Community

SLiP’s poetry workshops

Our country has a proud history of using words to critique the status quo, to imagine new and more humane ways of living together. In a time where money and guns seem to hold sway over the future of our communities, we believe that words are the best and most powerful defence against corruption and violence. We believe that the poetic word emancipates and enlightens, that it dances on the tongues of the dispossessed, refusing to be silenced.

Learners at the SLiP poetry workshops

It is in this spirit that SLiP organises monthly poetry workshops for high school learners from the Stellenbosch area, including Kylemore, Kayamandi, Pniel and Cloetesville. We have about ten learners who regularly attend the workshops and our explicit aim is to train these young and talented minds to become poets – whether it be on the page or on stage – and to arm them with the explosive power of words. We want to educate these young people to become spokespersons for their respective communities through their poetry. It is therefore also crucial that we encourage them to write and perform in their mother tongue, whether it be English, Xhosa, Sotho or Afrikaans.

Writing away

SLiP Community Manager Hale Tsehlana is in charge of organising and presenting our workshops, while Adrian “Different” van Wyk and Pieter Odendaal also lend a hand. Matie Community Service (MGD), with whose collaboration the workshops are presented, has kindly made available the use of its facilities.

Hale Tsehlana starts a brainstorming session

This page is devoted to our learners and their poetry. Keep an eye out for news regarding the workshops and the events we are planning.

Nthateng Machaea lost in thought
The result
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