Celebrated poet Q Malewezi will, this winter participate, in a four-day Spoken Word workshop and performances in Lebanon and Egypt.
The Spoken Word workshop consists of daily creative exchange sessions among five young Spoken Word artists and one video jockey (VJ) from the Middle East, Africa and the UK.
The event will be within the international celebration of freedom of expression in arts and culture at the Red Zone Festival.
The workshop starts on April 27 in Beirut, Lebanon and runs until December 30. Debut performances in Beirut will take place on the Labour Day, followed by two performances in Cairo, Egypt on April 3 and 4.
“The Spoken Word workshop involves five spoken word artists from five countries; Mazen El Sayed from Lebanon, Jordan/Palestine’s Tarek Abu Kwaik, Qabaniso Malewezi from Malawi, Kareem Dennis from the UK/ Iraq and Tunisia’s Ghazi Frini, who will interact with the workshop to create video materials that will be used for the real-time videos during the performances,” reads part of the invitation letter from the organisers.
In an interview, Q said he is excited with the invitation which comes after one of the festival organisers saw him perform at the Mwezi Wawala Festival last year.
“It feels great, the invitation just came in time as I have been thinking of doing more outside the country. It’s an amazing boost to my profile and I intend to tell the many stories of Malawi.
“Honestly, in terms of preparation, I don’t know how one can prepare for such an experience especially in the workshops. I will be interacting with poets from a very different part of the world and I am looking to learn and share experiences as much as possible,” he said. n
