A poetry reading at UCT on December 3rd.  Read on and spread the word …

Writing Worlds

-Poetry, Prose and Experience

Join us for readings at a conference on theorizing gender and Islam by

Shaida Kazie Ali, Gabeba Baderoon,  Shabbir Banoobhai, Imraan Coovadia and Mary Hames at the

“Theorizing Experience, Subjectivity and Narrativein Studies of Gender and Islam” conference,

University of Cape Town Saturday December 3rd, 1:30 – 2:30 PM

New Economics Building Seminar Room, Middle Campus, UCT

(for details about the conference, email nina.hoel@uct.ac.za or gxb26@psu.edu)

See the fantastic lineup this year – each night of poetic performances is to be treasured:

http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97&Itemid=48

I’ll be appearing in the Opening Night Programme of Poetry Africa on Monday October 17th at 7:30 at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.

My longer reading with Phelelani Makhanya, Dikson, Mphutlane wa Bofelo (one of my favourite poets) and Joshua Bennett is on Friday October 21st at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, at 7:30 pm.

Hope to see you there.

All the best,

Gabeba

I’ll be giving a reading in the Poetry Africa showcase on Saturday October 15th at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, part of Poetry Africa on Tour.  Other poets in the Tour include Lebo Mashile, Shailja Patel, Chris Abani and Sandile Dikeni – welcome back, Sandile of the ringing voice!

Details of the Cape Town reading and other Tour engagements are here:

http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=359%3Apoetry-africa-on-tour-2011&catid=21&Itemid=7

All the best,

Gabeba

I’m happy to be traveling to Norman, Oklahoma this coming week as a member of the jury for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and to give a reading alongside fellow jurors.  Nominees and jurors are listed here: http://www.ou.edu/wlt/news-2012neustadtjurors.html

I encourage you all to read the works of the brilliant writers who have been nominated, and warmly thank World Literature Today literary journal and the University of Oklahoma for their gracious hospitality, and the Neustadts for endowing this important award.

All the best,

Gabeba

In case you’re interested in attending a poetry reading with reflections on writing, I’ll be taking part in UCT’s Summer School at 1 pm on Wednesday 26 January with a reading titled “Silence, Glory, Love.”

See details here: http://www.ems.uct.ac.za/summer-school/arts-and-humanities/11138-silence-glory-love-a-poetry-reading

I hope to see some of you there.

All best,

Gabeba

I’ll be giving a poetry reading at the MLA conference in Los Angeles on Friday January 7th at 7 pm in 411 LA Convention Centre with Patricia Jabbeh Wesley.  The reading is titled “The Stories We Bring: A Reading by Two Poets of the African Diaspora.”

I’ll also take part in a panel discussion with Neville Hoad and Carol Tushabe on “Comparative Perspectives on Homosexualities in South Africa and Uganda,” at 3:30-4:45 p.m. on Thursday 6 January 2011 in 309, LA Convention Center.

Both these events will be held in the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St.

I hope to see some of you there.

All best,

Gabeba

I’ll be talking on Radio 2000 on November 6 as part of their “Spoken Word” focus for the month. The interview will take place at 8 am on Saturday 6 November. Radio 2000 is at 99.7 FM in Jozi and 98.6 FM in Cape Town. Check other frequencies here: http://www.radio2000.co.za/portal/site/radio2000interim/

Listen in. It promises to be a great month of readings and discussions.

All the best
Gabeba

I’ll be interviewed by Aminah Patel at Voice of the Cape on Monday 25 October during the Literacy Hour, a weekly show broadcast on Mondays from 12 to 1 pm, and sponsored by Timbuktu Books, a new bookshop in Stadium on Main, Claremont. VOC is at 100.4 FM.  Aminah and I will be talking about poetry and I’ll read a poem or two.  I’m always happy to see a new bookshop flourish and am very appreciative of a radio station that supports literature.  Thank you to both.

All the best
Gabeba

Poems have happily sprouted on the web.

I often go to Poets.org to find something to read to my sweetie, so I’m thrilled that “Old Photographs” from A hundred silences is now on the site. It appears as part of a series from Kwame Dawes and Colin Channer’s So Much Things to Say, the anthology of Calabash Poets published by Akashic books. I highly recommend the anthology, which includes the greats who have read at the Calabash Literature Festival in Jamaica, including Michael Ondaatje, Elizabeth Alexander and Derek Walcott, and is intended to support the festival.    http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21826

If you enjoy listening to poems, there are a number of recorded poems on gabeba.com.  An audio version of my “How to find something lost” from The Dream in the Next Body, read by Nic Sebastian, is at her Whale Sound site: http://whalesound.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/how-to-find-something-lost-by-gabeba-baderoon/

Enjoy,

Gabeba