Myesha Jenkins
Myesha Jenkins is a poet and spoken word performer, known for her feminist outlook and a writing style that is open, descriptive, revealing and sometimes challenging.
In 2017 she edited the ground-breaking, To Breathe Into Another Voice: A South African Anthology of Jazz Poetry, featuring the work of 45 poets, from all over the nation, writing about the impact of jazz in their lives, and published by Real African Publishers.
She has published two poetry collections, Breaking the surface, (Timbila,2005) and Dreams of Flight (Geko, 2011.) She has also been anthologized in We Are (Penguin, 2010) and Isis X (Botsotso, 2006).
As a founding member of the Feela Sistah Spoken Word Collective, Myesha encouraged women’s writing and she has curated projects and created platforms to highlight the work of black women poets.
For five years (2011 – 2016), she produced Poetry in the Air on SAfm to showcase poets in celebration of South African Women’s Month.
Myesha currently co-hosts the Jozi House of Poetry, a non-competitive, woman-friendly, monthly, poetry session.
In 2015, the Out There Sessions: Poetry and Jazz in Orbit was launched as another performance platform featuring the collaboration of poets and jazz musicians. It continues in the present.
In 2013, Myesha won the Mbokodo Award for Women in the Arts in the Poetry category.
Another highlight of Myesha’s career has been engagement with Arts for Humanity where poets collaborated with visual artists on projects focused on Children and another on the SA Constitution.
She has been interviewed in print and electronic media and been the subject of an independent short film and several research projects.
Myesha has lived and worked in Johannesburg since1993 when she relocated from California.
She died on 5th September 2020.