Tumelo Khoza
Tumelo Khoza is a Spoken Word artist who is based in Durban. She grew up in Eshowe, a small town in northern KZN where her parents were both teachers. After the death of her father she was raised by her mother. She first fell in love with poetry in Grade 4 and was introduced to hip hop in Grade 11. The combination of these styles is known as Performance Poetry. She writes about matters of the heart, society, gender differences and equality, exploring the different shades and colours of the language by means of figures of speech and imagery.
Tumelo has performed and participated in the following festivals to name but a few:
• 11the annual Poetry Africa Festival in 2007, representing Young Basadzi in the Slam Jam category, in which she came out in 2nd place
• Sibikwa Arts Centre in 2007 for a woman’s festival.
• Spier Poetry Exchange Events in Cape Town at the University of Western Cape.
• Poetry Africa 2010 in which she was the Slam Poetry Champion for the 1st Word Poetry Sessions held at the Bat Centre by Busiswa Gqulu.
• The exhibition opening of Prof. Pitika Ntuli’s Scent of Invisible Footprints.
• The Grahamstown National Arts Festival in the Eastern Cape in 2011 in which she represented Durban.
• In 2015, Khoza performed with Marquis Hall, the fourth annual Make Jazz Fellow at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica.
She also contributed to Letter to South Africa: Poets Calling the State to Order. Which is an anthology of South African poems in English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and Sepedi, all with English translations, addressing the Republic along the lines of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “America” in a nationwide appeal by poets calling the state to order.
Bibliography
2011. Letter to South Africa: Poets Calling the State to Order. Umuzi.
• 11the annual Poetry Africa Festival in 2007, representing Young Basadzi in the Slam Jam category, in which she came out in 2nd place
• Sibikwa Arts Centre in 2007 for a woman’s festival.
• Spier Poetry Exchange Events in Cape Town at the University of Western Cape.
• Poetry Africa 2010 in which she was the Slam Poetry Champion for the 1st Word Poetry Sessions held at the Bat Centre by Busiswa Gqulu.
• The exhibition opening of Prof. Pitika Ntuli’s Scent of Invisible Footprints.
• The Grahamstown National Arts Festival in the Eastern Cape in 2011 in which she represented Durban.
• In 2015, Khoza performed with Marquis Hall, the fourth annual Make Jazz Fellow at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica.
She also contributed to Letter to South Africa: Poets Calling the State to Order. Which is an anthology of South African poems in English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa and Sepedi, all with English translations, addressing the Republic along the lines of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “America” in a nationwide appeal by poets calling the state to order.
Bibliography
2011. Letter to South Africa: Poets Calling the State to Order. Umuzi.