Barkly poet to perform at national arts festival

A young Barkley-West man will fulfil his life-long dream of performing on one of South Africa’s biggest art platforms – the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. Mogale Sedibe is an art activist and a local poet who has had aspirations of performing on the stage since he started his career in 2007. Sedibe says losing his mother at a young age sparked his interest in the arts. “I suppose I was trying to use an art element to heal my pain. I lost my mother at a very young age and I couldn’t express it so I spent most of my time reading. I then started writing my emotions and these emotions turned out to be rap songs. But then the guys would tell me my rap songs are actually longer, they felt what I wrote was more poetry than hip hop. I then started to recite my work and have performed on big stages like Word and Sound and the Joburg Theatre.”

Sedibe has made a solid name for himself in the Northern Cape’s Art space. The ‘Jesus was An Artist’ performer rejoiced that the Grahamstown stage was the key to infinite possibilities. “ Its growth for me as an artist I no longer see myself as a local artist not that I had been but a platform such as this pushes me to say now I’m a national artist its growth for me to be honest where I can say I’m no longer a local artist but I’m a national artist,” Sedibe said.

Sedibe will be part and puzzle of an exhibition titled ‘Giving Poetry Wings’ – a joint art exhibition that showcases collaborative work pieces between poets and digital artists.