F
ROM J Bobs Tshabalala’s Poet.O.Type, where poetry is a character and the soul of the play, to Lebo Mashile weaving words to movement in the Sylvia Glasser collaboration, Threads – the dance poem, poetry and theatre were bound to find each other.
Poetry, heightened, deconstructed and explored within the theatrical realm, is a major focus of the sixth Word N Sound International Youth Poetry festival taking place from October 3 to 9 at the Market Theatre.
There will be a presentation of four productions scheduled as double bills. They are: No One Wants a Black Woman With a Mouth (by the BlackGirlPlotting Company) and Metropolar (by Modise Sekgothe and Jotam Schoeman), on October 4; and Black Boy Be (by Xabiso Vili) and Assembling Mutle Mothibe (by Mutle Mothibe), on October 5 at the Barney Simon Theatre.
Within six years, Word N Sound has successfully established itself as a live literature company that pushes for a multi-focal approach to the development of literature and the spoken word in Joburg. It has also become the central platform for the cultivation of young voices in the city’s poetry scene.
Through its presence, the intuitive, provocative and mindful voices and talents of Mothibe and Sekgothe have arisen.
For the past 15 years, Mothibe has refined his skills as a writer and performer to become a revered name in the spoken word community. Experiencing his work, you’re immediately drawn to his raw talent and passion for spoken word, his pursuit of perfection, attention to detail and his affinity to physical theatre.
“I love break dancing and reading body language. There are a lot of things people overlook – like how you walk onto stage, to how you breathe and how that affects a performance. I’m aware of all those things when I perform and am obsessed with getting things right. I’m fascinated by the body and the spiritual mediums we can access through it,” he says.
With Assembling Mutle Mothibe, he deconstructs and reassembles his work to give his audience a glimpse of the inner workings of his craft and himself.
The new work comes after a spiritual hiatus and a re-evaluation of his reasons for being a spoken word artist.
Sekgothe is not only a spoken-word artist, but a theatre performer and playwright whose explorative and collaborative spirit make him an interesting new voice to watch. His studies in psychology add another dimension to his perceptions.
“I’m drawn to the exploration of several things – an individual’s internal world and how this interacts with the outside world, what it means to be a young black South African man in life, spirituality and love, and where I find myself in the city,” he says.
Metropolar, a multimedia art show and a collaboration between Sekgothe and visual artist and musician Jotam Schoeman, delves into the above through pivotal characters that portray the contrasting realities of living in Joburg. The work is an organic piece that combines Sekgothe’s eight-part, verse narrative poem and Schoeman’s music against the backdrop of an animation film of sketches from Schoeman’s exhibition, Bedoelende Stad Studies: Johannesburg 01.
The duo are working on the Metropolar audio-anthology to be released as a crystallisation of the show.
Programme: wordnsound. com.