GENE is an internationally published performance poet whose writing engages themes of love, ancestry, sexuality, society, and mysticism. GENE has been performing poetry since 2005 and was a member of the legendary “Likwid Tongue” collective. GENE produced and co-directed her debut poetry album! Habesi (Roots) in 2023. GENE’s more recent work has been published in Voices Unbound, an anthology of poems that were performed at the 8th International Symposium of Poetic Inquiry. GENE is the founding Director of |Kx’am and is a master’s candidate at UCT researching indigenous healing methodologies.