Cultsha Kennis

BeJazzed Cast         In tribute of poet-playwright Adam Small, the Applauz Arts Initiative and the Artscape Theatre recently hosted a two-week festival of theatre performances for the Cape Town community – titled ‘Celebrating the Man – extracts from his plays and poetry’ and ‘Adam Small Bejazzed’. The performances consisted of extracts from selected poems and plays that were recreated into renditions of drama and music, directed by Natalia Da Rocha and musically composed by Camillo Lombard, Kurt Egelhof and Dillon April.  Some of Adam Small’s works from the festival included his plays Joanie Galant-hulle and Kanna- He is Coming Home as well as key poems such as Via Dolorosa , Die Here het gaskommel , Wie’s hy and Brown Lullaby. (starring Siphokazi Jonas, Lauren Hannie, Natalia Da Rocha and students from the Cape Music Institute run by Camillo Lombard). The festival successfully attracted huge crowds in Cape Town, particularly Cape Town Ma...

L ast night, poets of all kinds once again united from all over Cape Town to participate in the second round of a series of Poetry Grounding Sessions at Tagore’s Observatory , the theme for the night being ‘Human Rights/Human Writes’ and featured the well-loved poet Siphokazi Jonas! Grounding Sessions was initiated by Performance Poet Rochѐ Kester, who created these open-mic sessions for fellow poetry-lovers to share in the love for this art. “I felt that poetry can only be found in very limited places around Cape Town. With the re-launch of  Grounding Sessions,  I aimed to create a consistent space where poetry is always accessible,” she says. “I also see it as an opportunity for other poets to share their work, whether they are active artists in the sphere of performance, or alternatively poets who write privately but seek a platform to share their writing.” A few poets share their experiences of performing at Grounding Sessions : ∙ Michaelangelo Abrah...