Two years ago, Badilisha Poetry X-Change travelled across African cities to meet and record the work of the poets in those cities. The 2015 #BPXRoadTrip visited eight cities in South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania and Ethiopia. During the road trip, Badilisha interacted with over 246 poets and recorded 184 of which 100 are now featured on our growing archive.
We’re pleased to announce a new edition of our poetic journey. Badilisha is going on the road again, this time with the specific intention of meeting with emerging and seasoned poets working in indigenous languages. Our aspiration is to marry the language diversity of the continent with those represented on the Badilisha platform. We are specifically targeting poets who write and recite in Setswana, Sepedi, Sesotho, Zulu, Afrikaans, and Ndebele. To do this, we will be travelling to Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, North West, Northern Cape and the Free State in South Africa.
We will announce the specific tour dates for each province via Facebook and Twitter. In the meantime, poets from the above-mentioned provinces or whose poetry is in any of the languages mentioned, please submit following via email to info@africacentre.net
- Two written poetry samples (In any of the above – mentioned languages)
- One audio poetry sample (doesn’t need to be professionally done)
- A brief biography
- A high resolution photograph
Poets will also have the opportunity to participate in poetry workshops with poetry professionals from the different regions. Further information on this will also be shared on our social media platforms.
Explore Badilisha Poetry X-Change here.
This project is made possible through the support of the National Lotteries Distribution Fund.