MAUN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
MARCH 26th 2011
One of Poetavango’s dreams is about to come true.
On March 26th at The Boma at Maun Lodge, Artists from across the SADC region will converge on Maun for the First Maun International Poetry Festival. This is a celebration of arts and culture that is unlike anything ever seen in Botswana!
Two shows over the course of the day will transfix the audience as over 18 poets slam the Okavango Delta with rhymes that will inspire and motivate.
Performer include (Keep checking back for more performers to be added to the list):
International Poets - Zwesh Fi Kush (South Africa), Flo (South Africa), Outspoken (Zimbabawe), Upmost MyBruthazKeepa
(Zimbabwe), Lesego Motsepe (South Africa), Clinton Smith (USA),
National Poets expected – Ngwao Putswa, Ntirelang Berman, Berry Heart, TJ Dema, Mandisa Mabuthoe, Poko Ya Setso, Mmakgari Dabutha, Andreattah Chuma, Ras Tshipa, Phegal,
Poetavango Poets who will perform; Messenger, King Philosopher, Dredd X, Priskath, Vygos, Tautona, Caribbean Weed, Mister Poke, Juby Peacock
Venue: Maun Lodge- The Boma
Show Details:
March 25th: Performers Workshop- open to performers and local poets.
Facilitated by one of Botswanas most successful writers, Lauri Kubuetsile. Author of over 5 novels.
Preliminary Show (Curtain Raisers)
March 26th 10hr00
· In the months of February and March, there shall be an Interschool poetry competition in Maun in partnership withWomen Against Rape
· The top 10 young poets of this competition will have a chance to perform in the Preliminary show at the Maun International Poetry Festival.
· These young performers will also get the chance to perform alongside their favourite Poetavango and National Poets.
The Main Show
March 26th 6hr00
· There will be over to twenty performers in one night; local, national and international.
· International and national poets will perform two poems each while host poets will perform one.
· Poets will be varied in style and technique (slam poetry, spoken word, storytelling, traditional poetry)
· A cocktail meal shall be served for all ticket holders.
· Poetry books and CD’s will be on sale during the show.
Sponsorship: For information on sponsorship for this event, pleas contact info@poetavango.com
Volunteers: Please contact info@poetavango.com if you would like to volunteer to assist with the organization and staffing of this event.
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A Successful Beginning
Posted by LAURI KUBUITSILE on April 1, 2011
Last Saturday Poetavango organised the inaugural Maun International Poetry Festival, I was there and from my seat it was a great success. The Saturday main event included poets from all around Botswana, as well as from South Africa, Zimbabwe and the United States. Some of the poets were well established, some new; some performed in English and some in Setswana. There was a good turnout for the event sponsored by Barclay’s Bank and the Department of Arts and Culture.
People who read this column know I’m a fan of performance poetry though I don’t do it myself. My perspective is, though, that the poetry should come before the performance, that the words are the foundation; the performance is only the decoration. The poem needs to use strong words and images to communicate with the audience. For me this is where some of the poets failed last Saturday. If wild costumes and bizarre behaviour are part of the performance, I see them as nothing more than a distraction. My take is if you need too much performance, you’re not spending enough time on your words. If you don’t want to put in that time, then you’d rather find yourself another place to perform your act because, quite frankly, you’re no longer a poet because a poet’s main love and primary focus is the words.
I have to mention here that my Setswana is no where near good enough to make any critique of the Setswana poets in last weekend’s festival. I hope somewhere someone else will. I’m confining my comments to the English poets.
The poems on the night often dealt with relationship issues and social problems. Mandisa Mabothoe’s poem “I Miss my Drug” was powerful in words and presentation. Priskath, from Poetavango, has a unique voice and her poem on abused women was a good start, I can’t wait to hear more from her. King Philosopher’s poem, “Mma Mothusi”, about a working class woman trying to cope with pressure from all sides and considers suicide as a way out but she concludes “There’s no freedom in a tree” had moments of brilliance. Dredd X should be hired by BTV to read his poem on men who sleep with young girls- it was powerful and spot on and could assist these men to see clearly how the rest of us view them.
Other highlights of the evening included Andreattah Chuma and TJ Dema who never disappoint. One of my favourite’s for the night was Clinton Smith, the poet from New Orleans who lives in South Africa. His first poem was about the dilemma of seeing a boy begging everyday. His second poem was a love poem to South African women. People new to performance poetry could learn a lot from him. He used simple language to produce powerful sentences delivered in a calm, subtle way that built a theme that pounded against the walls with its message. Very nice indeed.
All in all I think Poetavango have done a very important thing for the literary arts in this country. I think it is important that this event is outside of Gaborone to make it feel more like something for the entire country not just another capital city cultural event. Poetavango have a commitment to making performance poetry part of the tourism experience another reason to have it in Maun. My wish is that next year the Festival can be widened to include activities for all writers. Also, from the workshop I conducted with Bontekanye Botumile on Friday night, I could see there is a need for discussion around many topics facing creative writers in the country. Literary festivals are great places for such discussions to take place. It would be good if panel discussions around some of these issues are included next year. The Maun Festival could end up being the most important annual event for writers in this country.
My Trip to Maun
Jenny teaches standard 2 and music at the Okavango International School. I spent Friday there reading some of my stories to the children and teaching them about the trumpet. Jenny and I played together, she on piano, me on trumpet, for their school assembly as well.
Sadly this "Keep Botswana Clean" dustbin is located along the Rakops- Maun road at one of the rest areas. Not a very good advert for tourists to see.
I also took this photo along the way. This is on the bridge over the Boteti River between Xhumo and Mopipi. It's been quite some time that the Boteti has flowed this far south. Apparently there is still more water on the way from Angola.
One of my favourite poems of the night was from American born, South Africa living, Clinton Smith. Here is a video of him performing it elsewhere, enjoy!
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- Lauri
- I'm Lauri Kubuitsile. I'm a full time writer living in Botswana. My love is fiction, but to make a living I write TV scripts, textbooks, news articles, lesson plans, radio scripts and anything else that requires words being placed in a pattern on a page.
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Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Maun International Poetry Festival
Last weekend, I traveled to Maun, Botswana to perform in the first annual Maun International Poetry Festival. The festival was coordinated and put together by a local spoken word group in Maun called PoetAvango, who put on monthly sessions for the poetry lovers of their country. The founder of the group, Dredd X, a talented poet/guitarist with an unyielding smile and an amiable sense of humor, invited me to be part of the festival a few months ago after seeing of my videos on youtube. Needless to say I was more than happy to take him up on such an opportunity.
Dredd X At first, I was daunted by the prospect of an 18-hour bus ride, but there no way I’d let that stop me from meeting and performing with some of the best poets in southern Africa. The bus ride itself ended up being pretty easy, relatively speaking, with a few good books and a long nap used to pass the time.
In Maun, I roomed with another poet from South Africa named Zwesh. There are a lot of adjectives I could use in an attempt to describe Zwesh, but they would all be insufficient. Basically, Zwesh a wise African sage who dropped amazing Rasta knowledge on me the entire time I was there. Seriously, I don’t think this dude could go 5 minutes without saying subtly profound things. He also helped guide me through the chaos of the mini-bus station when we had to transfer buses, and moved vendors and taxi drivers aside as if he were parting the Red Sea.
Zwesh 
Outspoken, Brighten, and Upmost I also made good friends with two immensely talented poets from Zimbabwe, Outspoken and Upmost-Mybrotherskeeper. These guys run a really impressive arts for social and political activism organization back in Harare, and considering the current political climate in Zim, I commend them highly for the important work they’re doing.Friday evening there was a workshop/symposium for all of the poets to discuss the our personal writing processes as well as the state of spoken word, what role it plays in our society, and how we can harness the power of our art to inspire others to bring about social change.Saturday during the day there was a youth poetry competition where 10 teenage girls from Botswana competed in the finals of the Women Against Rape (WAR) poetry slam. The theme of all of the pieces had to do with gender-based violence and these girls went in! It was some of the most passionate poetry I’ve ever heard and you could tell that this was coming from a very real place for all of them.Saturday night was the main show, where poets from across southern Africa got on stage and presented work that ranged from modern slam, to storytelling, to monologues, to traditional tribal poetry. While we had to bring the festival indoors because of the rain, it was definitely a cool experience to see so many different styles of poetry manifesting themselves on stage.
If only I actually glowed like this onstage
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Overall the experience was a great one and if I’m lucky, it won’t be the last poetry festival I perform in.
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Posted by Clint Smith+++++++++++++
- Clint Smith
- For the next year I will be living in South Africa and working for Grassroot Soccer, an organization that uses soccer as a means to promote awareness and education about HIV/AIDS. I hope that this blog, and the photos and compositions posted within it, will allow me to share my reflections upon what will inevitably be a series of unique, exciting, difficult, and life-changing experiences.