The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Life Correspondent
ZIMBABWE’S celebrated poet, Albert Nyathi has launched a talent search show which is aimed at identifying, nurturing and promoting budding artistes.
The Albert Nyathi Talent Search (Ants), aimed a primary and secondary school going artistes, will hold its inaugural edition on Saturday at Msiteli High school. Budding artistes are set to compete in the performance poetry, dance, singing, acting, comedy, written poetry and fine arts (drawing) categories.
Nyathi said nurturing upcoming artistes has always been one of his passions hence the decision to launch Imbongi Arts Talent Search in 1998 but it was held for only two years before a hectic touring schedule put a lid on the event that was held at Mpopoma High School. He said recognising and awarding talent at an early age is a catalyst for future success.
“The death of my father in April aroused the need to give back to the community hence I resolved to rebrand and re-launch the talent search show. It is going to be annual and will focus on all arts genres. There are prizes for the winners but more than that my aim is to see youngsters succeed. During the Imbongi talent search, we saw several winners that include Sandra Ndebele and other future Iyasa stars walk away with prizes and then go on to do wonders in the arts world.
“In that regard, Ants winners will also be supported to compete in the Zimbabwe Championship of the Performing Arts hoping they would get a chance to perform at the World Championships of the Performing Arts which take place in Hollywood every July of each year,” said Nyathi.
According to the dub poet, schools can compete in all categories, but cannot register more than two acts per category and this is to ensure that only the best that a school has to offer is showcased. Each act will also have no more than three minutes on stage and contestants can either be individuals or group acts.
The best overall acts in each category will receive a prize of $50 in each of the seven categories while the second and third best will receive $30 and $20 respectively. Each of these will be accompanied by a certificate, a trophy and a book. The overall winner regardless of category (the Most Outstanding student artist), will in addition to the above receive $150 and the overall trophy.
Nyathi said he chose Msiteli as the venue of the event because he learnt at the school, where he was headboy for three years and he also won the first prize in the then Eversharp High Schools Poetry contest.
He said because of time constraints they would not have a strict theme with only poetry and fine art being guarded by the this year’s theme, Health Conversations.
“Last year I was appointed ZimHealth Goodwill Ambassador alongside Oliver Mtukudzi, hence the theme Health Conversations for the written poetry and fine arts categories,” added Nyathi.
“Ants is also motivated by the new primary and secondary education curriculum that gives prominence to performance arts. The strategic objective of the Ants is to facilitate preservation of Zimbabwean intangible cultural heritage.”
