor-victim paradigm is revisited, to create an opportunity to stop repeating the same divisive thinking that was imposed by the old colonial oppressors. For thousands of Conscripts hiding in plain view precludes any chance to heal their trauma – the trauma of silence and secrets, and keeps them very susceptible to fearful reactions. They became an open secret, and that kind of secret is cancerous. Their silence is a deafening roar.  This performance acknowledges these perforated hearts and initiates the conversations necessary to begin the reintegration of thousands of exiled hearts, and give voice to the many many things that shaped, unleashed and shut them down. It calls on affected South Africans to begin to speak and share their stories, to heal and halt the inter-generational perpetuation of the Apartheid war.

This production is presented by Tri Nexus Social Capital Services, and is a  collaboration between Kris Marais (Author), Tauriq Jenkins (Director) and Maura Talbot (Producer). It will run for 1 hour.  Thereafter the attendees will be given an opportunity (for up to 1 hour) to discuss their experiences and what the production brought up for them.

In the 27 years between 1967 and 1994, somewhere between four hundred and eighty and six hundred sixty thousand young white men were conscripted into the Apartheid State’s Military apparatus. At the height of conscription this amounted to seven out of ten white South African males over the age of eighteen.  They were conscripted for an initial period of 1-2 years and thereafter for a further 720 days broken up into annual 3 month camps. Conscription commenced with three months of Basic Training.  Under the law, failure to report for duty could result in imprisonment for six years. Conscripts assigned to the operational area (the then South West African border with Angola were forced to sign secrecy agreements.) During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a staggering 0.005% of Conscripts (35) made submissions.  Twenty-two of those where conscientious objectors who participated in the End Conscription Campaign and were thus “concientised”.

Bio:

Kris Marais’  poetry has appeared in African Sun Press’s  Africa Ablaze and Heart of Africa anthologies, Stanzas and in the 2012 Off The Wall anthology. He reads whenever possible at Off The Wall in Observatory where he lives. His poetry is by turn, intense, sensitive and at times challenging. “Conscripts” grew from several interviews Kris conducted with South African men now in their early fifties and late sixties. He will be appearing at the National Arts Festival 2017 with collaborators, Tauriq Jenkins and Maura Talbot. He has recently worked for NGOs engaged in Resource Restoration and Community Development and is currently engaged in start-up projects with Tri Nexus Social Capital Services.

Maura Talbot’s poems are of a deep personal and confessional nature and reflect on her experiences as a child and adult.  They give voice to her process of understanding, healing and re-parenting herself.  Maura has 25 years of experience working as a socio-economic and environmental researcher, lecturer, consultant and activist in Southern Africa, and has a Master of Arts Degree in Human Geography from Rhodes University, Grahamstown.  She is currently setting up Tri Nexus Social Capital Services and collaborating with Kris and Tauriq to explore ways poetry and stories can help people re-connect and relate with themselves, each other and the broader society in affirming ways.

Tauriq Jenkins’ vocational trajectory directly answers several calls to action. From founding the Independent Theatre Movement of South Africa and directing Shakespearean productions with incarcerated youth in Cape Town, to teaching chess classes at New York’s Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, his work traverses institutional and societal barriers to seek transformation. He has a Masters Degree in Fine Art from Colombia and is Colombia’s  2015-2016 Oral History Merit Scholarship recipient. His Shakespearean performances are legendary in Cape Towns’ Observatory his South African home. Tauriq is currently directing Tri Nexus’ “Conscripts” production.

UWC Creative Writing students

poetry reading 

Come and listen to the voices of the poets of the future. A group of poets from the Creative Writing Programme at the University of the Western Cape will read a selection of their work. Dynamic, experimental and always relevant, these students are all in their postgraduate year of studies. The work they will be reading has been inspired broadly by the idea of food, food shortages and inequality. The work has emerged out of a collaborative project with the Centre for Excellence at the University of the Western Cape. The appearance of the students at the festival is courtesy of the Centre for Excellence and the Mellon Foundation.

Language: English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa

Bio:

Kobus Moolman is the author of seven collections of poetry, and several plays.  He has previously won the Ingrid Jonker award, the PANSA award, the South African Literary award, the DALRO award, the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry award, and the 2015 Glenna Luschei award for African Poetry.  He is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of the Western-Cape.  For further information: www.kobusmoolman.com.

Brian Walter

Otherwise, and packed for travel

As this would be my first visit to the McGregor Festival, this poetry reading will range through poems from my last two collections, as an introduction to myself and my verse to this community.

• 2014: Otherwise and other poems, Echoing Green Press, Fish Hoek.
• 2016: Poems packed for travel, published through Poetree Publications,

Johannesburg.

Bio:

Brian Walter is a Port Elizabeth based poet.

His poetry collections are:

Tracks, Lovedale, Alice (1999)

Baakens, Lovedale, Alice (2000)

Mousebirds, Seaberg, Port Elizabeth (2008)

Otherwise and Other Poems, Echoing Green (2014)

Poems Packed for Travel, Poetree (2016)

A collection of poems by Walter, Cathal Lagan and Basil Somhlahlo entitled Mendi ‒ a 1994 publication reflecting on the Mendi disaster ‒ has just been reprinted by the poets. Walters books include Groundwork: An Introduction to Reading and Writing about Poetry, Macmillan Boleswa, Manzini (1997), which he wrote with Felicity Wood. He has also edited and compiled texts for schools.

After leaving Fort Hare he worked on numerous educational and community development projects.

He mentors the Helenvale Poets in Port Elizabeth, and he, with the Afrikaans poet Alvené Appollis-du Plessis, assisted them with two publications, Uitsig, and Tussen Strate, and ‒ with Leonie Williams ‒ with two 2016 publications, Kinderharte and  Byron Armoed’s Nagedagte, and in 2017, Leonie Williams’s Broken Living: Poems from Helenvale. This work is done through the NPO, Southern Africa Development, Research and Training (SADRAT) Institute.

He also works with the informal Ecca group of poets, who put out an annual collection of poetry. See http://eccapoets.blogspot.co.za

He has worked on the Rhodes MA in Creative Writing course, and has offered writing workshops for the directorate of Arts and Culture, NMMU.

He has won the 1999 Thomas Pringle Award for poetry published in journals and the 2000 Ingrid Jonker Prize for Tracks, as well as national and provincial awards for Arts and Culture.

Walter was born in Port Elizabeth, in 1956. He has taught at Chapman Senior Secondary School in Gelvandale, PE, and at the University of Fort Hare, Alice, with his PhD studies being on Sol Plaatje.

Cheryl Traub Adler

Paintings, Poetry & Postcards

[ ‘n hond se gedagte ]

You are invited to an exhibition of small paintings and poems at Stillness Sanctuary.  The walkabout will include meandering through the garden and spiraling through a labyrinth towards the view of the Krans Nature Reserve.

All the while discovering artworks and poetry in unexpected places.

The artist will describe her creative process pointing out the synonymous links between nature, writing, painting and the sensory.

Visitors will be invited to select, write and send a Poetry Postcard to a loved one.

Bio:

Cheryl Traub Adler is an artist, catalyst and teacher.  A graduate from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT who is fascinated by the intersection of all art forms including Painting, Photography, Installation, Land Art and Performance.

Trained as a Bridging Polarities through Art and Omega therapist, her focus is on the curative aspect of the creative process. Her work as part of ‘The Persistence of Memory’ project relates to national memory as part of the Center for Curating the Archive.

This year the group exhibition, ‘What Art is For?’ at 196 Victoria, Woodstock, challenged the viewer to think about the true value of art. Her continued studies include Medicine and the Arts, Humanizing Healthcare, The 21st Century Museum and Identity, Conflict and Public Space.

She has collaborated with the Spanish architectural collective, Basurama, Open City Project, Stories of Rain, the BlueBox project in Morocco and RoundaboutLx in Lisbon. Currently her solo exhibition ‘Anologue’ at Alliance Francaise, Cape Town, is on show until the end of August.

You can also find her on social media:

Cheryl Traub Adler (@profileview) · Instagram photos and videos

https://artformedicalhumanities.tumblr.com

Cheryl Traub Adler (@cheryltraubad) | Twitter

cheryltraubad) | Twitter

Harry Owen

  The Cull: new and resurrected poems

Book launch: In his third visit to Poetry in McGregor, Harry Owen introduces his new poetry collection by reading from and talking about The Cull: new and resurrected poems, which is both a focus on the increasing threats facing the natural world and a celebration of the wonders that still remain.

Bio:

Since 2008, English-born poet Harry Owen has lived in South Africa. Author of seven full collections and editor of two acclaimed anthologies, including the internationally admired For Rhino in a Shrinking World in support of the fight against rhino poaching, his work is widely published and commended in countries around the world.

The Cull: new and resurrected poems is Harry Owen’s seventh book of poetry. It’s central concern, as with much of his work, is the fate of the natural environment on an earth increasingly threatened by human expansion and intrusion. An advocate of life and biodiversity, he sounds an unmistakable warning while simultaneously celebrating the magnificence of what still remains to us.

More information may be found about his publications at:

For Rhino in a Shrinking World:  http://rhinoanthology.wordpress.com

The Cull:  http://thecullpoetry.wordpress.com

Harry lives in Grahamstown where he hosts the popular Reddits Poetry open floor event and also writes a fortnightly poetry column for Grocott’s Mail.

Pam Newham

&

Elaine Edwards

POEMS GONE WILD

Two nature- lovers take a look at the birds and the beasts. Pam and Elaine will read a selection of their own and other’s works. Along the way you could meet up with anything from pink monkeys to the little-known Erythopygia Paena.

Bio:

Pam Newham worked most of her life as a journalist but now writes what she really loves. She has had three children’s books published and poetry in various anthologies and journals. She lives in Hout Bay.

Elaine Edwards is a poet, teacher, avid bridge player and amateur artist who emigrated from Johannesburg to Melkbosstrand ten years ago. She has been published in several anthologies as well as producing her own collection entitled Sea Change.

Both poets belong to the Pleached Poets group, whose chapbook Quotidian was published last year. They have a blog at thepoetry platform.wordpress.com under the banner Pleached Poetry.

Patricia Hall

The Poet Chants

Give your inner poet voice through the medium of song. Together we sing simple chants from a variety of spiritual traditions. Become still, centred and filled with a quiet but vibrant peacefulness. The sessions are popular with McGregor residents so come early to ensure a place!

Bio:

Patricia is a teacher who has lived in McGregor for many years. She has facilitated chanting retreats and regular chanting sessions at Temenos. She has a passion for the arts which she employs in her personal and professional life.

Harry lives in Grahamstown where he hosts the popular Reddits Poetry open floor event and also writes a fortnightly poetry column for Grocott’s Mail.

Johan Myburg

Uittogboek

is ʼn bundel wat temas soos die mens se verganklikheid en vergetelheid aansny. Dié optekening word subtiel met ironie en humor deurspek. Die samebindende gegewe is dié van Romeinse keiser Hadrianus en die bundel open met sy bekende sterfgedig in Latyn en Myburg se trefsekere vertaling daarvan in Afrikaans.

http://versindaba.co.za/2017/05/17/nuwe-publikasie-uittogboek-johan-myburg/?fb_action_ids=10203626483780659&fb_action_types=news.publishes

Bio:

Die verse in Uittogboek (Protea) het tot stand gekom tussen 2008, die jaar waarin Kamermusiek (Lapa) verskyn het, en 2017.

In dié tyd het Johan Myburg gewerk as kunsredakteur by ʼn dagblad in Johannesburg – tot en met 2014 – en daarna begin vryskut. Hy skryf vir verskeie publikasies, “van ‘Kuns 101’ tot kunsessays wat veel meer navorsing verg, tot resensies oor uitstallings”. Hy lewer ook weekliks op RSG se Skrywers en boeke ʼn bydrae oor internasionale letterkunde.

Nadat Myburg in 2000 ʼn doktorsgraad verwerf het, het hy ʼn paar jaar gelede by Wits ingeskryf vir ʼn meestersgraad in visuele kunste en die gestruktureerde kursus en eksamens afgehandel. “Die gestruktureerde kursus van een jaar (wat drie klasgeleenthede per week ingesluit het) was die dryfveer waarom ek ingeskryf het,” sê hy. “Wat veral van waarde was, was die module in ‘Art Critical Writing’. Ek het nie die kwalifikasie verwerf nie omdat ek nie ʼn tesis ingehandig het nie. My oogmerk was nie ʼn kwalifikasie nie, maar wel om kennis en ervaring op te doen.”

Van 2008 tot 2017 was Myburg by verskeie geleenthede kurator vir groepuitstallings asook vir feesuitstallings (onder meer vir die KKNK van 2009 tot 2011). Later vanjaar is hy medekurator van ʼn omvangryke uitstalling saamgestel uit die versamelings van MTN en die Universiteit van Johannesburg.

Fanie Olivier

” ‘The Heart of Europe’ – Pole in poësie”  

Fanie Olivier gesels oor en lees voor uit sy gedigte, Afrikaans en Engels, wat in Pole ontstaan het en oor daardie landskap en sy mense gaan. Daar is ook Afrikaanse vertalings van enkele Poolse gedigte. Foto’s sal as agtergrond geprojekteer word.

“Ou laaie”  

Fanie Olivier lees voor uit en gesels oor sy Afrikaanse gedigte rondom die liefde wat hy opgediep het uit lêers en laaie en wat in 2018 gepubliseer gaan word.

Bio:

Fanie Olivier is gebore in Pretoria, word groot in die Kaap & leer skryf in Durban. Hy studeer Regte en Afrikaans op Stellenbosch en debuteer met gom uit die sipres. Verdere nagraadse studie volg in Utrecht, Nederland en hy promoveer op Potch. Hy doseer by die ou Universiteit van Natal en [eweneens] Durban-Westville, gee daarna onderwys op Graaff-Reinet en maak ‘n draai by die ou Skiereilandse Technikon. Kunsredakteur by Rapport vir drie jaar, en dan weer dosent by die [nou nog bestaande] Universiteit van Venda. Praktiseer ook om den brode daar as advokaat.

Hy werk vir amper twee jaar by Adam Mickiewicz-universiteit in Poznan, Pole en dan, die dood ter wille, weer as advokaat in Durban. Sedert einde 2007 terug by die nou nuwe Universiteit van KwaZulu-Natal, maar hy loop in Maart weer die Poolse paadjie terug. Publiseer naas die debuut vier ander bundels: om alleen te reis, paradysrigting van die wind, skimmellig en verklarings 1967-1987. Stel ‘n geleentheidsbundel of twee saam, en hou kers vas met Die mooiste Afrikaanse liefdesgedigte. Hy vertaal in 2009 JM Coetzee se Disgrace.

Shirmoney Rhode

Headlines wat vi’ poems gesmeek’it.

Shirmoney Rhode deel en gesels oor nuwe gedigte wat uitgelok was deur onlangse nuusberigte, onder andere kyk sy na die storie van Courtney Peters, die 3 jarige dogtertjie wat Mei maand in Elsies Rivier (waar Shirmoney grootgeword het) ontvoer, verkrag en vermoor was. Die gedigte is ‘n versameling van ongepubliseerde Kaapse Afrikaanse gedigte wat uiteraard sosiale kommentaar lewer op die gebeure wat die nuus haal.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shirmoney+rhode

http://www.litnet.co.za/onderhoud-shirmoney-rhode-oor-nomme-20-delphi-straat/

http://www.litnet.co.za/nomme-20-delphistraat-deur-shirmoney-rhode-n-resensie/

http://www.litnet.co.za/shirmoney-se-small/

Bio:

Shirmoney Rhode (26), is gebore en getoë op die Kaapse Vlakte. Sy het haar BA-Honeurs en Onderwysdiploma aan die Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland voltooi en hou tans skool by Hoërskool Claremont in Kaapstad. In haar vrye tyd geniet sy dit om te hike, lees en om teater opvoerings te gaan kyk.

Shirmoney Rhode (26) is a writer and performance poet whose work is inspired by the community in which she grew up, Elsies River, and its people. She draws her strength and wisdom from her grandmother who raised her. She completed her BA, BA-Hon (Afrikaans) and PGCE at the University of the Western Cape. She is a champion for Kaapse Afrikaans, which is the dialect of Afrikaans spoken mostly in the Western Cape. This young and spontaneous wordsmith started writing at the age of 13. She is passionate about telling the stories of the people in her community and she performs her work on different platforms in Cape Town. She participated at events such as the Open Book Festival, Franschhoek Literary Festival, Prince Albert Lees Fees and more. This is her second year back at the Poetry in McGregor weekend. She is currently teaching Afrikaans at Claremont High School in Cape Town. When she is not writing or teaching she hikes and reads.

Toni Stuart

 Somnambulism 

Poet Toni Stuart performs new work from a collection-in-progress, Somnambulism. This live poetry performance is an exploration of identity, grief and returning home to oneself, as the poet writes through her own questions around her ancestry and her mother’s death. Questions turn in on themselves, walking through loss is likened to walking blindfolded, and the still quiet of the night seeps through the words, lyricism and voice of the poetry and the poet. The performance will also experiment with live music and sonic landscapes.

Bio:

Toni Stuart is a South African poet, performer and spoken word educator. Her work has been published in anthologies, journals and non-fiction books locally and abroad. Her performances include, a group show at the Paris Autumn Festival 2013 (as part of France South Africa Seasons 2012/2013), poetry installation Here To Listen (London, 2015), poetry & film exhibition From My View with filmmaker Shelley Barry (South Africa, 2013); Stretching Silence with visual artist Firdous Hendricks (South Africa, 2013); sound installation Between Words and Images with curator & visual artist Ernestine White (South Africa, 2013), and I Come To My Body As A Question with flamenco dance company, dotdotdot dance Sampled at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in 2017.  In 2014 was part of the Scottish Poetry Library’s Commonwealth Poets United exchange.  In 2013 she was named in the Mail and Guardian’s list of 200 inspiring Young South Africans. She has an MA Writer/Teacher (Distinction) from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she was a 2014/2015 Chevening Scholar. She is one half of international poetry/music duo Gertrude & Jemima with UK poet/drummer Remi Graves.

twitter: @nomadpoet

website: www.tonistuart.com

Photograph: Amaal Said

Vangile Gantsho

&

Sarah Godsell

holding. and. silence

Coming from very different bodies and backgrounds, how do we hold each other? Who does the work of holding who? When is silence powerful, liberatory, and when are people violently silenced through others’ words or bodies?

We also explore poetry as resistance… to persistent forms of relationships, interweaving and interrogating the voices that pick apart at the smallness and bigness of our lives with the underlying question of survival. Who survives, how, and in what forms of personhood?

Bio:

Vangi Gantsho is a poet and cultural activist. Truthful and, at times hard-hitting, she has participated in poetry events and festivals around the world, as well as a number of poetry plays. As a producer, Vangi has put together shows such as Katz Cum out to Play, The State Theatre’s Night of the Poets, and Human4Human.  Her work has been published in literary publications including The Agenda (2004), Sabel (UK, 2010), Wits Press (2011), Botsotso (2015), New Coin (2017) and Illuminations (2017). Vangi released her début collection:  Undressing in front of the window (2015) and holds an MA, with distinction, from the University Currently known as Rhodes (2016).

Sarah Godsell is a Johannesburg-born South African poet with a PhD in History from Wits University. She began performing in 2009, and since has performed on various South African stages, including SANAA Africa festival 2013 and the Out There Jazz and Poetry sessions at the Orbit. She has been featured on SaFM, PowerFM and 702 as well as SABC’s Shift and Morning Live. She has been featured in publications such as “Home is Where the Mic is (Botsotso 2014) and “Marikana: a moment in time” (Geko 2013). Her first collection of poems “Seaweed Sky” was published by Poetree Publications in 2016.

LARA KIRSTEN

A decade of performance poetry: A slideshow and overview of Lara’s performance poetry

This slideshow is a celebration of Lara’s performance pieces she has presented with costume, nudity, found objects, water, fire, soil and body paint. It is theatre, colour, movement, expression made tangible. The photos will be accompanied by the relating of where, when and how these performances were presented.

 Die gedig as spieël

Lara Kirsten bied aan ‘n dramatiese optrede met ‘n installasie van spieëls en digkuns geskryf deur haarself en ander digters. Die digkuns is ‘n spieël vir/van die digtershart. Verwag ‘n visuele fees met spieëls en wilde weerspieëlings! Gedigte in Afrikaans en Engels.

Bio:

Lara Kirsten is a pianist and performance poet.

As performance poet: Lara 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 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.

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. In 2014 to 2016 she performed at the McGregor Poetry Festival. At the Poetry in McGregor weekend in 2016 she performed one of her most significant pieces mond: asemrowende spelonk where Lara’s body was calligraphed with excerpts from her Afrikaans poetry by calligrapher Andrew van der Merwe.

As published poet: 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. In 2015 and 2016 poems by Lara have been selected to feature in the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology.

More about Lara’s career as pianist, her poetry, photos and creative projects can be viewed on her blog at http://laraafrika.blogspot.com/

KOOS VAN DER MERWE

Droom Martha Droom

Êrens wag Martha vergeefs dat hy wat gekom het en gesê het hy kom weer sy beloftes sal hou. ‘n Ander troebadoer wens Katrien was nie die flerrie wat sy is nie.  Elders besing ‘n verowerde weer hoe ‘n somerrok van fyn katoen met hom maak as dit om háár lyf is..

In Droom Martha Droom kry jy Koos se kenmerkende poëtiese aanslag, maar verwag ook ‘n paar verrassende energieke en stomende liedjies soos Katoen, Vat Aan My en Hart Van Afrikaans.

Droom Martha Droom is ‘n album met gewig, tog is dit dromerig en speels. Jaques Brell se klassieke Marieke en Laat My By Jou Bly pas soos ‘n hand in ‘n handskoen by Koos en Matthys se oorspronklike skeppinge. Met Neem Die Wals bring Koos vir oulaas ook ‘n huldeblyk aan Leonard Cohen wat in 2016 weggeneem is van ons wat altyd na hom sal verlang

Nagverse

Nagverse, Koos van der Merwe se nuutste digbundel, is sopas vrygestel. Die luukse koffietafelbundel is geïllustreer deur Claudi van der Merwe. As jy na ‘n woord soek wat beide die gedigte en kunswerke kan beskryf: Betowerend!

Koos neem jou op ‘n poëtiese reis na veral vier bestemmings van die hart. Jy sal woorde vind vir die liefde en ook vir die lig en skadu’s van menswees. Jy sal kan stil word by heilige plekke, en natuurlik sal jy ook woorde vind vir die skoonheid van die aarde en ons reis daarop.

Maak gereed om met rym en vrye verse na plekke geneem te word waar jy sekerlik sal wil vertoef.

Bio:

Koos van der Merwe, bekroonde liedskrywer en digter, asook vir meer as 12 jaar rubriekskrywer vir SARIE tydskrif, is ook predikant en leierleraar van Eden Gemeente in George. Koos het reeds 3 suksesvolle digbindels uitgebring: ‘Optelwoorde’, ‘Pelgrimverse’, ‘Rympies in die Vliet’ en het gedurende Mei 2017 ‘n splinternuwe bundel uitgebring –‘Nagverse’ met illustrasies deur sy dogter Claudi van der Merwe.

Koos is ‘n gerekende liedjieskrywer en vertaler met die treffer ‘Houtkruis’ sekerlik die bekendste lied uit sy pen. Sowat 30 jaar lank was Koos lid van die sangdue ‘Prophet’ en het meer as 50 000 albums en verskeie SA musiekbenoemings en pryse ingepalm. Met suksesvolle vertaalprojekte soos Leonard Cohen en Bob Dylan se vertalings in Afrikaans, is Koos tans een van Suid-Afrika se mees gerekende en veelsydigste Afrikaanse kunstenaars.

In Mei 2017 bring Koos ook ‘n splinternuwe album uit met liedjies oor die liefde en die lewe – uit sy eie pen. Met Koos se bekende droë, sielvolle stem beloof ‘Droom Martha Droom’ om Afrikaanse gehore te betower.

HERMIEN DE VOS / BAMBOESINA

Bamboesee

Seebamboes is my ‘poetree’ of gedigteboom wat my anker aan die see.  Die bamboes is ook die wortels wat my siel aan die gees van die see verbind, soos aortapype my lyf aan my hart koppel.  Die see is waarvan my hart die volste is.  My bamboes-menswees is waaroor ek dink, voel, dig.

Bio:

Hermien de Vos studied drama at Stellenbosch.  She did various parts as actress in film, television, theatre and radio.  She did camera work, filming fynbos and other subjects for the former 50/50 TV-programme on SABC.  She also filmed penguins for TV and short film – link:  Filming and co-directing ‘Op Theefontein’ documentary.  Link: Solo art exhibition as Bamboesina.  De Vos is also an activist for water and wild nature and sea plastic at fb-@bamboesina vd see; and @Penguinsos – for the fenced african penguins of stony point.

Hermien de Vos (or Bamboesina) is rooted to the ocean. Her little sea-house is on the almost wild Stony point, and this is where she breathes in the sea-air and (when not surfing) spends her time fighting for the freedom of the encaged penguins and cleaning up the beach from the destructive plastic excrement of man’s un-humble and wasteful lifestyle. The kelp (or “see-bamboes”) are the roots tying her soul to the spirit of the water.  And this is what she writes about. Returning to McGregor for the second year she shares her most intimate words, showing us the sea as she sees it – the source of her life.

Lungiswa Nyatyowa

&

Mia Arderne

COLOURED [ME] BLACK

We explore the tension between Coloured and Black people in South Africa. Through interactive poetry, we address complexities around proximity and aspiration to Whiteness, the question of Blackness and anti-Blackness. Most significantly, we explore a unified Black and Brown power come-up that will happen together or not at all.

Bio:

Lungiswa Nyatyowa and Mia Arderne naturally gravitated to each other when they met in a Stellenbosch office. Their passion for words, the arts, and the need to engage through various forms of expression is what weaves their talents together and inspires their creations. With a keen interest in current affairs, equality, race, gender and how these impact the lives of people, this collective provides thought-provoking insight, products and projects underpinned by the philosophy of DWYM (Dala What You Must).

• Mia Arderne Portfolio LINK:

https://thedivinedala.wordpress.com

• Lungiswa Nyatyowa LINKS: http://152.111.1.87/argief/berigte/dieburger/2011/06/11/BY/7/Jeug-StoryA.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK5wxZzD8eA

https://vimeo.com/189223955

Gaireyah Fredericks

40 stories, 40 woorde op “40”

Hierdie boek is humoristies met lekker-lees staaltjies en het baie entertaining stories. Dit handel oor ware stories uit my avontuurlustige kinderjare en kenmerk die ankers in my lewe en waar my wortels geanker lê.

Bio:

Ek is Gaireyah Fredericks en skryf hoofsaaklik in Kaaps. Ek het my bundel Kaaps is Hollands en Mientjies in 2016 vrygestel en was al bevoorreg om dit by vele literêre feeste voor te lees, asook die McGregor Poetry Festival. Ek het by die 2017 KKNK fees saam Daniel Hugo oor my bundel ‘Kaaps is Hollands’ gesels en beide bundels, ‘Kaaps is Hollands’ en ‘Mientjies’ was genomineer vir die Eugene Marais Literêre prys. Ek het sopas die Adam Small fees en die Wellington se Stasiefees in May 2017 geniet. My huidige boek ‘40 stories, 40 woorde op “40”’ was betyds vir die Stasiefees gedruk.

Diana Ferrus

“Waar die hart van vol is loop die mond van oor”

Voordrag van gedigte wat handel oor die liefde, geskiedenis, hedendaagse politiek en allerlei onderwerpe wat die hart raak.

Optrede deur Diana Ferrus en mededigters van die groep “Mengelmoesdigters”

Diana Ferrus is ook op Facebook as “Diana Ferrus”

en ook as “The Diana Ferrus Pages”

Bio:

Diana Ferrus  is in Worcester in die Wes-Kaap gebore en is ‘n skrywer, digter en storieverteller van Khoisan en slaafse afkoms.  Haar werk is in Afrikaans en Engels gepubliseer.  Sy bied skryfwerkwinkels in Kaapstad aan terwyl sy as administrateur by die Universiteit van die Wes-Kaap gewerk het waar sy einde 2016 afgetree het.  Ferrus word veral geken vir haar gedig Sara Baartman, ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse vrou wat in die vroeë 1800’s na Europa geneem is onder vals voornemens en daar geparadeer is as ‘n rariteit.  Dit word alom geglo dat die gewildheid van hierdie gedig, daartoe gelei het dat Sara Baartman se oorskot uiteindelik teruggebring is na Suid-Afrika waar ‘n gedenksteen in die Gamtoosvallei, haar geboortewêreld, opgerig is. Die gedig is in Frans vertaal en is deur ene Senator Nicholas About in die Franse Senaat voorgelees. Die gedig is ook gepubliseer in die Franse wet, ‘n eerste in Franse geskiedenis.  Ferrus het ook ‘n uitgewersmaatskappy genaamd Diana Ferrus Publishers en sy is ‘n  stigterslid van die Afrikaanse Skrywersvereniging, Busch Poets en Women in Exchains.

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway

&

Hester van der Walt

Growing a book

In die kleigrond van ons werf het ‘n saadjie ontkiem. Na jare se watergee en vertroeteling het ‘n  boom gegroei.   In 2017 het my buurvrou vroedvrou gespeel. Sy het gesnoei en bemoedig en geprys en vandag is hier ‘n boom van ‘n boek.  We will share stories from the book which is about Hester’s life and about the lives of those who have touched her life, punctuated by poems about growing up and growing old together.

Bio:

Suenel Bruwer-Holloway lives in McGregor.  Her plays have been published by Junkets and her poems by Quickfox and Jacana in the Sol Plaatje Anthology.

Hester van der Walt lives in McGregor. The detail of everyday life interests her.  She writes poetry and short stories, mostly in Afrikaans. She is a passionate crafter of bread.  Her memoir will be launched at this event.

Bob Commin

The path is beautiful and pleasant and joyful and familiar.

A Meditation on the words and insights of Meister Eckhart, entitled Breakthrough, a German theologian, philosopher and mystic 1260-1328).

I have created a meditation from the words of Meister Eckhart as translated by Matthew Fox in Meditations with Meister Eckhart.

A Poetry Eucharist of the Heart or The Mass of the Empty

The Revd Bob Commin will preside at a  Eucharistic Service, in which we offer ourselves in the ancient “Greeting of Peace” instead of the bread and the wine. A Eucharist of the Heart, or a ‘Mass of the Empty Hands’ as it is sometimes called.

This form of the Eucharist was first used in the prisons of South and Central America, when Christian activists were imprisoned and denied the ministry of the Church, and in the 1970’s was even celebrated in the Victor Vester Prison, here in South Africa. The Collection will go to one of the needy projects of the town.

Bio:

Bob Commin is a poet, priest, storyteller and life-coach. He grew up in Woodstock, Cape Town and acquired degrees at UCT and University of South Africa. He has grown into his work through pastoral care in the Western Cape, and England, and has taught at Loretto school in Scotland, at Bishops and Herschel Girls School, Cape Town.  He has run workshops on Creativity, Storytelling and Poetry. He and Dorian Haarhoff, writer and storyteller ran a very successful poetry e-mail course. Bob has also developed a poetry course for teenagers, and runs creativity courses for young people.  He has the following publications: From a Still Point (Meditations), Someone Dreaming Us (Poetry), Becoming Human (Poetry), Meditations on the way of the Cross, and Under the IIex Tree. He also plays Grand Master’s hockey for South Africa.

Kat Mansell

Simple Poetry & Dragon Lights

My late father nick named me Putzy. My Roof of Africa friends used to call me klapmutz! At the age of 72 I remain a rebel, none-conformist and a revolutionary.

I am Master of myself. I am Master of my writing & my poems. A relief when my late mum took me out of boarding school aged 12…among things she taught me never to be afraid & to stand with the Best. Thank you Mum. Years of writing poetry & short stories based on fact rounded with some fiction to balance; are the Essence of my life, past & present.

Provocative, giving me an understanding of rogue science & learning throughout my life’s 13000 year journey from Atlantis, to this present day

The Mothertongue Theatre Company

Ebusweni Uthando – Ons is Hier

A performance offering that combines poetry, physical theatre and sonic-scapes that speak from/ to the heart.  Performed in The Mothertongue Project’s new theatre space, Ebusweni Uthando-Ons is Hier comprises self-written poems in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.

Bio:

Directed by Thapelo Hlongwane and Sara Matchett, and performed by the Mothertongue Theatre Company, a full time performance company that engages young local performers from the Langeberg region. Performers:

• Jaydene Lekay
• Sandile Skosana
• Ashley Seconds
• Kayalethu Mkorwana
• Denise Gandu

Dr. Jade Gibson (PhD)

‘The Uprooted Heart’

I am going to turn things on their head and present a session on the ‘Uprooted Heart’  – what happens when one has broken roots, broken hearts, moments of disconnect and disturbance when one is pulled from the self and faced with the contrast between the yearning for connection, and the spilt from and conflict with who one is? How can being true to one’s heart separate one from others? Of course, underlying all internal conflict is the deep need for connection and trust ‘rooted in heart’ between persons, belonging and society. I will also read a very short excerpt of my lyrical novel ‘Glowfly Dance’, in the form of poetry.

The desire for inherent human-ness and connection informs all my work – as in my novel ‘Glowfly Dance’ (Penguin Random House Umuzi 2015), longlisted in the Barry Ronge Sunday Times 2016 Prize and shortlisted in international Dundee and Virginia Prizes (see attached information). I am a regular guest poet at Off the Wall, Cape Town, and have been a guest poet in London, 2nd Prizewinner of Inglis House poetry ‘Bone and Tissue’ international competition, US, as well as being fellow co-ordinator of the Cape Town Writer’s Network.

I have also combined poems with artwork and short art films such as “Rootless’ (academic paper), and exhibited in Cape Town as part of the Slavery Remembrance Day Walk, as well as internationally. I may also be able to exhibit some artworks that combine poetry and art if you are interested.

‘Glowfly Dance‘

By Jade Gibson

An extraordinary tale of migration, love and loss

Based on a true story, Jade Gibson’s Glowfly Dance focuses on the survival and resilience of the child Mai, who learns that freedom comes at a bitter price, in this tale of the failure of society to shield women from violence while protecting the perpetrators.

With intriguing characters, exotic landscapes and lush description, Glowfly Dance depicts the complexity of domestic violence and its devastating impact on the entire family. The novel has been short- and long-listed in three international literary prizes, and reviewers have described the book as both harrowing and beautiful.

Told from Mai’s perspective, a young girl of mixed heritage, the story spans three continents and deals with issues of migration, identity, women’s refuges, abuse of women and children, law courts and violence. It exposes flaws in the ability of the authorities – legal, social, psychological – to protect, and thereby raises questions on policy and social responsibility. In depicting the failure of the law and society to protect women and children in danger, the novel aims to stimulate debate and ultimately bring about awareness and positive change.

Gibson says, ‘I have written a prize-shortlisted book on a childhood life story of domestic abuse and violence that encompasses intimate partner femicide. I would like to share this story with you, which I fully believe will help save women in similar situations in the country through spreading much-needed awareness, and the survival and resilience of children.’

Glowfly Dance has been featured widely in the press, book fairs and talks, including the Sunday Times, Business Day, Kingsmead Book Fair, Open Book, Nancy Richards’ SAfm literature show and Artscape Women’s Festival, among others. Formally certified by the SA Department of Education as useful for education on domestic violence. Glowfly Dance is available in bookshops across southern Africa.

Glowfly Dance’s story continues to be of ongoing relevance to the following media, literary and educational interests/campaigns — Child Protection Week, – International Woman’s Day – Women’s Month – 16 Days of Activism – Intimate Partner Femicide –  Child Resilience and Survival

ISBN: 978-1-4152-0751-2 (print) I ISBN: 978-1-4152-0654-6 (e-pub) I ISBN: 978-1-4152-0655-3 (PDF) I RRP: R240 I CATEGORY: Fiction

For an interview with Jade Gibson, cover images and / or author photographs, contact Ryno Posthumus at RPosthumus@penguinrandomhouse.co.za / 011 327 3550. For more information, visit www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za

Bio:

Dr Jade Gibson (PhD) is a half-Filipino, half-British interdiscipliinary anthropologist, author of the prize short-listed novel ‘Glowfly Dance’ (Penguin Random House Umuzi 2015) and visual artist who has lived and worked in South Africa for over 16 years. She has a PhD and masters in Anthroplogy, hons degrees in both fine art and medical science, and has retained a sense of humour. For her, poetry is a way to dance, with words, with her audience.

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Bob Commin

&

Jane Dean

Stone-Light and Starlight: Touching the luminous 

Father/daughter team Bob Commin and Jane Dean present readings from the poetry and prose of Stephen Watson, Cape Town’s internationally acclaimed poet and writer. Watson’s poems evoke the many moods of the city, its people, the sea, Table Mountain and the mountains of the Cape, particularly the Cedarberg, and the stories of the /Xam. Watson was also a professor in the English Department at UCT and headed up the Centre for Creative Writing where he mentored many students in the Creative Writing Programme. He died in 2011 at only 56 after a brief battle with cancer. We celebrate Stephen’s legacy, his wonderful reflective poetry and his fascination with light.

Bio:

Bob Commin is a poet, priest, storyteller and life-coach. He grew up in Woodstock, Cape Town and acquired degrees at UCT and University of South Africa. He has grown into his work through pastoral care in the Western Cape, and England, and has taught at Loretto school in Scotland, at Bishops and Herschel Girls School, Cape Town.  He has run workshops on Creativity, Storytelling and Poetry. He and Dorian Haarhoff, writer and storyteller ran a very successful poetry e-mail course. Bob has also developed a poetry course for teenagers, and runs creativity courses for young people.  He has the following publications: From a Still Point (Meditations), Someone Dreaming Us (Poetry), Becoming Human (Poetry), Meditations on the way of the Cross, and Under the IIex Tree. He also plays Grand Master’s hockey for South Africa.

Jane Dean is a former English teacher, current poetry lover, artist and illustrator.

Leon Gropp

ROOIDAG – NP van Wyk Louw getoonset en gesing

Leon Gropp (voorheen van die kitaarduo, CH2) vertolk  gedigte van NP van Wyk Louw op musikale wyse met selektiewe uittreksels uit sy prosa wat hoofsaaklik dien as die bindingsteks. Die instrumentasie bestaan uit kitaar, klavier, tjello en perkussie. Buiten die intellektuele aard van die teks, word temas van verganklikheid, afwagting en die mistieke deurgans ondersoek.

Gedigtoonsettings sluit in: “Grense”, “Daar is geen woord”, “Rooidag”, “Gebed” en “Ons liefde is ‘n uur se ydelheid”.

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Ashley Dowds

Bio:

Ashley Dowds qualified and worked as a high school teacher (English and Drama), before becoming a theatre actor in Durban. He has since performed in a range of local TV series and in international film, as well as presented TV Travel, Wildlife, Lifestyle and Design shows. He is the author of the book: RED CAR DIARIES. He has just recently moved to Cape Town.

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Duduzile Uthingo Majola

Duduzile Uthingo Majola graduated from the Market Theatre Lab. She went on to work with Pops Mohammed, focusing extensively on indigenous instruments.

Uthingo has done international tours with FIOEN. Uthingo was called to be a youth ambassador in Chile for “Africa Chile Day”

representing South Africa. Uthingo works with children introducing them to and teaching them “umbheleza” and small percussions.

Uthingo has dedicated her life to making sure indegenous instruments are preserved by engaging children en and inviting the world to learn about the divinity in the indegenous music.

Uthingo has travelled to places like Holland championing this cause. She is currently part of the ensemble that is part of the the “Graceland Tour” with Paul Simon in Belgium.”

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Grounding Sessions

Poets from Grounding Sessions will be reading their poetry at “Poetry in McGregor” this year.

The Grounding Sessions is an intimate space of poetry, music and reflection. It is a place for community, where words are the connector.
Every Thursday there will be an open mic as well as a featured poet . A theme will also be chosen each week as a writing prompt for the next session.

Come share in on the poetry, because why wouldn’t you?

Let’s get grounded! Fill your Thursday with poetry & music. Featured artists + Open Mic.8 PM at The Drawing Room Café (87 Station Road, Observatory, Cape Town)

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MICHÈLE BETTY

OPTIMISING YOUR JOURNAL SUBMISSIONS FOR SELECTION

As editor at New Contrast:  South African Literary Journal, I am often astounded by the quality of the submissions that New Contrast receives – not necessarily in the content of the work but in the manner in which the work is put together for submission.  Although the format of the submission is not necessarily the determining factor in the selection process, a properly thought out and carefully worded submission will lend the submission greater credibility and can make the difference between selection or not.  This workshop will cover how to best format your submission in order to give your application the greatest chance of success.  It will cover, inter alia:

• The nature of the journal;
• The covering letter;
• When you should submit;
• What you should submit;
• Compiling your biography;
• Liaising with the editor. 

Bio

Michèle Betty is currently the editor of New Contrast:  The South African Literary Journal and the founder of Dryad Press, a bespoke poetry publishing company dedicated to the promotion and publication of poetry in South Africa.  She obtained a BA LLB at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she practiced as an attorney for many years.  In 2015, she graduated cum laude from the University of Cape Town with an MA in Creative Writing.  Her debut collection Metaphysical Balm, is due for publication in March 2017.

Links that you may find useful:

www.draydpress.co.za and in particular the blog page, where I am in the process of researching and discovering forgotten South African poets.  On a bi-monthly basis, a new forgotten South African poet is revealed and on a weekly basis a poem from that poet is featured.

www.newcontrast.net where you will find information regarding New Contrast, including some content pages from the last few issues to see what we have been publishing.

Pat Louw

Journey through Haiku

Description: This presentation combines haiku with photographs. It is a journey through word and picture through far-away places such as New Zealand, Canada and Thailand, in search of the Heartland, a sense of belonging. This, we will find, is Rooted in Fynbos. These haiku were written as part of a travel journal and the fynbos haiku as a record of wanderings in the Cape mountains.

Bio

Pat Louw used to teach English at the University of Zululand where she also did research in Place-based Literary Criticism and Animal Studies. She now lives in the Cape where she is learning about fynbos and has started a Facebook Page entitled Scarborough Flora.

Francine Simon

“Akka and Thungachi: a querying of familial history and identity in Francine Simon’s Thungachi“

Apart of Thungachi is to explore different ascepts of the so-called South African Indian identity through the voicing of family. These voices fell between character and accurate representation. In reading poems from the debut collection, Thungachi, Simon will discuss how familial identity intersects with personal history.

Bio

Francine Simon was born in 1990 in Durban, South Africa to Indian Catholic parents. After completing a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing, she spend a year in Hefei, China teaching English as a foreign language. Several of her poems have been published in South African literary journals such as New Contrast, New Coin, Aerodrome and Type/Cast. Her poetry has appeared in three volumes of the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology. She launched her debut collection of poetry, Thungachi, in March 2017. She is currently a doctoral student at Stellenbosch University. Follow her on Instagram (@francinesimon13) and Twitter (@writergirlrose).

Ilse Salzwedel

Woordketting

In ʼn variasie op die bekroonde RSG Kunstefees-produksie DIE WOORDKETTING, bring RSG se Ilse Salzwedel en twee van die gereelde Woordketting-deelnemers, Diana Ferrus en Philip de Vos, hierdie heerlike woordspel na McGregor. Johan Myburg (digter) en Nic de Jager (bekende radiopersoonlikheid) sluit by hulle aan. Jy sal hierna beslis met ander oë na ʼn gedig kyk!

Bio

Ilse Salzwedel is ʼn bekroonde joernalis, skrywer en omroeper van Johannesburg. Nadat sy ʼn graad in politieke wetenskap aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch behaal het, het sy vir ʼn paar jaar allerhande werk gedoen vir oorlewing. Sy het onder meer ʼn gastehuis en koffiewinkel bestuur, pannekoeke vir ʼn tuisnywerheid gebak en selfs vis verkoop! Op 28-jarige ouderdom het sy eers die geleentheid gekry om haar liefde vir woorde en nuus te begin uitleef toe Rapport ʼn streekskorrespondent in Noord-Natal gesoek het.

Sedertdien het haar werk al in die meeste Afrikaanse publikasies verskyn, maar die afgelope twaalf jaar skryf sy veral vir Rooi Rose.

Daar het al vyf boeke uit haar pen verskyn, onder meer die baie gewilde Bloedsusters (wat sy ook in Engels vertaal het) en Oscar Pistorius: Van sprokie tot tragedie in die kollig, ʼn finalis in die 2015 kykNET-Rapport Boekpryse vir nie-fiksie. Ilse is sedert 2013 die aanbieder en vervaardiger van Skrywers en Boeke op RSG, en in April 2017 het sy ook die redakteur van Afrikaans.com se boekeblad geword.

Sy is al met verskeie joernalistieke pryse bekroon, onder meer twee ATKVeertjies (een vir beste radiojoernaalprogram), ʼn PICA, verskeie Caxton-toekennings en die FAK se H.B. Thom-toekenning vir ʼn besondere bydrae tot die Afrikaanse joernalistiek. Die Cordis Trust het die Orde van die Beiteltjie in 2015 aan haar toegeken vir haar bydrae tot Afrikaanse letterkunde.
Sy woon in Johannesburg saam met haar twee tieners en ʼn miniatuur-dieretuin. Wanneer sy nie werk nie, lees of fliek sy graag.

SIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT (SLED) AND THE SASL DEPARTMENT OF THE SCHOOL OF LITERATURE, LANGUAGE AND MEDIA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND

Creating South African Sign Language Poetry

This workshop will be presented in SASL and interpreted into spoken English.

Bio

http://www.witslanguageschool.com/NewsRoom/ArticleView/tabid/180/ArticleId/145/Fast-Facts-About-South-African-Sign-Language.aspx

http://www.sled.org.za/

http://www.sled.org.za/workshops/south-african-sign-language-deaf-culture-courses-workshops/