Tshwane Speak Out Loud is a youth poetry competition and festival which encourages youth to write and perform poetry that addresses the social issues faced by their communities. now on it's 3rd season, TSOL will see poets stand a chance to win a share of R50 000 in cash prizes. previous winners have also gone on to partake in international exchanges that have seen them travel to perform abroad.
Tshwane Speak Out Loud season 3 is brought to you by the City of Tshwane in partnership with Hear My Voice, the University of Pretoria's Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender, The National Library of South Africa and the South African State Theatre.
The Tshwane Speak Out Loud Youth poetry competition season 3 auditions took place in all 7 regions of the City of Tshwane and were open to Tshwane residents between the ages of 18 and 35. 180 poets from all over Tshwane competed and 38 poets advanced to the Semifinals that took place on the 8th of June 2019 at the National Library of South Africa. The top 10 poets from the Semifinals advanced to the Grand finale that took place on the 15th of June 2019 at the South African State Theatre where ultimately Masai Sepuru won 1st place taking home R30 000 in cash and a trip to Sweden as part of the Sweden-South Africa Literary Exchange facilitated by Hear My Voice. 2nd place was Kabelo Ringane and 3rd place was Hope Netshivhambe who walked away with R15 00 and R5 000 respectively.
Stay tuned and follow us on social media (@SpeakOutLoudSA on all platforms) for details on when the next season will commence.
Season 3 saw the launch of the poetry festival leading up to the grand finale. The festival took place 6 June 2019 to 14 June 2019 and featured a variety of poets and speakers for events such as performances, book launches workshops and panel discussions among other activities.
See the festival schedule below
The Tshwane Speak Out Loud Festival featured guest appearances from Swedish poet Linn Eriksson. The winner of Season 3 of Tshwane Speak Out Loud will also secure a spot in the Sweden_South Africa Literary Exchange facilitated by non-profit poetry organization Hear My Voice and funded by the Embassy of Sweden in South Africa. This will see the poet travel to Sweden to perform at various venues and literary festivals.
In past seasons we hosted delegations of poets from Washington DC based social justice and poetry non-profit Split This Rock in Tshwane. They had the opportunity to perform and conduct workshops at various communities within Tshwane in addition to feature performances during the 2015 Tshwane Speak Out Loud Grand Finale which took place at the South African State Theatre on the 8th of August 2015.
In 2016, The 3 Tshwane Speak Out Loud winners along with two finalists had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC on invitation by social justice and poetry non-profit Split This Rock, to participate in their bi-annual Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
find out more about #Tshwane2dc poetry exchange below
