Poetry Africa

The 2023 Poetry Africa Festival is on the horizon and is set to kick off on 5 October at the UJ Arts & Culture Campus in Johannesburg. A traveling 13-day festival, this edition will start in Johannesburg before moving to Durban and concluding in Bloemfontein. 

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An international poetry festival on African soil, this year’s line-up boasts headlining poets like Eugene Skeef (South Africa), Rudy Franciso (United States) and Amee Slam (Ivory Coast), all in addition to more than 100 poets from 20 different countries.

For the festival’s 27th edition, the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) and Total Energies are proud to continue their support of the festival. Through this partnership, Poetry Africa has channeled the support into two poetry anthologies, the presence of poets from across the African continent and its diaspora at the festival, as well as Xabiso Vili’s participation in the World Slam Competition where he won the global title.

As Siphindile Hlongwa, the curator of the Poetry Africa Festival, puts it, “Our partnership with IFAS enables us each year to raise the bar on who we present at the festival. IFAS’s long term support also means that we can start looking out for artists who are in demand well in advance.”

An illustration of the commitment, this year’s edition will feature three francophone poets Amee Slam (Ivory Coast), Akabiru (Angola and Guinea), and Mariusca Moukengue (DRC).