Poetry Meets Zanele Muholi

Jumoke Adeyanju is an interdisciplinary multilingual poet, curator, dancer, vinyl selector and aspiring sound artist under the alias mokeyanju. Her work touches on topics like (diasporic) memory, spiritual liminal spaces and sonic tonalities. Adeyanju’s multidimensional sound, words and movement art has been commissioned and presented by Arthouse Foundation Lagos, AAF Lagos, 16/16, Galerie Wedding, CUNY NYC, Kölnischer Kunstverein, African Crossroads Mombasa and Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Her work has been shown at various occasions in Germany, Tanzania, Kenya, UK, Nigeria and New York – performing her poems in English, German, Kiswahili and Yorùbá. Adeyanju is the founder of The Poetry Meets Series, co-curator of SensiDance and hosts her own radio show sauti ya àkókò on Refuge Worldwide. Her poetry and translation work was published in the anthology “Kontinentaldrift – Das Schwarze Europa” (ed. Fiston Mwanza Mujila) in 2021. Adeyanju’s live-writing was also featured in award-winning filmmaker Baff Akoto’s short Leave the Edges (2020).

“Dumama and Kechou exude a vibrant force and strong harmony within a deep cultural resonance. Their perceptions were shaped on opposite sides of the globe: vocalist Dumama has roots in rural Eastern Cape in South Africa, while multi-instrumentalist Kechou is of Algerian-German descent, but born and raised in Germany. His non-alignment with the monolithic cultural context of the West has always pushed him to search deeply for some sense of belonging. The duo’s musical journey has been about gravitating towards their own centres and back out into the world through a complex sonic labyrinth filled with artistic flow, interaction and engagement. Dumama and Kechou’s inimitable compositions rely on an organic process of creation infused with revolutionary zest, improvisation, and the vocals and chants of Dumama in her native Xhosa language. The music is not lyrically pervaded by design, yet Kechou – who has spent the past five years producing Afro-fusion music experiments in Germany, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa – seamlessly delivers multi-layered instrumentation. With electronic loops, samples and warping traditional sounds, leading the curious ear into deep contemplation.” Music In Africa by Butchie Seroto

Tobi & Adae are Multidisciplinary Creatives for whom Poetry, Music, Movement and Sound have always been necessary modes of Expression.They make up ⅔ of Queer, Unbinary Band Wastewomxn and are influenced by their West African backgrounds as well as their diasporic existences. Adae & Tobi criss cross genres: Hip Hop, Soul, Jazz and Alternative sounds; sometimes in their mother tongues, to tell stories of their lives and experiences.

Idia Joy is a professional singer, songwriter and poet. The artist uses her upbringing – between two cultures and past severe experiences, fused with a glimpse of Romanticism – in her artistry. She embodies a new sense of sensuality and eroticism. Within her music that is inspired by the 70’s, Quite Storm, Art Rock, Classic and Avant-garde, a deep love for nature and self translates in a very healing way. Honesty, sexual desire, reflection and reaching the highest potential by getting to know oneself in all facets, is expressed through the art of Idia Joy, who wants her listeners to open up more and animates people to „be“ their own truthful, beautiful selves.

Keith Zenga King is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator and theatre maker from Uganda based in Munich. Her work lives at the intersection of queer discourse, performance and politics.
Before fleeing to exile in Europe, Keith Zenga King worked to advance the rights of queer and trans Ugandans. They founded Queer collective, an artist collective that aims to create space for queer artists in East Africa to share their work locally and internationally. With Queer collective, they created a multimedia research and documentation project, which records the lives of queer and trans Ugandans to empower and validate an invisible community whilst challenging the narratives that queerness is unafrican.
Queer collective has since evolved into ANTI MASS, which runs a series of roving, riotous art and music happenings in Kampala, Uganda. ANTI MASS reclaims space for Queers, Femmes and other minorities while exploring new potentials for sound and artistic expression in an increasingly regressive social climate.
Since fleeing into exile, Keith Zenga Kings work has explored creating new textures and embodiments at the nexus of intersectional identities at which she lives. She has curated festivals in theatre as well as worked as a dramaturg for Queer productions such as Queer and Quer at the Ballhaus Naunystrasse Berlin, Endangered Species at Sophiensaele, Berlin and Las Templas at the Tanzhaus, Zürich.
She has presented her work at institutions and venues across Europe and the globe at places such as Goethe Institute Kampala, the Norwegian Council for Africa, Oslo, TENT Rotterdam, Worm, Rotterdam, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Museum Brandhorst, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin School of Economics and Law, London School of Economics and Political Science, Schwules Musuem, Berlin, Literaturhaus München and Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts, USA.

Goitseone Montsho is a South African poet, storyteller, performance artist and frequent collaborator who is based in Berlin. Montsho has published and held space in a number of publications and public spaces. Her work has been staged in Brussels, Basel and throughout Berlin. In Basel she participated in the Image Afrique Festival as both performance artist and poet. She has been featured at the Literature Colloquium Berlin during the Parataxe III on African history and language. She is a co-host of the Tanti-Table, an English-speaking podcast in Berlin.

Part of the public programme Forms of Insistence, Tenderness and Refuge, supported by Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation