Nandi Jola (South Africa/Ireland) read for the John Hewitt Society for the 2019 International Migrants Day (Linen Hall, Belfast) and most recently online, with poet Seán Hewitt, as part of 2021 St Patrick’s Symposium on Reminiscence (Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Council).
Nandi lived in South Africa under the apartheid regime until she was 21, when she moved to Northern Ireland—where she has been active in the arts community as a writer, schools ambassador, artist and facilitator. In 2010, she founded the ‘nandijproject’, with the intention to tackle women trafficking and sexual exploitation. She has participated in public performance and discussion with fellow writer Raquel McKee and has explored the place of performance writers in the field of artistic practice and public arts. She has been involved with the Irish Writers Centre XBorders project, Same/Difference project, the Poetry Jukebox and is part of the Sky, You Are Too Big poetry collective. Nandi managed the ‘Home neither here nor there’ exhibition at Stormont in May 2013.
She is a founding member of the She-Wolf theatre collective and “The Journey”, a one woman play of monologues and dance, directed by Jo Egan of MACHA Productions, opened the 2020 International Literature Festival, Dublin.
- An extract from The Journey
- 2020 National Poetry Day Reading (Poetry Ireland)
- Sky You Are Too Big, featuring Nandi