Expressions - English Archivi - Pagina 4 di 4

Nobukho Nqaba: impermanence and migration in performance art

4 Luglio 20204 Luglio 2020 Antonella Sinopoli

When it comes to migration, nothing is certain: no one knows when he/she will arrive or how long he/she will stay. The art of Nobukho Nqaba tells us stories, both visionary and real, about what is transient, destined to end. Nobukho was born in Butterworth, a small rural city in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. When she was six, she had to migrate within South Africa due to family issues. In this interview, she tells us about her performances that convey through her own body and presence – and often through the famous “Ghana must go home” – a sense of identiy, loneliness and otherness.

Eleazer Obeng, “The Devil’s Snare”: that silent, oppressive evil

2 Luglio 20202 Luglio 2020 Redazione

“The sun is up, it seems like a new day sigh. you are still here. It’s not. How did you get in? I cry. Hubbub waters my anxiety. Sprouting doubt, and the traumas of my past I thought I buried.” This poem, as Eleazer Obeng tells us, “was born as annotations in which I tried to make sense of a facade created to remove an empitenss that I felt inside and that I could not explain to myself”. Dennis, this is the name in real life, defines himself as a “gender fluid” and in Ghana, the country where he was born and lives, he is an activist for queer rights.

“I want humanity!” I want the little things you find shaming to do

24 Giugno 202015 Settembre 2022 Redazione

“Imagine you gathered all the courage and walked up to me? Me, that random girl sitting alone in the cafeteria
Me, that seemingly busy lady over a steaming cup of coffee at the cafe. Me, that swaggered teenager flocked by admirers, the envy of all. Imagine you just walked up to me and said “hi?” Imagine you gathered all the empathy and walked up to me?” Those are the first verses of a poem about solitude, depression, search for compassion.

“Weak Pillars of Sanity”, silencing the drama running into the brain

17 Giugno 202015 Settembre 2022 Redazione

“My doctor walks in, hands out her gloved limb tainted with the multicolored silencers that she wants me to pill-pop to steady my weak pillars of sanity.” Those are the first verses of Ssekajja’s poem which goes through mental distress, alienation from society, sense of non-belonging and -maybe – a guilt feeling towards a family which cannot really understand him and his mind. Ronald is writer and performer of both English and Luganda.