Members of the Upstart poetry group made their debut at this year’s National Arts Festival on Monday evening performing at the Christ Church Cultural Evening.
Members of the Upstart poetry group made their debut at this year’s National Arts Festival on Monday evening performing at the Christ Church Cultural Evening.
Upstart – the paper for youth by youth – is a schools newspaper project based at Grocott’s Mail, working with learners from 12 schools in Grahamstown.
The poetry group has been meeting regularly with local poet Harry Owen who has been helping them with writing new material as well as performing it.
They were invited to perform at this year’s Festival by organisers Olenka and Marco Brutsch who have been hosting cultural evenings at their home for the past five years.
The special Festival cultural evening, which forms part of Spiritfest, was a familyfriendly musical affair that included performances from ethnomusicologists Andrew Tracey and Laina Gumboreshumba and more.
Sanele Ntshingana, a member of Upstart who performed on Monday said that being a part of Spiritfest was great exposure for the group.
“It was great for the Upstart guys to showcase their talent, it will encourage us to write more,” he said. The group’s next performance will be on Saturday 26 June at the Urban Lounge at 2pm as well as at the Christ Church Hall in Speke Street on Monday 28 June at 6pm.
