The highly anticipated and much-loved annual celebration of all things poetry will take place from the 3rd to the 15th of October 2024. This year’s theme, focused on survival, will resonate deeply with poets and lovers of poetry alike. Poetry: Somehow, We Survive is inspired by the poem of the same name by acclaimed South African poet, activist, educator and journalist, Denis Brutus.
Denis Brutus was born in Harare (then Salisbury) and died in Cape Town at the age of eighty-five on December 26th, 2009. He survived being shot by the apartheid police, imprisonment alongside Nelson Mandela on Robben Island and exile. Despite this adversity, he continued to write poetry, organise as an activist and help form the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (San-Roc) in 1962. He published a dozen poetry anthologies, including the first Sirens, Knuckles and Boots in 1963. In 1982, his collection, Somehow We Survive, utilised praise poetry to celebrate the indomitable spirit and resilience of South African citizens.
“This year’s festival borrows from his clarion call to inspire poets to write as a response to the survival of the human spirit and its resilience to the constantly changing political, social and technological changes that impact our lives. We will commemorate the centenary of his birth, on the 28th of November”, says Siphindile Hlongwa, the curator of the Poetry Africa festival.
This year’s Poetry Africa festival will be hosted at venues in different provinces beginning from the 3rd to the 5th of October in Johannesburg at the University of Johannesburg Arts and Culture Centre. The Performing Arts Council of Free States-PACOFS will host the event in Bloemfontein on the 7th and 8th of October. In Durban Poetry Africa will be at the Seabrooke Theatre at Durban High School from the 10th to the 12th of October. Following the success of virtual events in previous years, some sessions will be presented in a hybrid format and will be online from the 6th to the 11th of October.
The multi-talented Lefifi Tladi, an artist, musician, writer and performer of poetry is the featured artist for the 2024 festival. He established the Museum for African Art in Ga-Rankuwa in 1971 for the display of contemporary art and the preservation of his personal archive and books. In 1974 he formed The Poets along with Kankana Matsena, Bushy Sepeng, Teboho Gilbert Mabale, and Ndabeki, where they recited the poetry of David Diop and Aimé Césaire, along with their own. He celebrated the vision of poets in his poem Through the Chameleon’s Eye, the power of poets and the importance of artists. He amplified these thoughts in an interview with Perfect Hlongwane in July 2023. He replied when asked about the role of the artist, “The artist creates. Let the politicians negotiate, but what the artist does is to create. To birth things into existence.”
“Tladi’s work embodies the very idea of self-determination and thriving despite the odds. Something he continues to do and one of his many attributes that will be honoured at the festival”, says Siphindile Hlongwa.
Brutus reminded us, “All our land is scarred with terror, rendered unlovely and unlovable; sundered are we and all our passionate surrender / but somehow tenderness survives.” In 2024, in a world that is scarred with terror, we encourage poets and poetry lovers to join us on a celebratory journey of reclamation of the tender towards a resilient and lovely future.
Together with the featured artists the festival boasts 72 participating poets from 21 countries in addition to South Africa. Poets from Angola, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Estonia, Italy, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Zimbabwe are on the programme.
“While this may be Poetry Africa the poetry is global, and the popularity is universal. This just a foretaste of what South African can experience in 2026 when Poetry Africa will host the World Slam Poetry Competition in Durban in 2026”, Siphindile Hlongwa.
The festival is made possible by collaboration with festival partners; the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, the South Africa Human Rights Commission, University of Johannesburg Arts and Culture Centre, the Performing Arts council of the Free State and Istituto Italiano di Cultura – Pretoria and the French Institute of South Africa. The full programme will be released on Friday the 30th of August and ticket sales will open at Webtickets on the 2nd of September.
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About Poetry Arica
Poetry Africa is an annual international poetry festival curated and presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban each year during October. The festival features Spoken Word & Publish Poets in performances and dynamic engagements which includes panel discussions, campus and school visits, poetry exchanges, book launches, open mic sessions and a slam jam competition. The festival provides a vital platform for celebration and critical reflection about the contribution of poets in the movement for social change both nationally and internationally. At the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Poetry Africa festival supports academic scholarship in contemporary poetry. The festival is a dynamic player in the cultural economy of the broader eThekwini; and plays a vital role in advancing the city’s status as a UNESCO City of Literature.
About National Lotteries Commission
The NLC relies on funds from proceeds of the National Lottery. The Lotteries Act and regulations guide the way in which NLC funding may be allocated. The NLC wants the grant to make a difference to the lives of all South Africans, especially those more vulnerable, and to improve the sustainability of the beneficiary organisations. Available funds are distributed to registered and qualifying non-profit organisations in the fields of charities: arts, culture, and national heritage; and sport and recreation. By placing its emphasis on areas of greatest need and potential, the NLC contributes to South Africa’s Development.