LitFest 2022 fiesta brings together six countries

LitFest International Literature Festival 2022 which comes alive this week will bring together six countries for a celebration of poetry, theatre and music alongside workshops and panel discussions, dialogues and workshops.

“We will be hosting more than sixty festival participants drawn from Zimbabwe, Ghana, Benin, South Africa, the UK and USA. These will contribute to the festival in varied ways, including being panellists in the discussion sessions, giving keynote speeches, working as resource persons for the workshops, as well as giving performances,” said festival director and poet Chirikure Chirikure.

All the activities will revolve around this year’s festival theme: “WE ARE JOY – Celebrating the ties that bind us”.

Chirikure said the programme will run in three cities starting with Harare from 23 to 26 November, followed by outreach workshops in Gweru on 28 November, and Bulawayo on 30 November.

“As a way to help in the development of the arts and culture sector, the festival will also run a workshop for high school students and another one for creatives in Harare, according to a statement from the festival organisers.

Discussions and workshops will happen during the day, with evenings reserved f live theatre, poetry and musical performances.

“It will be a packed, but varied, stimulating and entertaining programme,” said Chirikure.

Some highlights to look forward to include Afrikera, Chipawo, Batsirai Chigama, Ignite Theatre of the UK, as well as a live music performance by Diana “Mangwenya” Samkange and her mbira ensemble.

The festival will close with another mbira concert at Theatre in the Park featuring Okay Machisa and Machena Music.

Another festival highlight is the keynote presentation by Prof Alison Phipps of Glasgow University, Scotland, responded to by Prof Robert Muponde, the Zimbabwean writer who is based at Witwatersrand University, South Africa.

“The festival activities will run at several venues in Harare. The discussions will be held at B2C Nexus, in the Batanai Gardens, Leopold Takawira Avenue, while the evening performances will be at Theatre in the Park, Harare Gardens.

“The official opening will be at Nhaka Gallery, former Delta Gallery, while the schools workshop will be at the Harare City Library, and the Creatives workshop will be at Mbare Art Space in Mbare,” said Chirikure

The workshops for the outreach programme in Gweru and Bulawayo will have most of the international visitors and some local artists functioning as resource persons.

The visitors will also share their works by way of reading and performing. The local participants will also share their work with the visitors.

Entrance to all the discussion sessions and workshops is free, with advance registration advised because of the limited capacities.

Evening shows will be ticketed, with nominal charges.