Hullo, Bu-Bye, Koko, Come in
Koleka Putuma
Cape Town
Categories
Hullo, Bu-Bye, Koko, Come in
Koleka Putuma
Cape Town
Categories
“Writing as it was, as it is, is how we exhume the bodies and give them names.” Images and sentences by Black, queer women artists pour out of speakers and projectors into the theater space as if from a hot-rodded search engine. In this multimedia stage adaptation of the poetry collection ‘Hullo, Bu-Bye, Koko, Come in’ by theater maker, poet and spoken-word artist Koleka Putuma, she turns herself into a projection surface and plays with names, memories and legacies of Black women who have been rendered invisible in the arts and in society. In a densely woven dialogue between past and present, Putuma also addresses her own experience as a Black artist in white institutions and questions the lines of sight between spectators and performers: When does visibility become appropriation? When is one absorbed instead of perceived?
Audience talk on 13.7. after the performance
Language: English
Photo: ©Nurith Wagner-Strauss
Videotrailer via Youtube.
About the Artist(s)
Koleka Putuma, born in Gqeberha in 1993, is a theater director, writer, spoken-word and video artist. Her debut poetry volume ‘Collective Amnesia’ became an international bestseller and was named by both The Sunday Times and Quartz Africa among their Books of the Year for 2017. Her book ‘Hullo, Bu-Bye, Koko, Come In’ was published in 2021. Putuma has founded Manyano Media, a multidisciplinary creative enterprise producing works for publishing houses, film, advertising, and theaters, while focusing primarily on the perspectives of Black, queer women writers and artists from South Africa.