Event information
Marking fifty years since the 1976 Soweto Youth Uprising, this poetry showcase pays tribute to the spoken word collectives and clubs that carried that generation's mission forward into the present.
Curated and hosted by Zizipho Bam, the lineup features poets Amy Brown, Inzima, Rea Mmethi, Mtunzikazi Ngozana, Mbongeni Nomkonwana, Riyo, Winslow Schalkwyk and Lwanda Sindaphi, drawing lineage from platforms including Lingua Franca, Amazinc Unplugged, the Red Wheelbarrow and the Cape Cultural Collective.
The showcase frames each generation of South African spoken word as inheriting a call to answer, tracing how poetry collectives have historically provided space for young voices to process political and social conditions through performance. Rather than a themed reading around a single topic, the evening functions as a lineage-tracing tribute, with each performer bringing their own style shaped by the platforms that raised them.