Xabiso Vili is a South African poet, performer and new media artist whose work moves between poetry, theatre, immersive technologies and speculative storytelling. A World Poetry Slam Champion (2022) and Mandela Washington Fellow (2024), Xabiso is the founder and Executive Creative Director of Siziintsomi Creations, a storytelling practice rooted in innovation, healing and African imagination. Their work explores memory, spirituality, masculinity, grief, humour and contemporary African life, often bringing oral storytelling into conversation with emerging technologies. Their projects have been presented across South Africa and internationally, including at Poetry Africa, Berlin African Book Festival, NewImages Festival in Paris and Fak’ugesi. Xabiso’s literary work includes the poetry collection Laughing In My Father’s Voice and the forthcoming speculative novel supported by the Bosberg Book Writing Programme. They are currently developing The Past Is In Every Direction, a performance work that uses poetry and comedy to explore grief, memory and the strange things we inherit.
