Poetry festival offers workshops

Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) to take place from 14 to 19 October, this festival is a critical platform for self-expression that gives a platform for cultural exchange in the city of Durban.

The event brings together some of the world’s finest poets and musicians to Durban, with artists from India, Benin, Nigeria, Ireland, Italy, Canada and the USA.

The Pre-Festival creative writing workshops take place from 7 to 11 October at the Centre for Creative Writing (University of KwaZulu-Natal) offers 15 aspiring writers an extensive week-long programme which offers to develop their creative writing tools to hone their craft.

The extensive workshop programme also includes a pre-festival tour of Durban by the festival finale musical act, Canadian hip-hop and spoken word poet Ian Kamau. The interactive week-long workshops will take place in various venues across the city, and is a must for all poetry lovers.

Kamau’s Rhythm, Rhyme & Reasons workshops will take place on:

Tuesday 8 October, Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre, 2pm to 3pm; Wednesday 9 October, BAT Centre, 5pm to 6p’m; Thursday 10 October, Lindelani Arts Centre, 1pm to 2pm and Friday 11 October, Alliance Francaise, 2pm to 3pm.

To take part in the workshops presented by Ian Kamau, contact poetryafricaworkshops@gmail.com.

There is a poetry writing workshop at the BAT Centre Saturday 19 October, headed by Raphael D’Abdon (Italy) and Kobus Moolman (South Africa), offers poetry lovers an opportunity to discuss reading, writing and the performance aspects of poetry.

This year the festival will also host a workshop in partnership with Poetry Potion on Saturday 29 October at the BAT Centre, to discuss and analyse the work of their third quarterly publication Poetry is not a Luxury.

For more details about this year’s Poetry Africa, visit www.cca.ukzn.ac.za or call 031 260 2506.