Exciting line up for poetry festival

THE 17th Poetry Africa – International Poetry Festival has a full and exciting festival line up which will showcase diverse voices and sounds. Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) the festival runs from 14-19 October.

The event bringssome of the world’s finest poets and musicians to Durban, with artists from India, Benin, Nigeria, Ireland, Italy, Canada and The United States of America.

The Pre-Festival Creative Writing workshops taking place from 7-11 October, at the Centre for Creative Writing (University of KwaZulu-Natal) offers 15 aspiring writers an extensive week-long programme which offers to develop their creative writing tools to hone their craft.

The extensive workshop programme also includes a pre-festival tour of Durban by the festival finale musical act, Canadian hip-hop and spoken word poet Ian Kamau. The interactive week-long workshops will take place in various venues across the city, and is a must for all poetry lovers. Kamau is a writer, visual artist, hip hop and spoken word artist from Toronto whose discography lists five collections, including the popular album One Day Soon (2011).

Kamau’s Rhythm, Rhyme & Reasons workshops will take place on the following dates:

Tuesday 8 October: Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre, 2-3pm.

Wednesday 9 October: BAT Centre, 5-6pm.

Thursday 10 October: Lindelani Arts Centre, 1-2pm.

Friday 11 October: Alliance Francaise, 2-3pm.

To take part in the workshops presented by Ian Kamau, contact poetryafricaworkshops@gmail.com.

There will be a Poetry Writing Workshop at the BAT Centre Saturday 19 October, headed by Raphael D’Abdon (Italy) and Kobus Moolman (South Africa), which will offer poetry lovers an opportunity to discuss reading, writing and the performance aspects of poetry. D’Abdon is an Italian scholar, writer, editor and translator and a post-doctoral fellow in the English Studies Department at UNISA. Kobus Moolman is a lecturer of creative writing and languages at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and author. Moolman has a diverse portfolio of published work and his latest collection Left Over is currently enjoying rave reviews.

This year the festival will also host a workshop in partnership with Poetry Potion on Saturday 29 October at the BAT Centre, to discuss and analyse the work of their third quarterly publication Poetry is not a Luxury.

For more details about this year’s Poetry Africa, visit www.cca.ukzn.ac.za or call (031) 2602506