Serurubele Poems
Katleho Kano Shoro
Serurubele means ‘butterfly’ in Sesotho. It is the art of metamorphosis, a mind in flight and the beat of poetic expression.
I offer you my perspectives,
my many mothers’ teachings.
I present both hopelessness and moments that excite,
the taxi mgosi that makes me write.
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Serurubele Poems
Johannesburg performance-poet Katleho Kano Shoro puts her stage presence into print with this metapoetic debut collection that captures the cadences of her fearless voice, her unassuming sense of humour, and her enthusiasm for an Afrocentric literary culture.
She reflects on creativity, on the writing, reading and performance of poetry, exploring the language that structures it, the forces that inspire it and the transformation that follows our experience of it. From there her words wander through personal relationships and politics, articulating ideas about masculinity, sexuality, blackness, colonialism and our connections to those we love.
Crafted with both the spoken and written word in mind, Serurubele invites you not only to read poetry but to voice it, to taste the language as it flows from your tongue, feel its rhythms and hear its rhyme.
Performance poet, writer, academic and project manager within the arts, Katleho Kano Shoro, was also the 2016 Gauteng Slam Champion within Current State of Poetry (CSP) movement. Much of her work is focused on African intellectualism as well as exploring the accessibility thereof. Kano’s poetry has been published in Pear Drop, Killens Review of Arts and Letters Journal, Badilisha Poetry and Naane la Moya. She has been involved in various literary projects that combine her creative and academic proclivities. Some of these include co-ordinating African literary initiatives under organisations such as AFAI and Langaa RPCIG, co-editing The Spoken Word Project: Stories Travelling through Africa and being a panellist at literature festivals such as Franschhoek Literature Festival and Open Book Festival.
““Katleho Kano Shoro shines in her individual claiming of voice and honouring of her ancestral roots. Her poetry speaks with a profound sense of conviction that encourages others to do the same, she agitates our soil not for sensational effect but to liberate what healing resources may lie buried in the dust of our past. She calls us, her readers, to soak our dehydrated soul-selves in the restorative rains of imagination, to bask in the light of integrity and to delight in the power of story.”
“Katleho’s poetry sizzles with compassionate ambivalence of youthful curiosity, interrogation and accommodation. It delves into the nuanced complexities of what it means to be young, female and hopeful in the post-apartheid crossroads of being and becoming South African in freedom.”
“Katleho Kano Shoro’s debut poetry collection, is so multilayered that even after a full week of carrying it to work with me, I am still peeling off new layers of it as I reread the poems. Or rather, new layers are being peeled off me.”
