adminSimbarashe Mutizwa Showbiz Reporter
Organisers of Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo said preparations for this year’s edition are on track with Ghanaian-Malagasy up-and-coming spoken word artiste Crystal Tettey expected to appear for A Gathering of Poets on September 26 at The Hope Centre. A Gathering of Poets is an event that brings poets together to showcase their talents as they get to share poems of different themes with the patrons at the festival.
The Ghanaian-Malagasy poet will join four other regional and six top Zimbabwean poets who are yet to be confirmed.
Tettey has previously performed in Malawi and South Africa, and released her debut album Faith MadaGhana in 2013 which was warmly received by the poetry community.
In a statement released by Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo, the festival director Raisedon Baya said this year’s edition was bringing in up-and-coming spoken word artiste Crystal Tettey from Ghana.
“Ghanaian-Malagasy up-and-coming spoken word artiste Crystal Tettey will be a part of the event A Gathering of Poets, an event that brings poets together to showcase their amazing talents.
“Crystal Tettey, a Malagasy-Ghanaian artist is a member of EhaLaKasa – a group of young spoken word poets who use performance art to inspire positive social change in their different communities.”
Baya said the festival’s reputation was growing within the region as it continues to host regional and international artistes.
“To date Intwasa has hosted artistes from Botswana, Swaziland, Kenya, Sierra Leone and United States among others,” said Baya.
He said Tettey, a young graduate in Political Science and French has poems that condemn and incorporate problems young Africans are faced with.“Her poems speak a lot on peace building issues as she has direct working experience with civil society organisations, specifically those working in women and peace building.
“Crystal works with the West African Network Peace Building (WANEP), African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and the Foundation for Contemporary Art-Ghana (FCA-Ghana),” said Baya.
derick.khumalo