dumbfoundry

Alfred A. Yuson: DURBAN, South Africa – The Ninth Poetry Africa Festival 2005 held here from Oct. 10 to 15 has certainly been the most dynamic, delightful, and thoroughly engaging poetry event I’ve participated in.

Last year’s International Poetry Festival 2004 in Rotterdam impressed me with its excellent organization, manifold programs and sub-events, however simultaneously most of these were conducted, so that one had to skip others for a single option. But the so-called "mainstream" poets or published "page" poets were segregated from "performance poets" – consisting of spoken word artists, hip-hop rappers, and slam poetry exponents, as well as video poetry and musical artists, who all had their own specific turns in various venues.

Here in Durban, we have been one big happy family, with traditional, quiet readers interspersed onstage with the generally younger, more energetic performers who recited their explosive verse from memory, with body language to suit. Most readings are done in English, thus dispensing with the verbal rendition and/or screen projection of translations that tend to slow down proceedings, as happened in Rotterdam whenever a Dutch or any other non-English poet took to the podium.

This entry was posted by Ivy on Monday, October 17, 2005 at 8:05 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.