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lesego rampolokenglatest news & developments
My word: Modise Sekgothe has been given the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Poetry — the second recipient in four decades.

Modise Sekgothe’s poetry of transformation

In a quiet moment on an otherwise ordinary afternoon, Modise Sekgothe found out he had been selected as only the second poet to win the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for…

Critique: Musician Tumi Mogorosi (above) and poet Lesego Rampolokeng will be in MoRa at the Pan African Theatre Festival.

Diary: The Pan African theatre festival, Disney’s Aladdin Jr and two unmissable events in Durban

Your essential dose of art and culture

In Word Down the Line, Lesego Rampolokeng talks to struggle poets about South Africa’s 20 years of democracy. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

The fragments of society are filled with poetry

If we read closely, spoken word still holds the realities of the past even though it is written in the present

Welcome return: Musician and composer Feya Faku launched his book of compositions and two albums — Live at the Bird’s Eye and Impilo — in October at eDikeni in Sandton. Photos: Tseliso Monaheng

Mzansi jaz z breaks free and flies in 2021

A slew of new releases and ideas about jazz emerge as artists beat the Covid-19 blues

A still image from Paul Emmanuel’s ‘Remember Dismember’, a cyclical video looped so as to have no “beginning” or “end”

June 16: Redemption through negation

When we rebel and part ways with the barbarism of the apartheid and the democratic state, we will keep the memory of this historic event alive for current and future generations

Poet and academic Kobus Moolman says page poets need to remember the origins of all poetry are in song, prayer, voice and heartbeat. (Photo: Liesl Jobson)

It is foolhardy to insist on a false dichotomy in poetry

Whether they are written on a page or spoken on a stage, poems echo the cadences of our hearts

Dub poet and activist Mutabaruka, a regular visitor to South Africa, will participate in a dialogue with contemporary Lesego Rampolokeng. (Source: Facebook)

Don’t Miss: Our roundup of this week’s virtual and in-person events

For good vibes and an Arts fix, don’t miss this

Straddling forms: Rampolokeng is hard to separate from his character Bavino. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

‘Seding’ word stew is tough to chew

BIRD-MONK SEDING by Lesego Rampolokeng (UKZN Press)

‘The judgments that questioned the integrity of advocates Jiba

Of old-timers and past glories

Lesego Rampolokeng’s third novel, Bird-Monk Seding, is a stark picture of life in a rural township two decades into South Africa’s democracy.

Salim Washington: Reedman blows fire and tears

Violence and murder – of Marikana miners and foreigners – inspired works by saxophonist Salim Washington

No easy stroll to freedom for SA poetry’s restless howler

Dissonant, dissident wordsmith Lesego ?Rampolokeng waxes poetic about the new ?oppression in his debut documentary film, ‘Word Down the Line’.

Going against the grain: Lesego Rampolokeng.

Critic’s head is on fire

Andile Mngxitama responds to Kwanele Sosibo’s article on Lesego Rampolokeng’s new book, which he says was a gratuitous denunciation of Rampolokeng.

Hard to swallow: Lesego Rampolokeng’s new book of poetry Head on Fire is not easily digested.

Lesego Rampolokeng: Fragments of obscurity

A new book of poetry renders its writer even more abstruse and, given its profanity and obsessiveness, it is a tough chew, writes Kwanele Sosibo.

a-man! a-man!

From the heart: An extract from Lesego Rampolokeng’s <i>Blackheart</i>