This year’s annual international poetry festival curated and presented by UKZN’s Centre for Creative Arts will bring together poets, artists, academics and public intellectuals from 3 to 12 October.

This programme will feature poets from around the world who will share survival tips and thrive together, breaking and reimagining physical boundaries of time and space in poetry.

The first online session hosted by University of the Witwatersrand’s   Adam Levin will be with members of the South African Poetry Project (ZAPP) who will speak on the range of projects they have undertaken to promote a love of contemporary South African poetry in schools and local communities.

The session entitled Poetry and Academia (fading legacies) is an online panel hosted by Ms Ongezwa Mbele from UKZN’s School of Arts  Dr.Raphael D’Abdul(University of South Africa), Dr. Pieter Odendaal(North-West University), Siza Nkosi (University of Fort Hare), Dr. Phillippa Yaa De Villiers(University of Witwatersrand), Dr. Sbusiso Ntuli(University of Zululand) and Prof Dumisani Sbiya (University of Johannesburg) who teach and work in the academic sphere.
 
Moving beyond the Ivory Tower, Word from the Continent will showcase four poets, Beverley Nsengiyunva (Uganda), Siphiwe Nzima (Lesotho), Teamhw SbonguJesu (SA) and Chilufya Chileshe (Zambia) and celebrate the richness and diversity of African poetry, highlighting voices from different regions of the continent.
 
Creatives will demonstrate solidarity with Palestine poets in Poems from the River to the Sea, with poets Mosah Abu Toha (Palestine), Dshamilja Roshani, and Farah Sayed sharing hope and their vision of peace for the region.

Other presenters will include Mr Lefifi Tladi, an acclaimed activist and celebrated artist who played an important role in the rise of the Black Consciousness movement, poet and visual artist, Ms Cheryl Boyce-Taylor from Trinidad and Mr Bash Amuneni York,
a Nigerian architect, storyteller, and performance poet who is also a TEDx speaker and general manager of the Abuja Literary Society.
 
Ms  allia abdullah-aatta, a poet and Professor of English at CUNY LaGuardia, US and the Graduate Center/Africana Studies Program will share her work, which addresses the culture and history of Black women and Black bodies and voices in fine art and poetry. Dr Phillippa Yaa de Villiers who has taken time from lecturing creative writing at Wits University, Johannesburg; and Ms Uhuru Phalafala, a writer, researcher, archivist, and scholar will also participate.

‘The festival will be presented as both a live and online event. Its hybrid nature means that no matter where one is, one will be able to participate in the many online webinars,’ said Curator of Poetry Africa , Ms Siphindile Hlongwa.

Full programme: https://poetryafrica.ukzn.ac.za/