SA Poet Laureate, Prof Keorapetse Kgositsile and his Jamaican counterpart poet Laureate, Prof Emeritus Mervyn Morris will have a poetry reading session at the National Library on Tuesday, 16 September 2014, 18h00.
This year marks 20 Years of Democracy and Freedom in South Africa. It is also twenty years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Jamaica and the Republic of South Africa. Jamaica recently celebrated its 52nd Independence Day. With this commemorative event the aim is to foster relations with the Diaspora and broaden cultural relations with Jamaica.
Most importantly the two countries have agreed to co-operate in projects and activities in the fields of; artistic, architectural restoration, preservation, and generally developing the national heritage of both which are tangible in nature.
These two cultural ambassadors have achieved many accolades in their lifetime. Professor Kgositsile has been a literary and political activist. In 2008 he was awarded the National Order of Ikhamanga Silver (OIS) "For excellent achievements in the field of literature and using these exceptional talents to expose the evils of the system of apartheid to the world. He became active in theatre while in New York, founding the Black Arts Theatre in Harlem.
The many literary awards he has received include the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, the Harlem Cultural Council Poetry Award, the Conrad Kent Rivers Memorial Poetry Award, the Herman Charles Bosman Prize.
Mervyn Eustace Morris was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and studied at the University College of the West Indies and as a Rhodes Scholar at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He is a poet and professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. In 1992 he was a UK Arts Council Visiting Writer-in-Residence at the South Bank Centre. He lives in Kingston, Jamaica, where he is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & West Indian Literature.
For more info contact:
Tosca Makhambeni
Cell: 082 310 9609
Media enquiries:
Baile Maunye
Cell: 071 047 6770
RSVP:
Prince Nonyane
Cell: 078 1 40 5462
E-mail: PrinceN@dac.gov.za
Baile Maunye
Cell: 071 047 6770
E-mail: bailem@dac.gov.za.
