Poetry Africa Biographies - page 3 of 6
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 Bob Holman (USA)
Norman Kester (Canada/South Africa )
Keith Kunene (South Africa)
Akeem Lasisi (Nigeria)
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Bob Holman ( USA)
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‘Language is the essence of humanity. Poetry is the essence of language. We can get no closer to touching than through poetry. Well, maybe making love. It's close.’‘
'To hear a poem in 2003 is to hear a single voice somehow making its way through the jangly noise of advertising, the faux shrieks of political rhetoric, the baloney of newspeak, the snoredom of academia, the trash of pop, the crash of economic-driven vowels, the centuries of meaning bleached from language. Give me a poem or put me to sleep and let me dream -- even the nightmares are better than this.'
From Slam to Hiphop, from performance poetry to spoken word, Bob Holman, who has been crowned, "Ringmaster of the Spoken Word", has been a central figure in the re-emergence of poetry as a potent public force. In 1996 he produced the United States of Poetry (USOP) series for PBS which features over 60 poets including Derek Walcott and Rita Dove, as well as rappers, slammers, cowboy poets, and American Sign Language Poets. Holman’s first CD, In With The Out Crowd, moves from rock to country to ballad, and is shot through with urgent humour, and his collection of poems, The Collect Call of the Wild, was proclaimed "the first poetic drop-kick into the new millennium" by Next magazine. Together with Henry Holt, he co-edited Aloud! Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, winner of the American Book Award.
In 2002 Holman opened the Bowery Poetry Club which serves as a coffee shop/bar, bookstore and poetry performance space. His other activities include being Curator for the biennial People’s Poetry Gathering in NYC, a 3-day "populist bacchanal" that attracts 10,000 people, bringing together oral poetry traditions from Africa, Brazil, Mexico and other countries, as well as dub, blues, rockers and hobo poets. Holman won 3 Emmys over six seasons producing Poetry Spots for WNYC-TV, received a Bessie Performance Award, has twice been Featured Artist at the Chicago Poetry Video Festival and won International Public Television Awards for USOP and Words in Your Face, a production of the PBS series "Alive TV". In 2002 Holman was the Featured Artist at the First International Poetry Film Festival in Berlin. From 1998 to 2002 he was Visiting Professor of Writing and Integrated Arts at Bard College and in 2003 was appointed at Columbia University where he will be developing Exploding Text: Poetry Performance as a graduate course in 2003.
Publications:
Bicentennial Suicide, (a novel to be performed), Frontward Books (NY), 1976
Tear To Open, Power Mad Press (NY), 1979
8 Chinese Poems, Peeka Boo Press, Teaticket (MA), 1981
SWEAT&SEX&POLITICS!, Peeka Boo Press, Teaticket (MA), 1986
Panic*DJ: Performance Text, VRI Theater Library (Imperial Beach, CA) 1987
Cupid’s Cashbox, (poems), Jordan Davies (NY), 1990
Bob Holman’s The Collect Call of the Wild (poems), Henry Holt (NY), 1995
Beach Simplifies Horizon, drawings by Bob Moskowitz, The Grenfell Press (NY), 1998
A Couple of Ways of Looking at Something, a collaboration with Chuck Close, Pace, 2003
BLUE TRAIN
--for David Hammons
Bbbbbbbbb
Bluelueluelululu
Blablueblablueblablablablue
Booloo Booloo Booloolu
Blackalackalacka Blackalackalo
Tuntuntunnel
Blueblack Blacklack Bluelackablueblack
"Coooooaaaaalllllll Aboard!"
Bound for Soundtown Frowntown
Browntown Downtown Pronoun
Handsdown Hoedown Knockdown
Thumbsdown Shantytown Ghosttown
"Coooooaaaaalllllll Aboard!"
Goin so fast it’s slow doncha know
Blue train downtrain beattrain piano
Piano blue train
Piano blue coal
Piano blue tunnel
Piano blue train coal
Cool
Cool coal
Cool coal coal cool cool
Blue cool too blue to cool blue
Trainchugga woochugga woo woo
Blueloo blueloo blue
Bbbbbbbbb
Wooooooooooooooooooooooo woo
poem cc B Holman
Norman Kester (Canada/South Africa)
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 'Liquid Love and other longings …examines the meaning of love, its desperate pain and utter beauty.'
"Written as an act of rage, passion and reconciliation, Norman Kester’s (1962) writings blur traditional boundaries of prose and poetry, richly interweaving memory, storytelling and history." From Here to District Six, Norman Kester’s first book of poems, serves as a reconciliation of "his coloured family’s anguished separation under apartheid and his maternal need to reclaim his lost African identity and emerging sexual desire." Born in South Africa in 1962, Norman Kester emigrated to Canada with his family in 1969 during the height of Apartheid. He received a full Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Scholarship and was educated at York University and the University of Western Ontario where he received his Masters in Library and Information Science. His first major work, editing Liberating Minds: the Stories and Professional Lives of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Librarians and their Advocates, won praise from Library Journal. Canada Customs subsequently detained this work upon its publication in 1997. Kester’s second book is a post-colonial collection of love poetry with South African-Canadian themes. The poet has read and performed from his work at the University of Toronto and York University, local venues and bookstores in Toronto and San Francisco. A strong advocate for intellectual freedom and social justice, Norman Kester is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and serves actively on the Canadian Book and Periodical Association’s Freedom of Expression Committee. To commemorate the spirit of District Six, he established District Six Press in 1999 to publish the works of world writers without a voice in Canada.
Publications:
Liberating Minds, Jefferson, McFarland & Co. (NC), 1997
From Here to District Six: A South African memoir with new poetry, prose and other writings, District Six Press (Toronto), 2000
Liquid Love and other longings: selected poems, District Six Press (Toronto), 2002
Love / death
I cannot let go of love or its tempting smell and exquisite taste. I paint it, so that my coloured fingers are smudged in its rouge richness. A gentle reminder.
If I do not hold onto the anguished brush of my heart, my canvas, my only portrait of him will perish, like my mother’s desperate delicate hand. My father is buried at
the foot of his father’s tired feet. Will I return to my mother’s waiting arms or find another? Her hand slips away from my child’s silent hand at the airport, drums
beating mournfully over incoming tides. Young flower petals with the moistness of dreams do not brush my thirsty lips now. Only falling tears-memory.
poem cc N Kester
Keith Kunene (South Africa)
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 'For me, the only difference between rapping and performing poetry is that poetry usually happens in a more intimate environment and there is probably less braggadocio involved.'
"Hi, my name is George Bush and I'm a gangsta rapper," is how you may have heard Ntokozo Keith Kunene introduce himself in Hlengiwe Lushaba's memorable "The show is not over till the fit, fat, phat lady sings" skit which featured in the recently staged multi-faceted showcase that was Edge. The knack for wry, eloquent, reality-twisting wit is second nature to this prolific, largely self-educated pioneer from Witbank , Mpumalanga . Born to fervently religious parents in 1979, at a young age hip-hopbecame his portal to self-actualisation. The visually driven Kunene started studying video technology before concentrating on his involvement with music, turning the two man outfit Blakfist of Garvey into a six piece band. In between making covert power moves, linking up with various artists and feverish writing, Kunene 's stature as a poet began to ascend with authoritative stage presence, charismatic intensity and polished rhyme cadence which he hones weekly with Izimbongi zeSimanje at Bat Centre (where he was crowned February 2003 Slam Champion). With his rapid-fire delivery, Kunene is at times at risk of going over his audience's heads."Its important for people to catch what is being said. But even more important is interpretation. Interpretation is beautiful. Even if one person relates to it, it satisfies me." Currently enrolled at the Imagination Lab, Kunene ’s recent history includes performances in Awesome Africa Music festival, Flux Festival, Jonzi D SA tour, Poetry Africa rap feature, and the Imbumba SA /Swedish Coalition concert.
The moment…
Was shattered
By Footsteps in flight
A tree trunk violated our path
With bloodstained axes
Swinging at ducking memories
Birds with featherless wings
Promise flawless flights in westerly winds
Far from Zones
Of ozone
A
Cloned shadow followed trails in a mirrored hallway
Quiet riots in space
Flowed with
Sentient cloaks
Draining blood from
Lost souls
At a discount
For
Live
Inspired by a conversation with Xolani Sithole / poet …
poem cc K Kunene
Akeem Lasisi ( Nigeria)
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‘Poetry is the irony of the rose and the rose in the thorn; it is the sucker that rises from the ash of the plantain; it is the folly of Hitler and the wisdom of the Ghandi; and poetry is the twinkling of the eyes and creaking of the bed.’
Akeem Lasisi, well grounded in Yoruba traditional literature, is well known for his experimentations with oral Yoruba and English poetry. Renowned as a dynamic performer over the last decade, Lasisi has developed a distinctive style of poetry presentation, sometimes spontaneously switching between languages at readings, conventions, social and corporate events. These performances culminated, in 1999, in his production of Post Mortem, an album of poetry.
Lasisi’s first published work, Iremoje: Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa, won the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA/Cadbury) Poetry Prize in 2000, and the second, Wonderland, was runner-up for the same prize in 2001. Iremoje re-enacts the Yoruba old verse that hunters performed in honour of a departed colleague. A research into Ekun Iyawo, the poetry of Yoruba bride’s, carried out by Lasisi, culminated in his publication of Ekun Iyawo: The Bride’s Chant.
This Lagos-based poet holds a Master in Literature from the University of Lagos. After teaching English language and Literature in secondary schools, he gravitated to journalism, working as a proof reader, production sub-editor and arts and features writer. Presently staff writer with TEMPO Magazine, whilst still maintaining his poetry performing outfit, he has been described as a journalist by day and poet by night.
Publications:
Iremoje: Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa, Hybun Publications, 2000
Wonderland, Golden Pen Books, Folawi Press, 2001
Ekun Iyawo: The Bride’s Chant, Full Point Books, 2001
Ela Iwori
Do not forget the portion for the bile
You who will share the ram
Ela Iwori,
I am the corn’s destiny entering the farm
A naked sperm,
When my stay is due in the earth
Wrap me in a mottled texture of fertile greens.
Ela Iwori,
The meal for the python
Walks to the python where it sits in awe:
What is still holding the files
From rallying round the waiting dung?
Do we need to be familiar with the fly?
To enjoy its hand of honour?
The Okro has reached the field
To snatch the heart of the farmer
The hoe in the north,
Cutlass of the south,
Eager is the basket to reap your toil:
Let the housewife spread her beady shawl
For the visiting planter of the locust bean.
Ela Iwori,
Day-in-day out,
Swells the diversified honour of the garbage dump.
Do not starve the chameleon of agate gowns,
Make me the horse-tail in the hands of the king:
The half-cast
In tatooed hands of creation gods.
poem cc Akeem Lasisi
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