Lebogang Mashile’s Followers (19)

Lebogang Mashile

Born

in The United States

February 07, 1979

Website

http://www.lebomashile.co.za/

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The poet, performer, actress, presenter and producer Lebogang Mashile, the daughter of exiled South Africans, was born in the U.S. in 1979.

At the age of sixteen years she and her parents returned to their home country. It was while she was studying law and international relations at Wits University in Johannesburg that the desire to work as an artist took hold of her.

In her work as a life skills facilitator for adolescents – focusing on topics like gender issues, teamwork and sexuality – poetry has been her preferred medium.

Mashile regards its expressive power as the most effective tool to bring about those changes in mental attitude that are needed in the aftermath of the socio-political changes in post-apartheid South Africa. "The enemy i The poet, performer, actress, presenter and producer Lebogang Mashile, the daughter of exiled South Africans, was born in the U.S. in 1979.

At the age of sixteen years she and her parents returned to their home country. It was while she was studying law and international relations at Wits University in Johannesburg that the desire to work as an artist took hold of her.

In her work as a life skills facilitator for adolescents – focusing on topics like gender issues, teamwork and sexuality – poetry has been her preferred medium.

Mashile regards its expressive power as the most effective tool to bring about those changes in mental attitude that are needed in the aftermath of the socio-political changes in post-apartheid South Africa. "The enemy isn’t really clear in the way it was before. It’s an incredibly sensitive, complicated struggle with many dimensions, but the site for that struggle is inside. ... The language of poetry comes from a place where that transformation has to begin, that sort of intuitive, creative, spiritual searching place that will be the fuel for any kind of transformation process.”

Mashile began to achieve recognition as one of South Africa's most popular young artists in 2002 when she performed her hip-hop inspired poetry at the Urban Voices Spoken Word and Music Festival to a large audience.

In 2003 she co-founded the “Feel a Sistah!” Spoken Word Collective alongside Myesha Jenkins, Ntsiki Mazwai and Mapo Masheane, which rapidly gained wide-spread popularity. Just one year later Mashile made her acting début in the Oscar nominated film "Hotel Rwanda".

Moreover, she was the presenter and producer of the television programme "L'Atitude", a concept that she co-executive produced with Curious Pictures. Throughout its seventy-eight episodes she introduced the viewers to the personal stories of different people and their relationships with their immediate surroundings. These insights were gained from her travels through South Africa. The series reached an audience of over two million viewers.

Her lyrical and gutsy poems in the collection "A Ribbon of Rhythm" (2005) also speak about life in the new South Africa. Issues such as the diversity and unity of the "Rainbow Nation", the status of women, violence and the fragility of individuals are all treated with a sense of urgency, humour and at times with melancholy and a certain rawness. Mashile’s self-produced album "Lebo Mashile Live!" combines her performance poetry with hip-hop, house and R&B.

In June of 2008, Mashile published her second anthology entitled “Flying Above the Sky”. This collection marks the poet’s first foray into self-publishing, a decision she undertook in order to own the copyright to her own work. Her latest collection contains a far more mature and personal voice and deals with Mashile’s signature themes of gender, identity, spirituality, love and socio-political conditions in South Africa.

Mashile can currently be seen on South African television screens as the presenter of ‘Drawing the Line’, a game show dealing with moral issues.

She returned to the theatre at this year’s Standard Bank National Arts Festival in the stage adaptation of K. Sello Duiker’s ‘The Quiet Violence of Dreams’. She plays Mmabatho, the only female character in a story that dissects contemporary South African masculinity. Mashile is currently working on a cross-media and cross-generational collaboration with renowned choreographer Sylvia Glasser entitled ‘Threads’. This piece fuses poetry, music and dance and has been created in celebration of Moving Into Dance Mophatong’s 30th anniversary. Moving Into Dance Mophatong was the first multiracial dance contemporary dance company in South Africa.

One can also find Mashile’s thoughts in her monthly column, “In Her Shoes”, which she writes for True Love magazine.

Lebo Mashile, who has featured on numerous covers of South African entertai ...more

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Lebogang Mashile’s books

Average rating: 4.18 · 50 ratings · 10 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	In a Ribbon of Rhythm by Lebogang Mashile, Don Mattero (Editor) 4.12 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 2005	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Flying Above the Sky 4.21 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2008	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Töchter Von Morgen Buch by Lebogang Mashile, Arne Rautenberg (Übersetzer), Indra Wussow (Herausgeber) 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Afrika (Neue Rundschau 2/2009) by Markus Kessel (Publishing Editor), Chinua Achebe, Binyavanga Wainaina it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2009	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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