The Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) is excited to announce a
move to a new venue for the 18th Poetry Africa festival finale.
This year, the Rivertown Beerhall Gallery, a satellite of
the Durban Art Gallery will play host to a festival programme consisting of
workshops, open mic performances, book launches; as well as musical and poetry
performances, including the finale performance from South African music veteran
Hip Hop Pantsula.
Located in 102 Florence Nzama Street (formerly named Prince
Alfred Street) , the Beer Hall was established in the first part of the 20th
century as a means of the Municipality of Durban to monopolize the brewing and
selling of beer. This came as a result of the enactment of the Native Beer Act
(No 23) of 1908 which allowed the town councils of Natal to be the sole brewers
and sellers of sorghum beer. Beer sales and profits were used to finance the
establishment of the municipal Affairs Department in 1916 and the system of
African control, which became known as the Durban System. The Rivertown Beer
Hall served this function until 1968, after which it was rented out to various
commercial firms.
The Rivertown Beer Hall Gallery is a key part of the
eThekwini Municipality’s on-going inner city regeneration programme. The site
was recently activated as a social hub 100 years after its initial opening, as
part of XXV International Union of Architects World Congress which took place
in August 2014.
The 18th Poetry Africa is proud to make use of this
historical Durban landmark as it evolves into a new and exciting cultural
precinct, a development that forms part of the City’s urban renewal project.
“The eThekwini Municipality supports the growth of cultural
precincts in the city as these give not only space for creative expression in
the city but move us closer to seeing a city that boasts a creative economy for
its Citizens. We are very excited that Poetry Africa will be closing the
festival in this neighbourhood.” said Thembinkosi Ngcobo, Head of Parks,
Recreation & Culture at eThekwini Municipality.
The Poetry Africa festival finale programme will begin with
the free Creative Writing workshop featuring festival poets Vangi Ganthso and
Croc E Moses. This will be followed by open mic and musical performances as
well as the launch of three poetry publications – the Uhlanga and Poetry Potion
anthologies and the isiZulu poetry book, Izithunzi
zemizwa by Musa Nhlumayo. The evening programme will kick off with the annual
Slam Jam event where Durban slam poets will compete for the title of Poetry
Africa Slam champion. There will then be final performances from Poetry Africa
participants before the programme concludes with a performance from award
winning South African artist Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP), backed by a full band.
Tickets R80 available at the door and through Computicket at
a discounted R70. For more information go to www.cca.ukzn.ac.za
or call 031 260 2506.
Full the programme visit http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/index.php/poetry-africa-2014/pa2014-programme
Organised by the
Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 18th Poetry Africa
is funded by the eThekwini Municipality, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts
and Culture, Goethe Institute and the French Institute of South Africa. The
Centre for Creative Arts is housed in the College of Humanities at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal and is a special project of the Deputy
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cheryl Potgieter.
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