Poet Koleka Putuma Has Been Appointed Theater Producer for Design Indaba

According to Bizcommunity, Design Indaba has appointed South African and playwright Koleka Putuma as their theater producer seeing that their annual conference takes place at the Artscape Theater and they want to have more unique moments there. Putuma took to Instagram yesterday to make the announcement to her fans.

Design Indaba focuses on online design publication and has an annual conference which centers on "design activism." The brand is run by Interactive Africa. Read more about it here.

Putuma has had success upon success following her explosive anthology Collective Amnesia which is in its eighth print run, unheard of for a collection of poetry in South Africa. The body of work has since been translated into Spanish and released by Flores Raras and been declared prescribed reading at South African universities.

The recent winner of a TEWOP poetry slam competition hosted by the University of Johannesburg, Putuma went head-to-head with fellow poet, Zéwande Bhengu and ultimately came out the victor. She gave an electric performance, clad in a dress with the national flag and a green doek which she then turned into a blanket midway in honor of Mgcineni Noki, one of the 34 miners who were gunned down in the tragic Marikana Massacre in August 2016. Noki became known as the 'man in the green blanket'.

Commenting on her new appointment, Putuma said:

"For the next few months, I hope to be a co-creator in magic-making and to be an accomplice in realizing the speakers' ideas and wishes. I am honored to be a part of the incredible brand and community of Design Indaba. I am looking forward to learning, to expanding my knowledge on the multiple industries of design, and to collaborating with all the minds, speakers, ears, hearts and eyes that are and will be part of making this dope explosion happen."