TJ WHO? I am a Motswana poet, and former chair of The Writers Association of Botswana, I am founding member (alumni) of Botswana's Exoduslivepoetry! collective, a fellow of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program and have received a Residency Fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center. I was a 2005/06 participant in the British Council’s/Lancaster University's Crossing Borders project.
YOUTH WORK: In 2010 I was guest writer for the University of Warwick’s International Gateway for Gifted Youth program. I've had the pleasure of little people's company in small towns like Fayette, Iowa, big cities including Washington and London and inbetween spaces like Gaborone where I worked with 3 different high schools for 18 months as part of the British Council's Power in the Voice program (7 country workshop structure that culminated in a series of competitions with the 4 girls now young women I worked with emerging as national champions - firstly because they are talented and I like to think also because I try to make 'listening' and 'doing' fun). We talk, we write, we talk about writing and as life is wont to do, it slips in between all that literary stuff.
READINGS: In 2008 I was in India for the Delhi International Festival of the Arts, and in 2010 and 11 the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), Shakespeare and co’s Festivalandco in France as well as the World Wide Words festival in Denmark. In 2011 I was part of the Poetry Africa tour, a 5 city initiative of the University of Kwazulu Natal's Center for Creative Arts. 2012 was filled with a summer tour attached to the cultural Olympiad's Poetry Parnassus, autumn/winter readings in the American Midwest culminating in a reading at the Poet's House in New York. 2013 has a couple of European readings lined up - check blog calendar for details.
MUSIC: Love it, can't sing to save my life but I am part of a band (Sonic Slam Chorus) so I can focus on the spoken word/lyrics and the vocalists can do their thing. I've recorded poetry to music for a while now mainly experimenting with House music, which is really dance music usually with no or seriously sparse simple lyrics, to see how far I can push the non-poetry-reading-attending-dancer's ear with long linear narratives.
PAYING RENT? It turns out poets can't live on love of literature and air alone, so as part of our Live Literature programming SAUTI Arts and Performance Management has hosted/facilitated/staged events including the Poetry Africa tour 2012 in Gaborone and recorded 12 Batswana poets in 3 languages on cd. This year we have a number of poetry exchanges and workshops lined up - again the blog calendar is your friend. If you are interested in supporting arts programming in/coming out of Africa, especially Literature within Southern Africa and specifically Botswana drop me an email - sautiartsadmin at gmail DOT com.
Have a look at this blog's calendar section (sidebar) to catch any upcoming workshops, live shows or readings.
READINGS: In 2008 I was in India for the Delhi International Festival of the Arts, and in 2010 and 11 the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), Shakespeare and co’s Festivalandco in France as well as the World Wide Words festival in Denmark. In 2011 I was part of the Poetry Africa tour, a 5 city initiative of the University of Kwazulu Natal's Center for Creative Arts. 2012 was filled with a summer tour attached to the cultural Olympiad's Poetry Parnassus, autumn/winter readings in the American Midwest culminating in a reading at the Poet's House in New York. 2013 has a couple of European readings lined up - check blog calendar for details.
MUSIC: Love it, can't sing to save my life but I am part of a band (Sonic Slam Chorus) so I can focus on the spoken word/lyrics and the vocalists can do their thing. I've recorded poetry to music for a while now mainly experimenting with House music, which is really dance music usually with no or seriously sparse simple lyrics, to see how far I can push the non-poetry-reading-attending-dancer's ear with long linear narratives.
PAYING RENT? It turns out poets can't live on love of literature and air alone, so as part of our Live Literature programming SAUTI Arts and Performance Management has hosted/facilitated/staged events including the Poetry Africa tour 2012 in Gaborone and recorded 12 Batswana poets in 3 languages on cd. This year we have a number of poetry exchanges and workshops lined up - again the blog calendar is your friend. If you are interested in supporting arts programming in/coming out of Africa, especially Literature within Southern Africa and specifically Botswana drop me an email - sautiartsadmin at gmail DOT com.
Have a look at this blog's calendar section (sidebar) to catch any upcoming workshops, live shows or readings.
Thank you for stopping by :)
