‘I believe poetry is how my ancestors found me’—vangile gantsho in conversation with Makhosazana Xaba

vangile gantsho, south african women poet, red cotton, sangoma, African spirituality, African poet, impepho press founder

“So this question is part triggering and part … hmmm … how would I do things differently? Because high school was a terrible poetry experience for me. I really hated the exclusionary nature of the poetry we looked at and how prescriptively we were required to examine it. I also hated how the response to my writing made me feel. Like I wasn’t Stevie Smith or Alfred, Lord Tennyson enough. So I would like to find a way of asking questions rather than prescribing or describing anything, as a way of hopefully bringing the reader into the poem rather than possibly locking them out. ” (vangile gantsho)

Read more: Johannesburg Review of Books

feeling and ugly reviewed by The Johannesburg Review of Books

Danai Mupotsa

[Conversation Issue] ‘Poetry refuses the abstraction of theory’—danai mupotsa in conversation with Makhosazana Xaba

Mupotsa’s feeling and ugly presents femininity as a complex framework for thinking about how private life intersects with politics. It shows how through poetry, something as ubiquitous as feeling becomes a powerful means of conveying as much as transcending the ugly side of life. (Ainehi Edoro)

Source: The Johannesburg Review of Books

vangile gantsho “we have forgotten who we are”

“In my early days of dreaming, of remembering my dreams, I saw a fire. A wild fire burning the streets. Burning houses, burning fields, burning children. Not even the white children were safe. Not even the rich children. I saw an old man burning. First his stick. Then his body. His once grey beard ablaze. Burning libraries, and schools, and kraals. Everything was on fire.” (gantsho)

Source: Herri.org.za, https://herri.org.za/5/vangile-gantsho/

Danai Mupotsa does an edit for Agenda Feminist Media special issue

Launch of the Agenda special issue. The special issue is edited by Dr Danai Mupotsa and Moshibudi Motimele. The launch is hosted by The Department of Political Studies and the Centre for Gender and African Studies at the University of the Free State.

The editors will be in conversation with authors in the special issue.

Link to the special issue: https://lnkd.in/daruE_ft

Email to attend: motimelemh@ufs.ac.za

Yesterdays and Imagining Realities

Yesterdays and Imagining Realities cover

New poetry anthology remembers the past and dreams the future through voices of young poets
11 March 2021 – 14:10
By Christine Skinner

‘Yesterdays and Imagining Realities’ features work from 26 young local poets.

A new anthology of poetry honours stories from the past and projects hopes for the future through the eyes and voices of 26 young SA poets.

Yesterdays and Imagining Realities: An Anthology of South African Poetry is produced through the continued poetry partnership between the French Institute of SA (IFAS) and impepho press with the support of Total SA.

Source: https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/books/news/2021-03-11-new-poetry-anthology-remembers-the-past-and-dreams-the-future-through-voices-of-young-poets/

Go to impepho press’ page for Yesterdays and Imagining Realities:
An Anthology of South African Poetry

Everything is red cotton: A conversation between Maneo Mohale and vangile gantsho

Writing about our mothers is us figuring out what it means to navigate the world in bodies like ours. Our mothers are our first reference” vangile gantsho

Maneo Mohale sat down to talk to vangile gantsho about the various points of convergence and divergence in their collections. (Photo: Supplied)

Read more: News24

https://www.news24.com/arts/literature/everything-is-red-cotton-a-conversation-between-maneo-mohale-and-vangile-gantso-20200806

Everything is red cotton: A conversation between Maneo Mohale and vangile gantsho

Maneo Mohale sat down to talk to vangile gantsho about the various points of convergence and divergence in their collections. (Photo: Supplied)
Maneo Mohale sat down to talk to vangile gantsho about the various points of convergence and divergence in their collections. (Photo: Supplied)

“Writing about our mothers is us figuring out what it means to navigate the world in bodies like ours. Our mothers are our first reference.” vangile gantsho

Read more at News24:
https://www.news24.com/arts/literature/everything-is-red-cotton-a-conversation-between-maneo-mohale-and-vangile-gantso-20200806

impepho press: Holding Space for the Intersectional Feminist Voice of Africa

Vangile Gantsho: “Another thing that brought impepho press together was our commitment to healing in the work we do, individually and I suppose, now as a collective. All three of the founding members hold space and have a vested interest in facilitating dialogue, so that we can be a part of better, healthier communities. Be it through teaching, feminist dialogues, and/or pursuing spiritual callings.

Source: Pen South Africa

https://pensouthafrica.co.za/impepho-press-holding-space-for-the-intersectional-feminist-voice-of-africa/