First poetry masterclass takes off

The Goethe-Institut Namibia, Frankly Speaking and Woke Poetry Namibia hosted their first poetry masterclass, attended by about 23 aspiring and established writers, this past weekend.

Speaking to unWrap.online, one of the organisers, FanklinFranklin Shitaleni, a Namibian spoken word artist, poet, and gospel rapper, says the first event went well, with another masterclass scheduled for August.

“This was the first-ever poetry masterclass in collaboration with three entities. The idea was to create an identity for Namibian poetry and what it could be like,” he says.

Some of the key topics discussed at the masterclass were branding, sharing ideas, selling points and how poets can register their work professionally.

Shitaleni says Namibia has many creative writers, but they struggle to brand themselves professionally.

“There are a lot of brilliant writers in Namibia, but they don’t speak a commercial language. Once we’ve equipped writers with branding and marketing skills, we can’t go wrong when it comes to corporate support.”

He says companies should invest more in the arts through their social corporate responsibility programmes as the industry lacks support from the commercial world.

“We now want to select topics and discuss them every two months. We didn’t want to have a lot of people, because we wanted to give everyone special attention. We had a Grade 6 pupil and high school students, as well as the working class attending. We were shocked to have elderly people there is as well,” he says.

Last year, Shitaleni and poet Frieda ‘Etuhole’ Mukufa, or ‘Damn Etu’, created a platform where poetry lovers can engage with each other and perform.

Shitaleni is known for his love of philosophy and use of art to spread a message of hope.

He is a seasoned performer with over 12 years’ experience in the Namibian spoken word scene.

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