‘Growing Poetry’ at McGregor festival
THE small village of McGregor, near Robertson, is gearing up to host the third McGregor Poetry Festival from August 27 to 30. The programme will once again offer lovers of poetry a wide selection of events to attend.
Festival attendees can look forward to poetry readings by Ian McCallum, Antjie Krog, John Maytham, Adam Small, Lara Kirsten, Patricia Schonstein, Petra Müller and Gert Vlok Nel, to name just a few.
One of the highlights will be the festival lecture given by Prof Louise Viljoen on the Saturday morning in the NG Kerk. Billy Kennedy, who founded the McGregor Poetry Festival, says that he feels honoured to have some of the country’s leading poets on the programme. He adds: “We are also excited about new, talented poets that will be reading their work. Names to look out for include Ansa Smit, Sisca Julius, Khadija Tracey Heeger and Genna Gardini.”
This year’s theme is Growing Poetry and the organisers are keen to offer a platform for budding new writers. With that in mind a new mentorship programme called “Growing Poets” has been launched to identify and assist budding young poets in the area.
An open poetry competition will give everyone the chance to be part of this “gathering of words”. The competition is open to any aspiring poet who has not published a volume of their own poetry. Entries close on August 17 and the winner and finalists will be announced on August 29. Winning poems will be published in the annual McGregor Poetry Anthology. A maximum of two poems per person in Afrikaans, Xhosa or English can be submitted. There will be two categories, ages 14 to 17, and 18 and older. E-mail info@mcgregorpoetry festival.co.za
The main venues will be the Wahnfried Concert Hall, the gardens of Temenos, Edna Fourie Gallery and the NG Kerk. This year also sees the inclusion of new venues the D’Amphitheater and De Akker, the old town hall where the Fringe events will take place. The venues are all within walking distance of each other and have fireplaces and comfortable seating.
Kennedy started the festival in 2013 because of his deep passion for poetry. As a young child he recalls having his grandmothers placing him on their knees and reading to him their favourite poems. It became his dream (and an item on his bucket list) not only to honour poets for the immensely rich and varied way they enrich lives, but also to champion the art of poetry.
“So many people are wary of poetry,” he says. “This often has to do with the way it is taught to us. Perhaps we are tested by having to answer difficult questions about a poem we don’t fully understand or have someone, like a teacher, praise a particular poem only to find we don’t understand it or enjoy it all.
“Experiences like these can make one a little unsure about poetry. Yet throughout the ages poetry has always been a way for millions of people to use language to try to better understand love, hate, war, religion, oppression, joy, sorrow, sex, death – in fact, the whole human condition. It can encourage us to be more aware of ourselves and the world around us. It can inspire us to live more fully. It’s potential is huge.”
The McGregor Poetry Festival focuses mainly on poetry and is not a broad literary festival. The reason for this is that the organisers believe many literary festivals often become “heady” affairs. Poetry encourages people to move from a head space to a deeper sense of their interconnectedness and the awareness of the fragility and value of their deeper hopes and dreams.
For more information on the mentorship programme, contact coordinator Dave Magner at magz@breede.co.za. The Worcester Standard is also running a competition to give poets of all ages the opportunity to win some great prizes and have their poem published.