Spaces

It is interesting to find that two weeks have passed so quickly. I am awe-struck at the growth of us all as performers and I am truly learning much as a young 'un working with a team so skilled, not only in writing, but in years of working in performance and receiving critique. Two-thirds of the way into this tour I realise that as a performer receiving critique is not a nicety equivalent to sipping tea and having scones. Instead, receiving critique for your poem is like the uncomfortable process of having someone interrupt your quiet utopia and pin-point what about it makes it a sad reality. I make it sound crueler than it really is :-) but it is not a comfortable space. However, it is a necessary space that I am learning to negotiate in order to give my poetry a voice of its own to stand outside of me. I wish it was easier and that my responses to it less resembled a kid throwing toys out of a cot... However, for as long as I am human and in my early 20s I cannot superficially learn to man up and receive critique. But the more I let these fellow trustworthy artists into my space and the more I learn about the space they occupy - the more I realise that my poetry has to have a space of its own to grow outside of me...

Roll on Bristol...

I'm so glad the Verbalized Tour is finally here. I'm hoping that, as the tour develops, more and more collaborations will take shape and can't wait to see what audiences across the UK think of Verbalized.

One of the things I liked most about this tour the first time around is that, because there are ten of us, lots of different approaches come together. Just being in a group of this size invites debate (from the function of poetry and the role of the poet to questions around where poetry is going and how it is viewed). So far the discussions during rehearsals have helped me clear up my own thinking as well fueling some new pieces which I'm hoping to showcase during the tour.

Bristol, see you on the 14th. Birmingham, Bradford, Sheffield and Manchester, see you soon.

Verbalized Poets On Ujima Radio

Verbalized Poets will be interviewed by radio presenter Miles Chambers on his show Lyrically Minded on Bristol's Ujima Radio 98 FM tonight Sunday 10 Oct 8.30-9.30pm. Poets will be talking about South African poetry scene, the current Verbalized UK tour and performing some of their amazing poems.

To listen online, go to www.ujimaradio.com and click on the Listen Live link.

Colorful Times on Verbalized

London's online Black arts portal, colorfultimes.com feature on Verbalized.

http://www.colorfultimes.com/2010/09/culture/stage/verbalized-poets-uk-tour/

Verbalized Tour - The Voice special edition

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/content.php?show=18178

Britain's premier Black newspaper, The Voice, do a special pullout edition on the Afrovibes international festival of South African arts, featuring the Verbalized UK tour.

Flirting with the Fog

I must admit I didn't think it possible for me a simple Venda girl used to Sun and chirping birds to fall in love with a city of grey and gloom, but I think London is flirting with me and I find myself reciprocating. Maybe I am an easy woman, patient and tolerant of things that would usually defer me from love - rain, a transport strike, overcrowdedness and claustrophobia, wet socks from accidentally walking into puddles of water and the likes. However, if you are in my shoes and greeted with the sheer magnitude of this place; greeted with the non-existent horizon dotted with skyscrapers and fog; greeted with every opportunity for an impersonal relationship with a city, AND THEN the city still notices you - you feel kind of special. You feel welcomed into a hybrid creation of identity, where each person contributes a personality to the landscape of the city that draws you in like a butterfly trapped in glue. I make it sound more romantic than it really is... But if London was a man, I would go home tonight, lay in my bed and think about if would be possible for us to be more than friends. So tomorrow, I will wake up with a mind ready to fall in love with a grey and sad city, and write poems that make the heart of the city smile!

What an introduction to the UK!

Just picked up Masana Mulaudzi, Mbali Vilakazi and Bulelwa Basse from Heathrow. They came loaded with serious heavy suitcases and it just happened to be the day that almost the entire of London Underground is closed due to strike action. Paddington Station was chaos, commuters dashing back & forth swarming around the thin green jacketed line of beleagured London Transport staff.

Of course, this being London, the staff seemed to be almost uniformly clueless as to the best alternative routes from Paddington to Cutty Sark, Greenwich, where our hotel is. One guy directed us to take alternative bus route outside the station, but directed us the wrong way, so we walked all the way around the station through streaming crowds of people, like some kinda outtake of The War of the Worlds.

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many. T S Eliot

I went back inside the station to buy Oyster cards for the poets, only to discover from a TFL rep, who actually knew what was going on, that we could go via Bakerloo. Only, I couldn't buy Oyster cards inside the station, so I had to go back outside into the madding crowd to find a newsagent that sold them. Oh, did I mention it was drizzling?

Then, down down into the chthonian depths of the Tube we plunged, dragging coffinlike suitcases behind us. I never realized how many bloody stairs there are in London Underground. Doesn't that break the Equality of Access law or something? I explained to the SA poets that the only way to deal with the labyrinthine intricacy of the Tube is to view it as a Mobius strip, an Escher conundrum or a Zen koan. There is no right answer, and logic will not help you find your way.

2 hours later we emerged from the Cutty Sark DLR station feeling like extras in a Georgio Romero film. Somehow, the poets are still smiling after 36 hours with no sleep. Welcome to London!

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South African Sista Poets Arrive Today

We are finally on the verge of the Verbalized tour, 6 months after the volcanic ash force majeured our April tour out of existence. It is so exciting: the South African poets arrive today, rehearsals start tomorrow, first gig on Thursday. Wonder what the show will be like this time!

To find out more about the Verbalized Poets or the Tour Dates, click on the links to the left.

Hope to see you at one of the gigs.

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