Concerning Blacks is a poetry album by Makhafula Vilakazi to be released 06 April 2021 on all digital platforms.
About Concerning Blacks:
One of the most famous streets in all of Africa today is Vilakazi Street in Soweto, Johannesburg, famously known as the only street in the world to have produced two Nobel Peace Prize winners. This street is named after the first black South African to receive a PhD, the father of Zulu literature, the poet Dr. BW Vilakazi.
The dust of the question of why not Mandela or Tutu street for this landmark settles when the august grandeur of the eternal echo of Dr. Vilakazi’s voice is in earshot. The significance of his voice, which was not only concerning Blacks but also archived and still wings our existence through the gale of literary history, denounces his erasure.
There is in this age a kindred kind of voice, a voicethat not only concerns Blacks but flings from our very own larynx — a voice whose custodian is MakhafulaVilakazi.
Coming from the most viewed Facebook Live poetry event during the Covid-19 induced Lockdown, and sold out shows at the Joburg Theatre,Soweto Theatre, and the SA State Theater, MakhafulaVilakazi bring us his long awaited sophomore, Concerning Blacks.
The release strategically and purposefully scheduled for April 6 “the date that settlers arrived. The beginning of our problems as blacks” as Makhafula puts it, Concerning Blacks is a chorus with MakhafulaVilakazi at center as conductor and Blacks the choir of comrades chanting, “Masambe! Masambenono! Siyolanda! Siyoland’umhlaba!”
Speaking on the album Makhafula states, “The album for me is more about identity. Writing these poems was about asking my self a lot of questions about what it means to be black.”
Concerning Blacks will be available on all digital platforms from April 6 2021. For more information email Vus’umuzi Phakathi on [email protected]. Follow @MakhafulaVilakaziPoetry on Facebook for instant updates.
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Media Enquiries:
Vus’umuzi Phakathi
0629116464
[email protected]