16 January 2008
From 29 January to 2 February, the Spier Poetry Exchange will offer Cape Town audiences a celebration of the word - written, spoken, sung and even explored on screen, bringing together 14 inspired solo performances and four collaborative productions by local and international wordsmiths.
This is the first of three Spier Arts Festivals, and represents the re-birth of the Spier Arts Summer Season under the umbrella of the [1]Africa Centre.
On the weekend of 1 and 2 February, an exciting line-up of poets and performing artists will engage audiences in outdoor venues on the Spier Estate.
These will include South African poets, storytellers and performers Gcina Mhlophe, Ernestine Deane, Jacques Coetzee, Gert Vlok Nel, Khadija Heeger, Odidi Mfenyana, Napo Masheane, Shelley Barry, Andrea Dodolo and Shabbir Banoobhai.
The international poets will include Omekongo wa Dibinga, of Congolese descent and resident in the US; Ruben van Gogh, Changa Hickinson, Antoine De Kom and Violetta Simatupang representing voices from Indonesia, Trinidad, The Dutch Antilles, Surinam and Holland under the Winternachten banner.
Winternachten is a writers' and poets' network in The Netherlands and historically related countries that hosts an annual festival in The Hague, with writers, music and film from these countries.
The Festival will also host a range of collaborative poetry productions, including Umyezo Wezandi directed by Mandla Mbothwe, Stone Words directed by Jaqueline Dommisse, and Living on the Fence, directed by Paula Kingwill with musicians Garth Erasmus & Glen Arendse of Khoi Khonnexion.
From 29 to 31 January, a programme of satellite events will be hosted by established local poetry groups to foster exchange, networking and dialogue among diverse poet communities, including participants and audiences from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, University of the Western Cape, Stellenbosch University, Guga S'thebe in Langa and Verses in Long Street.
The hosts will be poets and poetry activists Diana Ferrus, Halejoetse Tsehlana, Bulelwa Basse and Nicole Moody respectively.
The satellite events will explore, among other themes: "Poetry for Page and Stage: examining oral and written genres", and "Reclaiming the Mother tongue: the affirmation of indigenous voices".
The vision of the Spier Poetry Exchange, say festival curators Malika Ndlovu and Lorelle Royeppen-Viegi, is to showcase a diversity of cultures, languages and styles of presenting poetry and to build new audiences for this art form.
"The festival is building and extending on what has gone before," says Ndlovu, referring to the successful Spier Open Air Poetry Festival performed on the Spier Estate in 2006 and 2007.
"However, besides expanding the festival activities beyond the Spier site through satellite events, there is now also a distinct emphasis on performance poetry, which is attracting wider audiences.
"Poetry is alive - it is being seen by more and more people as a means to creatively express and engage with their conditions," says Ndlovu. "Styles of communicating are diverse, too: from written to multi-media performance, hip-hop to sung to theatrical performance - and in a wide range of languages.
"It is vital for this festival, as one of only three major annual poetry events in the country, to support and create visibility around all these voices."
SAinfo reporter
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