In a Ribbon of Rhythm

Title: In a Ribbon of Rhythm
Author: Lebogang Mashile
Publisher: Oshun Books
Cape Town, South Africa 2005
ISBN-10 1770070451 / 1-77007-045-1
ISBN-13 9781770070455 / 978-1-77007-045-5
Softcover, 13 x 20 cm, 64 pages, 1 photo

Description:

Every generation produces its own share of heroes (and sheroes, to quote Mava Angelou), who at times unknowingly elevate us; inspire us; provoke us; challenge us; sensitise as well as influence us, setting in motion a train of events and contradictions only they in their DNA's way can, musically, artistically and science, philosophically. Every generation gives birth to a Franz Fanon here; a Malcolm X there; a Steve Biko here; a Robert "Bob" Marley there; a Nina Simone here. Every generation also showers us with witnesses to the adage 'people's person' - motho oa batho ka batho - who rise to die occasion by transcending space time; by transcending gender and race; by transcending status and place. All these images and experience come full circle in Ms Lebogang Mashile's debut print collection, In a 'Ribbon of Rhythm, which I am honoured and humbled to have 'fathered'. To witness Ms Mashile in flight is to observe a genius in the making. It is evident to all those present that the gods are indeed speaking. Lebo Mashile is one of South Africa’s hottest spoken word poets, as well as popular presenter of SABC 2’s L’attitude, which starts its second series in March 2005. She grew up in the United States with South African parents and returned to South Africa with democracy. She works as a life skills coach, is a member of the Feelah Sista poetry collective and has performed in Switzerland, Cuba, Jamaica and New York.

Content: In a Ribbon of Rhythm

This morning
My imagined community
Style
The most powerful (black) woman in the world
Tomorrow's daughters
Inside outsider
Kedi's song
Love is elastic
Every child, my child
Desert child
A tangled web of rainbows
Devona
The river's rites
Daddy's girls
Perfection sucks
The way we love
Poetry Africa, 2004
Two-sided self portrait
The green of words
You and I
I like it deep sometimes
Insignificant
Pizza and red wine
I smoked a spliff
Imagination is a river of powers
At three everything is love
If at no point
Tell your story
Taxi queen
I knew a girl once
Sisters
Ancient ones
Barbed wire
Release
What is L'atitude
Wild women warriors
My kind
Havanna, Cuba
The triumph of courage