Poetry Africa will mark its 30th anniversary with five days of performances, poetry slams, workshops, industry discussions and school-based programmes in Durban from October 5 to 9, 2026.
The festival, organised by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, will be staged at the Durban Playhouse Theatre and venues across the city. This year’s programme will be anchored by the fifth World Poetry Slam Championship, which is expected to bring 40 slam poets from 40 countries and five continents to South Africa.
Organisers said the anniversary edition will take place against the backdrop of several major milestones in South African history: 50 years since the 1976 Soweto Youth Uprising, 30 years since the first public hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and 30 years since the adoption of South Africa’s 1996 Constitution.
The Constitution’s Section 16 protects freedom of expression and artistic creativity, themes that will feature prominently throughout the festival.
“1976, 1996, the TRC represent an unfinished conversation about who gets to speak and be heard in this country,” said Ismail Mahomed, Director of the Centre for Creative Arts. “Poetry Africa exists to keep that conversation alive, because freedom of expression is a responsibility we renew every time a poet takes the stage.”
The 2026 festival is themed “Every Word a Street, Every Voice a City,” reflecting its focus on public speech, cultural expression and the space given to marginalised voices.
“Every one of these anniversaries is really about a voice: a generation’s, a nation’s, a poet’s,” said curator Siphindile Hlongwa. “This year’s theme, Every Word a Street, Every Voice a City, asks what we build when those voices are finally given room.”
The festival will open at the Playhouse Drama Theatre with an event hosted by South African poet Lebo Mashile. The opening programme will include a keynote address by the 2026 Featured Poet, Koleka Putuma, and performances by Ukrainian poet Ana More, Algerian poet Haroun Amri, Gabonese artist Nanda, South African performer Steel the Poet, and Dr Gcina Mhlophe, who will receive the festival’s Lifetime Achievement honour.
Jamaican-Canadian dub poet and playwright D’bi Young Anitafrika is also scheduled to appear at the opening event. Young Anitafrika is a three-time Dora Award winner, known for her Sankofa Trilogy and for founding the Watah Theatre in Toronto.
The opening night will also include the Chalkboard Slam Competition, Poetry Africa’s spoken-word platform for high-school learners. The initiative is intended to encourage young writers and performers to engage with poetry as a form of creative expression and public dialogue.
The Poetry Africa National Slam Jam will hold its semi-finals and final on October 6. The World Poetry Slam Championship will then run from October 7 to 9, with competitors progressing through quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.
In addition to stage performances, the festival will host an extensive professional-development and industry programme. Sessions will examine the festival’s three-decade legacy, sustainability and longevity in poetry practice, artist mobility, contracts and intellectual-property rights, queer poetics, professional branding and the influence of technology on poetry.
The programme will also include the launch of Fluent in the Language of Burial, a new work by poet Thando Fuze.
The final day of the festival will feature a staged production of Water, developed from Koleka Putuma’s 2016 poem of the same name. The poem won the PEN South Africa student writing prize and has become widely studied for its examination of water access as a political, racial and historical issue.
The new Poetry Africa production expands on Putuma’s original work by exploring ownership, belonging, climate and ecological justice, as well as the role of ports, trade routes and nightlife economies in shaping access to urban space.
For three decades, Poetry Africa has brought together writers, performers, students, activists and audiences from across the continent and beyond. The 2026 edition is expected to continue that tradition by combining artistic performance with debate on language, rights, memory, identity and social justice.
