Emerging poet, Siphosethu Phikelela, won the 2016 Open Book Slam during the recent Fugard Open Book Festival at the Fugard Theatre.
Siphosethu, a second-year Journalism student at CPUT, won the rigorous final round of the Main Slam with a scintillating rendition of her isiXhosa poem Utywala andibuzondi (I don’t hate alcohol).
“The final round was the most challenging due to the language in which I chose to write the poem as well as the content of my competitors’ poems,” she says.
The final round saw three finalists delivering their poetry in isiXhosa, English and Afrikaans in front of an adjudicating panel composed of established local poets.
“It’s not only my victory alone, I did it for all the upcoming poets who are afraid to write in isiXhosa,” she adds.
“I love isiXhosa and I don’t want it to die, that’s why write exclusively in it.”
Following Siphosethu’s win, Sparkling Women, a free publication which highlights women in sports, arts and community activism, will publish one of her poems.
She is a member of the Cape Youth Poetry Hub for Expression and Rhythm which is under the Lingua Franca Spoken Word Movement.
