Durban — Kwanele Nyembe, 26, is set to represent South Africa at the World Slam Poetry Competition in Brazil next year, after he was crowned National Poetry Slam champion at the Poetry Africa Festival.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal honours student has a passion for drama and the performing arts.
Nyembe, a poet, writer, actor and dancer, recalled that he used to write lyrics in his “song book” while growing up. He said he was inspired by his mother, a drama teacher, in primary school, and that is when he saw the “beauty” of performance. He has fond memories of accompanying her to art shows.
He said he harnessed his writing skills in high school as there was no drama class, and it gave him the opportunity “to fall in love with words”.
“I would not mind being alone with just a pen and paper in my hand; not that I was lonely, I just loved putting everything into words and everything just made sense after writing,” he said.
Nyembe, also known as “Tory Saint”, said after high school he studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand but that was cut short when he realised he was doing something that did not resonate with him.
“I would skip classes just to attend poetry sessions and also participate in them. I met a lot of poets and my love for art awakened in me, and I saw that art is what I really wanted to do my whole life,” he said.
Nyembe dropped out and went to UKZN to follow his dreams. He said it was a decision he did not regret making. His parents were disappointed when he dropped out at Wits but he promised himself and them that he would let his work and results show he planned to make them proud of him.
He has also worked with the Swedish embassy in Pretoria, together with the NPO, Hear My Voice, which curated a virtual series that incorporated creatives from different art sectors, including fashion, literature, music, spoken word, media, government and academia, with the aim of helping them adapt to change during the peak of the pandemic.
Nyembe said he writes his poems from the heart and they are usually about how he views the world, his life experiences, personal healing and his family. He said he was usually nervous before a performance but overcame this by being aware of the way he felt and then shifting his focus through breathing.
Daily News