VISUAL artist-cum-poet Avril Taral Nachipo AKA Loveletter is ecstatic about the fourth edition of the Poetry Red Carpet Awards scheduled for February 28 this year.
The event will be held at PG Centre and is being sponsored by the building materials supplier.
The awards will be held under the theme, A Perfect Love Affair.
Top radio personality Cynthia Mapando, known as Blackbird Zimbabwe in the arts industry, is organising the event.
“Yes, this is my first edition and I feel ecstatic about the awards. The main reason for the awards is to make space for poetry in the arts and entertainment sector and to show appreciation for poetic work and encourage more poets to bring forth their art because their voices matter and they deserve to be appreciated as well,” said Nachipo, who is billed to perform at the event.
“Well I’m expecting to hear that poetry has grown and is actually making a great impact in the arts sector.
The award categories are the English Spoken Word Artist, Promising Artist of the Year, Shona Spoken Word Artist of the Year, Ndebele Spoken Word Artist of the Year and the Best-Spoken Word Event of the Year, among others.
She also attests to the belief that history has it that long back before the advent of writing people used to use poetry to communicate, archive important messages through poetry. One such way especially in the Zimbabwean Shona context, intelligence in women would be marked by their ability to recite a praise poem for their family totems. It also follows that Poetry became a preferred medium for teaching and training children how to communicate as well as relaying knowledge about their surroundings and nature.
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In Zimbabwe, poets like Albert Nyathi, Mambo Guramatunhu and Doc Vikela, among others, go beyond general entertainment and are often engaged by corporates as either event hosts and or voice-over artists.
Mapando said they were hoping to have a number of artists, who appreciated their art being spotted and exposed to the world.
“Poetry is a means of communication, through love, societal issues. Having to gather to appreciate it not just within Harare, but Zimbabwe at large with a strong relationship with Botswana, is going to mark the finest poets on the map. It's a place you want to be,” she said.
