Young East London artists scoop awards and prizes

THE Westside Youth Centre’s inaugural Youth Arts Competition concluded on Youth Day and saw some talented artists walk away with impressive prizes at an awards ceremony held at the Ann Bryant Art Gallery.

As a means of giving developing artists in and around East London a platform to hone their talents, the event incorporated competitions for various artistic disciplines such as poetry, visual art and rap.

Over the course of a week, more than 60 artists between the ages of 18 and 35 took part in the competition’s three main events, namely a poetry reading, a visual art exhibition and a rap battle.

A high standard of work and creativity was seen across disciplines, but it was the rap artists that emerged victorious with Thabo Kamba, not only bagging R2 000 for winning the rap category, but going on to win a further R5 000 after being crowned the Best Westside Artist as well as the Best Overall Artist. The cash prizes for these is R2 000 and R3 000 respectively.

The Orange Grove resident said that he was still in shock days after receiving the news.

“I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to grow as an artist,” said Kamba.

Despite not winning cash prizes at the Saturday awards ceremony, two promising rap artists, Ndumiso Gora and Michael Zulu, were scouted by local DJ and producer, Vovee Batala.

The two rappers were given the opportunity to record an album with Batala.

“It was a small start, but I think this event has great potential. I believe it is the first time our city has had such a competition and it was a great success,” said Westside Youth Centre director, Vuyo Zambodla.

Other category winners for the event were Jarryd Holmes for drawing and sketching, Mandilakhe Rolinyathi for painting, Sponono Nkopane for sculpture and the Group Amasiba Amanyange for poetry. Each artist received a R2 000 cash prize. —