Top poet releases new book

Top female bard releases new book

Lebo Mashile, probably South Africa’s most outstanding black female poet, has published her latest book, ‘Flying Above The Sky’. It is her second published collection of poems.

Going through Lebo Mashile’s new work, she continues to confirm her promise. Already she is an icon of modern South African poetry – and her second collection of poetry lives up to what one would expect from this talented and magnetic individual.

The new volume is titled ‘Flying Above The Sky’ and it follows her acclaimed 2005 collection ‘In A Ribbon of Rhythm’ which earned Mashile the prestigious NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa for 2006, a fantastic achievement.

And if her first collection established Mashile as a formidable voice, ‘Flying Above The Sky’, some pundits have suggested, takes things further and showcases her range and talent, adumbrating on the variables of the society that moves her.

Lebo Mashile, a talented writer and visual verbalist, is already a role model for many as regards South African poetry. In addition to these, Lebo Mashile has been forging her own creative identity over the years. It was almost ten years ago that the eclectic lady emerged on the Johannesburg arts scene. Infused with a great deal of energy and dynamism, she is now a multi talented artist: a published author, executive producer, actress, poet, independent record producer, corporate and independent event MC, life skills facilitator/speaker and television series presenter. She is something of a triton among the minnows.

For example some five years ago, Mashile co-founded the Feela Sistah Spoken Word Collective alongside Napo Masheane, Ntsiki Mazwai and Myesha Jenkins – all great names in arts and culture. Indeed the four of them have been making great waves, taking poetry many steps forward.

As regards her literary output so far, Mashile says: “This is a far more personal collection than the first,” She continues: “For me, ‘In A Ribbon Of Rhythm’ was very much the start of putting my poems into the larger public realm, but there were many that I left out. To be honest, I was too afraid to let them move away from my own personal space, but over the past three years things have changed. I’ve journeyed in a way that has really made me more confident about my work and sure of myself and I feel the time is right to give more of my work to my readers.”

The result of this is ‘Flying Above The Sky’ (2008) which is as bold, defiant and candid as ever. Themes include feminism, what it means to be a woman in the modern age, issues of identity and spirituality. But there are other spheres and vistas in her new work.

Unequivocally, one of these new areas for Mashile is the idea of “travel”. She explains: “I am very interested in how movement shapes our identity as individuals. It fascinates me that when we leave home, we take pieces of it with us on our journey and when we return, we bring new things from where we have been that then find a place in our homes.”

Strangely enough – in view of the recent spate of extraordinary xenophobic attacks in the country, Mashile briefly dwells on this phenomenon in one of her poems, titled: “‘Kwere-Kwere”. “You can see that here I make the point that all of us are essentially travelers” she says.

She also takes sides firmly with the ordinary man in her latest riveting verses. She does not use a mallet to grind the masses into the ground! On the contrary she empathizes with them. In one of the poems titled: ‘What Tomorrow Looks Like’ we have lines like:
“Mr. President tell us what tomorrow looks like
Can you see it in the darkness of prisons
Is it in the look in the eye of a peaceful man
Who is killed in front of his two children
Is it somewhere beyond our own plane and time
Is it inside the walls that we live in/Is it the property of the privileged few
Or is it understanding that humanity is privileged

In poems like this, and many others in the collection, Mashile shows her introspective nature, and leadership qualities, becoming more or less a voice of the nation.

Mashile also includes some deeply personal poems in her new work – among them, ‘I Want To Be Touched’ which many would regard as sensual. Also the revealing ‘A Hole Called Depression’. Poems like these expose the intrinsic human side – even vulnerability of the poet, despite all her achievements. She herself confesses that as human beings we all have a “common humanity”. As she puts it: “It’s been said so many times before but what binds us together is our common humanity and my deepest wish is that when people read the collection (her latest book), it will strike a chord within them that then joins us together in an instant.”

It is likely that the poet would get her wish. Earlier, in 2005, Mashile published with Struik and Mutloatse Arts Trust, her first collection of poetry In A Ribbon of Rhythm, which won her the prestigious NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa for 2006. Her new collection Flying above the sky will be distributed via African Perspectives Publishing.
* Information, courtesy of the Eclectic Writers’ Club (Bloemfontein)