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The Badilisha Poetry X-Change 2009 calendar of poetry exchanges and collaborations continues with a weekend of poetry performances at Spier.

Taking place at Spier’s beautiful and intimate Boma by the river, the local and international poets will weave their words into the night from 7:30pm on 27 and 28 November 2009.

About the poets

American performance poet and multi-instrumentalist, Ngoma Hill, shifts paradigms with work focusing on culture as a tool for socio-political consciousness. Having worked with Allen Ginsberg and Amiri Baraka, his credentials show that this critically-acclaimed artist packs a punch with his words and sound.

Dubbed a ‘Brit-born Bajan international’ by Caribbean literary icon, Kamau Braithwaite, Dorothea Smartt, is a poet and live artist who merges standard and Caribbean English through poetic form, speech rhythms, myth, history, observation and reflection.

2007 Poetry Slam Champion Warsan Shire is a London-based, Somali poet who uses her words as a conduit for the messages of the marginalised and misunderstood. Warsan has performed extensively in the UK and North America to rave reviews. This is her first appearance in Cape Town.

Prolific and provocative South African wordsmith and filmmaker, Aryan Kaganof, features in the eclectic African Noise Foundation, together with Zim Ngqawana - a composer in the Blue Note tradition, Mantombi Matotiyana (one of the last living traditional exponents of the Uhadi instrument), Warrick Sony (Kalahari Surfer) on acoustic instruments, and isiXhosa vocal improviser David Mayekane.

Badilisha Poetry Xchange Workshops

The local and international poets participating in The Badilisha Poetry X-Change will conduct a series of workshops and discussions during the week leading up to the performance weekend.

Discussions deal with a range of topics, including Poetry in Urban Spaces (presented by Ntone Edjabe in partnership with the Africa Centre for Cities), a discussion on issues facing refugee communities with Warsan Shire at the Scalibrini Centre for Refugees as well as a poetry in process dialogue with Dorothea Smartt, hosted by the UWC English Department.

The workshops focus on the intensification of poetry-writing skills. Ngoma Hill’s workshop focuses on the use of music in performance poetry, encouraging young artists to find original and inventive ways of expressing their own truths. Dorothea Smartt will explore place and environment as a metaphor for creative expression and Aryan Kaganof will work with a small multi-genred focus group.