Bubblegum Club

Tag: poetry exchange

  • BORN::FREE poetry nights // the live alchemy of South African and UK-based literature practitioners

    The project BORN::FREE Next Steps was conceptualized as a poetry exchange involving artists based in South Africa and the UK. This three-part series of events and workshops explores themes including gender, race and spirituality, among others. The most powerful impact of the project has been the forging of relationships between South African and British live literature practitioners – specifically womxn of colour working in and outside of the diaspora.

    BORN::FREE, a poetry night co-founded by writer and educator Belinda Zhawi, began as a community project in the UK with the aim of creating a space where emerging writers and well-established writers could inspire one another and share their work with one another. With the first part of the project taking place in the UK, Johannesburg and Cape Town will see Belinda travel to deliver her poetry and share her literary passion together with South African poets.

    Photography by Gabriel Shamu

    The first of the two South African poetry sessions took place at Johannesburg’s African Flavours Books store on the 5th of January. As I walked into the venue, the chatter of the attendees hummed the tune of excitement that comes with a new year, and a new experience. Although the audience was mainly made up of Joburgers, there were a few British visitors woven between those seated. Belinda began the evening by reciting poems that share experiences from her childhood in Zimbabwe as well as poems that express a mix of lessons she has learnt about life and herself. South African poets, writers, social commentators and academics Katleho Kano Shoro and Lebohang Masango shared their poems, and information about their latest published works. Katleho has recently published her debut collection of poetry,’Serebulele‘. Lebohang has recently published a children’s book titled ‘Mpumi’s Magic Beads’. Both of these are available at African Flavours Books.

    BORN::FREE will then travel to Cape Town on the 11th of January and will be hosted by Ahem Art Collective. In addition to Belinda’s performance, South African poet, performer & spoken word educator Toni Stuart as well as London-based poet and drummer Remi Graves.

    Check out the Facebook event for more info about the Cape Town event

    ‘This article forms part of content created for the British Council Connect ZA 2017 Programme. To find out more about the programme click here.

  • BORN::FREE Next Steps // a powerful poetry exchange

    BORN::FREE Next Steps // a powerful poetry exchange

    Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.

    This quote by poet and author Rita Dove encapsulates the feelings that Belinda Zhawi has towards writing poetry and writing. She has been writing for several years, mainly doing poetry, but has done prose too. She has performed at festivals and literary events all over the UK, and about two years ago she joined forces with her friend through words and through life, Chima Nsoedo, to start a poetry night called BORN::FREE.

    Reflecting more on her relationship with writing, Belinda explained that, “Writing for me was mostly just to do with having been reading for a long time, was a vicious reader as a child.” Having grown up in Zimbabwe she would read book written in Shona by African writers. When she moved to London as a teenager she discovered a section of classics library mostly written by African American writers. “I was amazed at how I felt reading that work, reading characters that felt like me or looked like me even if they weren’t like me. And after that I was like ‘I want to write stuff too’.” She began writing for friends and family, and writing became a way of documenting memories and experiences so that she would not forget her home. I was also a way of trying to forge a different kind of identity. “So I think writing for me is very much about that relationship with myself with regards to ideas of home, memory and ancestry,” Belinda explained.

    BORN::FREE started out as a community project with the aim of creating a space where emerging writers and well-established writers could inspire one another and share understandings about the way in which they mold words into stories or expressions of feelings. “From there it just became a thing that people respond to and has been growing…It has been a great learning journey and great community space for writers.”

    The project BORN::FREE Next Steps was conceptualized as a poetry exchange involving artists based in South Africa and the UK. For the UK part of the project South African poets Nova Masango and Katleho Shoro were invited to be part of a workshop relating to writing and performance, which culminated in a one night only performance at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Belinda expressed how she has been admiring Nova’s work online for a while and was delighted to finally work with her in person. Belinda heard about Katleho through a recommendation as was also mesmerized by her work online and her presence on stage.  The UK-based poets included founder of the poetry collective Octavia, Rachel Long. Long-time poet, writer and musician Zena Edwards also performed on the night. The aim for the project was to put together a “diverse group of women who are doing interesting things with literature” and to “provide a wide range of voices.”

    The second half of the project will be taking place in South Africa towards the end of July. Belinda will be coming over and spending some time in Cape Town with the hopes of working with young writers and performers through workshops. The final stop for the South African leg will be in Johannesburg, where she is hoping to mirror the UK experience.

    Because writing is a soft and hard place,

    all at once

    – Yrsa Daley-Ward