My idea of a sound poetry collection, is when I read it like a story and reimagine it in various contexts. To top it off, is when I have the pleasure of meeting the poet themselves.
The Poetry Africa 2024 festival, was an assortment of the finest wine, delicacies and feasts of poetry. There were numerous bits of excellence to select from. I shall begin with 'Weeping Becomes A River,' a poetry collection by Siphokazi Jonas, a South African poet, playwright and actor, which was also launched at the festival. Poetry Africa is co-curated by Siphindile Hlongwa and Quaz Roodt, with several huge partners from Center of Creative Arts at Kwa Zulu Natal University, University of Johannesburg and more.
Siphokazi does not come in small parts but brings her entirety to her reading, her writing and her storytelling, which is why the poetry becomes a collection of poems, which are also able to form stories.
Siphokazi Jonas. (Courtesy photo)
'First baptism,' is one of the most retold stories we have heard, of how boys and girls who have been raised in traditional Sub-Saharan African homes are raised differently, and yet Siphokazi's imagination is unfettered and her specific detail builds a powerful storyline of time and place. She reawakens our own pasts, as we recall some of the pleasures and displeasures of growing up.
