feature: “to teach and to heal” – the poetry of south african spoken word artist lebohang “nova” masango

Check out writer Lebohang “Nova” Masango, one of South Africa’s most talented spoken word artists. Born in Sweden and raised in Pretoria, Nova (an avid reader since childhood) was first inspired to take up poetry after watching the classic film ‘Love Jones’ and first entered the South African poetry scene in 2010 with the ‘Drama For Life Lover+Another Poetry Challenge’ in which she made the finals. Nova states in her bio that her main focus is “to teach and to heal”, with a passion for Africa, anthropology, literature, social justice, and feminism. In regards to the latter, she recently penned a brilliant and frank essay on sexual harassment – titled ‘Inviting Street Harassment: When ink, piercings, a vagina and black skin intersect‘: “I’m a black woman. Street harassment is a violence I endure daily. I’m a pierced and tattooed, black woman. The burden of strangers’ leers, remarks, unsolicited physical contact and unwarranted aggression is a rarely spoken violence I contend with in addition […] I find myself at the receiving end of this kind of invasive behaviour from men and women, mainly white and black and of course, it ranges from “innocent” curiosity to aggressive incredulity.” Explore her poetry below.

By Alexander Aplerku, AFROPUNK Contributor

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