Poetry platform features top poets
Philile Ntimbane
Over the past three years Poetic Thursdays and Soweto Theatre have teamed up to bring what has now been termed Soweto s biggest poetry platform.
This month’s show, on January 30, features model/activist and performer Gaddafi the poet.
Born Boitumelo Mainganya, Gaddafi has become one of the most sought-after pens in South African poetry.
His demeanour and vigour saw him recently headline, among others, the Mapungubwe arts festival and being an ambassador for Castle Lite’s ‘smash the label campaign’.
Gaddafi’s poem Matters of the heart was read by deputy minister Mabhudafhasi in 2017 at the Africa month celebration.
Busisiwe Mahlangu, 23, is the winner of the Tshwane Speak Out Loud Youth Poetry Competition 2016/2017 and National Library of South Africa Poetry 2017.
Her work is longlisted for the Sol Plaatje European Poetry Award and published in New Coin, Kalahari Review, Best ‘New’ African Poets and Atlanta Review.
Her debut collection Surviving Loss was published in late 2018 and has been adapted for theatre at the South African State Theatre as part of the Incubator programme.
Mahlangu has toured and shared her work internationally including Washington DC, Sweden, Lesotho, Mozambique and Nigeria. She is currently studying for a BA in Creative Writing at UNISA.
Vusumuzi Phakade is a poet, storyteller, public speaker and theatre actor. He is founder at Current State of Poetry; a platform in Joburg which sees some of the foremost slam poets battle it out for prizes and the bragging rights of Joburg’s hottest slam poet.
He is also one of the facilitators at the Kalahari book hunt, another platform which curates works by different South African authors.