Legendary poet Alfred Msadala is set to appear before a youthful congregation of poetry performers and lovers at KwaHaraba Art Gallery and Café’ in Blantyre on Wednesday.
Msadala is set to perform two poems; ‘I sing a song in ted tidal waves’ and ‘These days, I sit’. And his coming at the weekly spoken word poetry session has coincided with his 61st birthday.
Msadala first performed ‘I sing a song in ten tidal waves’ in 2003 during the Norwegian Constitution Day and is also collected in the 2012 publication ‘Ten Tidal Waves.
“He is actually celebrating his 61 years of birth. So we party in a poetry way,” said Paul Sezzie, Co- founder and current treasurer of Vilipanganga Poetry Movement, the organisers of weekly poetry sessions at KwaHaraba Art Gallery in Blantyre.
And on the significance of having poets of Nsadala’s school at the more youthful event, Sezzie said that it presents the young poets on-the-spot opportunity to learn from their elders in the art.
“The reason the movement exists is to bring to the fore young talents in poetry creation and performance. However,, these young talents will have to look up to the seasoned poets for inspiration and confidence. Alfred Msadala is literally great and we are lucky he is making yet another apperance at the poetry session at KwaHaraba Art Gallery & Cafe,” said Sezzie.
Other performers during this Wednesday’s session include Yankho Seunda, Arthur Chipembere, Austin Kakande, Panacea Phiri, Geminii, Promise Magola, Samuel Phiri, Trinity Kalaje and Linly.
Offering musical performances will be Gospel songbird Princes Chitsulo and Mzati.
Vilipanganga Poetry Movement was established, one year ago, in order to create a platform for English spoken word poetry in Malawi.
The movement which is said to have been created to grant spoken word poets the ability to share their skills in poetry creation and performance equally seeks to expose as much poetry talent as possible from within Malawi and beyond.
The movement has so far been productive, managing to bring on stage at Kwaharaba Art Gallery and Café, poets from around Blantyre, across Malawi, South Africa, Germany and the Bahamas.
The movement was equally involved with Age Africa to train Secondary School girls from different schools during their annual retreat in Blantyre where 75 girls were trained in poetry creation and performance, most of which are now being hired on individual basis to perform.