The Sunday News
Lance Chigodo
A MAIDEN poetry festival, which aims at exposing the vast poetry talent that the region has as well as sharing of notes between established poets and those that are little known, was held in the city.
The local poetry festival — Imbongi — whose first edition was held at Indaba Café on Thursday and Mashies coffee shop on Friday and Saturday is a new platform for the growth of poetry in the region.
Imbongi Festival is a new event in the city’s arts calendar that seeks to promote up and coming local poets and expose them to the market.
The birth of the festival came after a realisation that although poetry has been there since time immemorial little had been done to make it popular as an important art genre although it has a wide following in the country since it is also a way of expressing feelings, emotions and cultural aspects of life.
The festival is being staged by Red Carpet Media and Entertainment and the director of the festival Thabiso Phiri told Sunday Leisure that the festival aims at promoting poets who were new to the poetry industry such as Evans Lesedi Shumba who recently released an anthology, Blazing Sane, Ras Mkhonto WeSizwe, Peter Oracle, and Scrah Mdala.
“We are aiming at helping these new poets so that they integrate into the industry with the established poets and gain exposure and experience through performing alongside experienced and more established ones. It is a platform for growth of the poetry industry in the city and the good thing is that much of the country’s renowned poets are from this region. Talk of Albert Nyathi, Obert Dube, Likhwa Ncube and many others,” said Phiri.
He said the festival seeks to attract attention to poetry as an art genre that youngsters can pursue and it was meant to be held in conjunction with the World Poetry Day but was unfortunately delayed due to some circumstances.
Phiri says the Imbongi Festival is working towards encouraging poets to realise the vast expansion potential and the endless possibilities that await them if they become consistent.
He added that it was his hope that the festival grows and possibly becomes as big as Intwasa, Hifa, and also to make poetry grow through exposure at a grand stage and become a brand through diversification.
He said he wished poetry was recognised like other arts genres such as music, theatre and more recently, comedy.
“This year we are targeting Bulawayo because that is as far as our budget can take us but we hope to go national and if possible international in a few years to come,” said Phiri.
Efforts to promote poetry in the region are also seen through the holding of Poetry Thursdays which take place every Thursday evening at Indaba Book Café where various little known poets are invited to perform.
