The festival sets the stage for poetry from South Africa, all five regions of the African continent and around the world. The majority of the festival programme will be presented virtually free of charge. and is accessible for free.
This year’s festival is themed ‘Unmute: Power to the Poet’ and aims for the audience to remain inspired by the voices of poets. Audiences can expect to be mesmerised by the poets’ voices and messages that are like vaccines that cautiously brings us back into the light of the darkness and the new dawn.
This year’s Poetry Africa Festival line-up includes over 80 participants from over 25 countries. Some of the headlining South African poets of the festival include musician and poet Buhlebendalo Mda, spoken word artist Gubhela, celebrated poet Lebo Mashile and poet Makhafula Vilakazi.
The festival also includes a line-up of international poets such as actress and poet Lakhiyia Hicks from USA, British-Trinidadian dub poet and TS Eliot prize winner Roger Robison from the UK as well as Ukrainian poets Yuliya Musakovska and Andriy Lyubka.
Other South African poets included in the line-up are Lethu Nkwanyana, Siphokazi Jonas, Natalia Molebatsi, Africa Dlamini, Athol Williams and many more.
As part of the 25th-anniversary celebrations, the organisers are launching an anthology, a journal and a documentary during the festival. The anthology, titled Hashtag Poetry, is a collection that aims to remind the reader that poets and wordsmiths may seed social justice in hashtags and slogans but it is all of us who are called to reap the harvest in action and with deeds.
The journal, released in collaboration with Imbiza Journal, includes seasoned poets who appear alongside new dynamic voices. The essays, features, book reviews and poems make for an interesting and edifying read.
A Poetics For Transformation is a short documentary film made from the festival video archives over the years, combined with animated illustrations, a call-and-response soundscape and photography. It seeks to explore poetry’s conscientising capacity within the broader ecology of social justice.
“We salute and honour all the poets who have walked this road with us and who over the last 25 years have given us the words to express feelings, share experiences, address issues of poverty, social injustice, struggles and survival. This year’s Festival recognises the power of the poet,” Hlongwa said.
The Poetry Africa Festival will be streamed on Facebook and YouTube.
