18th Poetry Africa Finale at Rivertown Beer Hall Gallery

BY: .

This year’s Poetry Africa Festival finale will be held at the Rivertown Beer Hall Gallery, a satellite of the Durban Art Gallery, according to the organisers, UKZN’s Centre for Creative Arts.

The Festival programme will consist of workshops, open mic performances, book launches; as well as musical and poetry performances, featuring South African music veteran Hip Hop Pantsula.

Situated at 102 Florence Nzama Street (formerly Prince Alfred Street) , the beer hall was established  by the Municipality of Durban early in the 20^th century as way to monopolise the brewing and selling of beer. The enactment of the Native Beer Act (No 23) of 1908 allowed the town councils of Natal to be the sole brewers and sellers of sorghum beer.

Beer sales and profits were used to finance the establishment of the Municipal Affairs Department in 1916 and the system of African control, which became known as the Durban System. The Rivertown Beer Hall was in existence until 1968, after which it was rented out to various commercial firms.

The Rivertown Beer Hall Gallery is a key part of the eThekwini Municipality’s on-going inner city regeneration programme. The site was recently activated as a social hub for use during the International Union of Architects World Congress in Durban earlier this year.

‘The eThekwini Municipality supports the growth of cultural precincts in the city as these give not only space for creative expression but move us closer to seeing a city that boasts a creative economy for its citizens,’ said Mr Thembinkosi Ngcobo, Head of Parks, Recreation and Culture at eThekwini Municipality.

‘We are very excited that Poetry Africa will close the Festival in this neighbourhood.’

The Poetry Africa Festival finale programme will begin with a free Creative Writing workshop featuring festival poets Vangi Ganthso and Croc E Moses. This will be followed by open mic and musical performances as well as the launch of three poetry publications – the Uhlanga and Poetry Potion anthologies and the isiZulu poetry book, Izithunzi zemizwa, by Musa Nhlumayo.

The evening programme will kick off with the annual Slam Jam event where Durban slam poets will compete for the title of Poetry Africa Slam champion.  There will then be final performances from Poetry Africa participants before the programme concludes with Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP), backed by a full band.

Tickets are available at the door for R80 and through Computicket at a discounted R70. For more information go to www.cca.ukzn.ac.za or phone 031-260 2506.

*Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 18th Poetry Africa is funded by the eThekwini Municipality, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture, Goethe Institute and the French Institute of South Africa. The Centre for Creative Arts is housed in the College of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and is a special project of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cheryl Potgieter.

 Melissa Mungroo