A Festival of Words as Art
The art of weaving words together to create emotion and convey story is about to increase its audience as, a first of it’s kind, the Windhoek Poetry Festival begins in the capital. Already attracting artists from Ghana and Botswana, this festival is being put together by passionate Namibian poets and artists, who wish to share their art and their expression with fellow Namibians. An evolution from the monthly poetry stage of Spoken Word, 99FM’s MYD Art spoke to Nesindano Namises, Writer, Voice and Performance Artist, and one of the organisers of the Windhoek Poetry Festival which takes place in Windhoek on the 26th and 27th of May 2017, to find out more.
“This is all about the personal and intimate relationship between the poet or performer, and the poetry. The poetry we get exposed to in school literature class is very classical, we never move beyond that to personalise poetry and find our own authentic voices of expression.”
“The idea was to make poetry more accessible in our society, to bring together different poetry movements in Windhoek and to provide skills exchange and conversations about poetry in Namibia and the continent.” Says Nesindano. Explaining the event, she notes, “It’s a two day event of poetry, music, film and a creative platform of sharing. We will have many local and popular poets performing sets each night. We will also facilitate workshops, panel discussions and skill-exchange conversations.”
The Windhoek Poetry Festival, is shaping to be an opportunity to ignite personal creativity through exposure to a myriad of expression techniques. “This is all about the personal and intimate relationship between the poet or performer, and the poetry. The poetry we get exposed to in school literature class is very classical, we never move beyond that to personalise poetry and find our own authentic voices of expression.” Says Nesindano.
The event is also about stretching the performers explains Nesindano, “We have asked poets to do sets during the festival, so we can get a glimpse of their personal styles, their fears and anxieties and their funnies. During the monthly events (Spoken Word) each poet does one poem, this (the sets) will allow people to get to know the poets a bit better and challenge the poets to the next level. In terms of exhibitors we are asking people who have published novels or who have local arts and crafts to come and sell their goods and there will also be film and music.”
“It was important to change the perspective of what poetry is; it’ s not an exclusive movement, everyone can come enjoy it. This event brings out a bit more and also allows people who have not been able to attend our monthly shows to come and witness and experience the poetry movement in Windhoek.”
Explaining the poetic landscape here in Namibia, Nesindano notes “We have amazing poetry events such as the monthly Spoken Word Shows, collaboration shows with other creative movements. It was important to change the perspective of what poetry is; it’ s not an exclusive movement, everyone can come enjoy it. This event brings out a bit more and also allows people who have not been able to attend our monthly shows to come and witness and experience the poetry movement in Windhoek.”
“We want everyone to come and experience local poetry and meet the people behind this movement. Spoken Word is for everyone.” In addition to the performance element of this festival Nesindano notes, “Our movement is primarily performance based but published authors will be present at the exhibit to talk to people about writing and publishing and it will also be discussed in the workshop.”
“International guests include Mmakgosi Tau from Botswana and Kaycee Moore from Ghana, we are grateful that they can be part of this show and strengthen bonds and links for future collaborations.”
“International guests include Mmakgosi Tau from Botswana and Kaycee Moore from Ghana, we are grateful that they can be part of this show and strengthen bonds and links for future collaborations.” Says Nesindano who goes on to say that “We live in critical times where it’s not enough to just be here, we need clear vision, ideas, we need create building blocks and we need to move forward, innovate, and re-create.” And according to Nesindano this festival will offer the opportunity to do so. The festival, says Nesindano, offers attendees “Self-empowerment to take control of one’s creative career. We hope that we can inspire that in the attendees and also network and find new and innovate ways to become better and encourage new collaborations.”
The team behind the Windhoek Poetry Festival have big dreams of growing this festival into a large cultural festival that attracts not only artists but tourists alike, to witness the art of weaving words together to create emotion in Namibia.
For more information about the Windhoek Poetry Festival take a look at their Facebook page by clicking here
Written by Kirsty Watermeyer