MASERU — South African poet Thabiso ‘Afurakan’ Mohare is pencilled to rub shoulders with local poets at the Valley Breeze IV poetry festival at Roma on Saturday.
This will be the first time that an international poet has been invited to recite their poems in Lesotho.
Afurakan is billed to perform along Poetry Farm poets Lyrical Bacteria, Maarafi and Manini.
Rethabile Ntereke and Siziwe of Women of the Well will also participate at the festival, organised by one of Lesotho’s leading poetry groups, Poetry Farm.
Poetry Farm manager Peter Mahase told the Weekender the festival will celebrate poetry and other forms of art.
“This is the fourth poetry fest we are holding,” he said.
The poetry festival began in March 2007 but was aborted in March 2009 when the coordinators left the National University of Lesotho after graduation.
Mahase said the 2011 festival is bringing Afurakan to spice up the line-up.
“We will see a fusion of music, dance and poetry from local artistes. The highlight of the night is Thabiso ‘Afurakan’ Mohare as the first international artist to take part in the festival.
“Afurakan is a well-known slam poet and activist from South Africa who is true to himself and his culture. His style of poetry and delivery are quite relevant to the world we live in.
“He fuses words with jazz and hip hop and takes on a journey of art and self-exploration that aims to inspire and expand the diversity of poetry as an art,” Mahase said.
He said they decided to bring other voices to the festival.
“The festival has always been handled by Poetry Farm alone but this year we will be merging with other poetry groups,” Mahase said.
“We will be bringing a combination of music, stand-up poetry and dance to entertain fans.
There will be an open session for the audience.
“We will have a heart-to-heart session where at least two people will take to the stage and own the show.”
