HILLCREST High School was privileged to be part of a visit organised by Poetry Africa.
Poets Andrew Manyika from Zimbabwe and Crystal Valentine from New York spoke to a selected group of senior learners, including the Word Sessions learners, recently.
Andrew is a comedian and award-winning poet and writer from Zimbabwe. Combining wit, wordplay and an infectious sense of humour, he brings a unique approach to stand-up comedy and performance poetry.
Andrew established his career in Johannesburg where, in 2010, he won, among many accolades, the University of Johannesburg International Students Poetry Competition.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Crystal Valentine is a writer, activist and educator.
Her work has been featured on several international newspaper and broadcast sites. and she is the author of her first book, Not Everything is a Eulogy.
When she isn’t performing, Crystal can be found leading youth workshops at Harlem Children’s Zone and Urban Word NYC.
The poets performed some of their talented work and then opened the floor to learners at the school who wanted to share their own writing (and many did, with rap and poetry) and received Poetry Africa posters and T-shirts for their efforts.
Educator, Michelle Naude, was excited that her learners could be exposed to this wonderful opportunity and was certain it would fire their imagination, to continue to create inspired works of word-art.
