Lefoko denotes poetry in the streets of South African townships, the spoken word. In SeTswana it simply means word. This blog aims to discuss and focus on ways in which poets can establish themselves as brands and make a living out of the craft.
After one has establish oneself, one is known to the masses as the messenger of the word and if you speak their language by now they like you. You get called to poetry readings, sessions and shows by fellow poets. You have now establish a network for yourself and gained appreciation from the masses. You need to maintain this by writing more fresh poetry.
Yes we do poetry for the love and to enlighten souls, but a man has got to eat at the end of the day. When your poetry is tried and tested and you have established a fan base, it easy for you to get bookings for people know and love your poetry to actually pay to see and hear you perform. There are companies that manage poets, they get bookings for you. You submit your poems and details to them and they add you to their database, these people market you and put your profile on their website for people to book you. If you are independent like myself you can have your own blog or website where people can get you for bookings.
Competitions
Another way of making money is entering competitions. This is where you get to see whether you got it or not but obviously we cannot all win, so this is also a place to grow. You get to learn new ways and what are current trends, competitions are very interesting and nerve wrecking ask any poet, but it is all for building oneself and the money obviously. As a poet you need to be a recognized brand , so you need all the exposure to achieve that as I have mentioned in my first post. The attached video is Dejavu Tefari performing for a crowd during a competition in Cape town: Taken from YouTube.
