Soundscapes of the soul

Modise Sekgothe channels grief and grace into poetry that heals, transforms and redefines performance in South Africa

- Kibo Ngowi

In a quiet moment on an otherwise ordinary afternoon, Modise Sekgothe found out he had been selected as only the second poet to win the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Poetry in its 40-year history.

"I was in the house writing," he tells me when we speak at an event introducing this year's winners to the media. "Then I got the message."

In a poignant twist of fate, this news arrived only two weeks after he had experienced an intensely personal loss -the death of his mother.

"There was something very powerful about this important moment finding me in this other important moment," he says reflectively. "It's a heavy thing to think about but there was kind of a beautiful balance between great sorrow and great appreciation for life.

"It was almost like it connected me with my mother because, if you know anything about ancestry, you understand that the people that came before you continue to contribute to your life. And I feel in many ways like my mother had a hand in this moment in my life."

Koleka Putuma was the first to win the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Poetry in 2022.

"I think this award affirms my work as an individual but more significantly it affirms the work we have been doing as the poetry community," Sekgothe says.

"Because this award is 40 years old, and there have been a lot of amazing poets that have come out of South Africa in that time, but it shows that poetry was not seen as a performance art for a long time.

"But it was the poets that came before us that laid the foundation for us as the poets of this generation to be recognised in this way."

Sekgothe traces his creative lineage to literary giants such as Keorapetse Kgositsile and Lesego Rampolokeng who carved the path for his generation. He honours the voices closer to his time too - Mutle Mothibe and Tumi Molekane - poets whose work helped shape his own evolving voice.