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Thea Iberall is a poet, playwright, and
scientist. She has a Master's Degree in Writing (USC) and a Ph.D. in
Computational Neuroscience (U Mass). As a performance poet, Thea
represented Los Angeles at the National Poetry Slams. Thea has had over 40
poems published in anthologies and journals, including Rattle, Spillway,
New Works Review, Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets (Tebot
Bach), poetrydiversity, Peregrine, and The Southern California Anthology.
She has a poem in Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust (Time
Being Books, 2007). She was a semifinalist in the Atlanta Review
International Poetry Competition. She is featured in the documentary GV6
THE ODYSSEY: Poets, Passion & Poetry. Thea�s produced plays include:
Primed For Love, At Seven, and Amacry! The Neuronic Musical. She is
currently touring with her one-woman show The Only Thing Greek About Me is
My Name. Her contextual poetry book The Sanctuary of Artemis is to be
published this summer by Tebot Bach. web: www.theaiberall.com
email: thea@iberall.com |
A shepherd boy in a matrilineal society of Matamong and a
former Television Journalist with the SABC TV News of South Africa, Vusi
Moloi was born with a pen in his hand. Prior to going into exile, during the
era of the anti-apartheid struggle, he worked with the South African women�s
movement like the Black Sash of Johannesburg. Vusi rendered his last poetry
at the women�s liberation conference held at the University of Witwatersrand
in his hometown of Johannesburg organized by the Federation of Transvaal
Women (FEDRAW). His contextual poetry book A Goodbye To My Little Troubles
narrates a unique human experience of formidable struggles using the
analytical and interpretive medium of contextual poetry as observed during
his formative years in an African traditional society of Matamong in the
Eastern Free State of South Africa. Moreover, contextual analysis is a
natural part of the conjugating rules of the languages spoken in a
traditional African society. The powerful women figures of this African
society applied contextual analysis in their story telling to inculcate a
sense of transcendence over adversity and a worshipful sentiment towards the
sacredness of their natural environment. This paradigm of story telling was
like a glue between the new generation and those that had gone before them
helping to foster the principle of ubuntu towards the well being of others.
As a result of this irresistible influence, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles
is predicated upon African didactics and each poem is accompanied by a
contextual commentary. The book is dedicated to the commanding women who
injected a sense of buoyancy in Vusi�s life in the face of impossible odds
such as Mmaketsa Mlangeni of Matamong, Manneheng Mangena of Naledi, Mannuku
of Naledi, Mrs. Sheena Duncan of the Black Sash, Mrs. Albertina Sisulu of
Phomolong and many others. Moreover, as the exiled son that has sojourned in
far away lands such as Canada, Vusi continues to be guided by the spirits of
those who have gone before him
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