Creating a space for young black writers
A PORT Elizabeth-based scriptwriter is offering writers of all kinds a platform to network and exchange ideas at the Athenaeum tomorrow and on Saturday.
Xolisa Ngubelanga, 30, has started Our Writers’ Network (Own) to provide creative and academic writers in the Nelson Mandela Metro with a platform to exercise their skills and voice their views in a space they can own.
“Own’s objective is to pull from the expertise of writers of all kinds, particularly the young black writers I rub shoulders with.
“The purpose of focusing on young black writers is to shatter the myth of the [Eurocentric] narrative,” Ngubelanga said.
The Own event will profile and analyse some of Ngubelanga’s scripts. These include Broken Lens, a short story about a young photographer who, haunted by misrepresentation of Africa, returns to his village to document the ways of his land and people.
Fikile Mahola, who is known for his role as Simphiwe on the SABC2 soapie 7de Laan, as well as his role as Lorato on the SABC1 drama series Mzansi, will read Broken Lens.
Mahola will be reading alongside Xabiso Zweni, filmmaker and director of #AfterMarikana, a play that saw theatre lovers flood to the PE Opera House to watch it in August.
Ngubelanga “implores” everyone interested in learning about African culture from the perspective of young Africans to attend.
Ngubelanga has had a number of his scripts staged in the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown between 2009 and 2014.
The journal Poets in Nigeria also recently published his poem My Heart Beats for You.
Tickets cost R40 for one day and R60 for both days.
For further information, contact Ngubelanga on 063-058-4171.