Curators: Rucera Seethal and Niren Tolsi

Production Assistant: Shenka Naidoo

Rucera Seethal (Moderator) is artistic director of the multi-disciplinary National Arts Festival, South Africa. She has been programme manager at the Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia Johannesburg for six years, responsible for the performing arts portfolio across the Southern African region, and for co-developing and co-adjudicating its SDC regional grant programme. Between 2004 and 2011 she was artistic director and production manager at Chimurenga, the award-winning arts, culture and politics magazine. She has sat on several national and international adjudication panels, programme selection teams and webinars. More generally, she is interested in futuring, feminist and funga perspectives, and currently lives in Johannesburg.

Stacy Hardy is a writer, researcher, and editor whose work explores the intersections of embodiment, the individual, and society. Her writing has appeared in various anthologies and journals including the New Orleans Review, New Contrasts, The Evergreen Review, Black Sun Lit, and many more. She is the author of the short fiction collections Because the Night (Pocko, 2015) and An Archaeology of Holes (Rot-Bo-Krik, Paris 2022 and Bridge Books, Chicago, 2023). Her plays and librettos have been performed globally. She is also a lecturer in creative writing at WITS University; an editor at the Pan-African platform Chimurenga; a partner in the African creative writing teaching initiative Saseni; and a founder of Ukuthula, a project that develops new writing from and against gender-based violence. She has just released a new book of poetry, The Breathers (2024) written in collaboration with Daniel Borzutzky as part of a research project at the University of Chicago.

Ogutu Muraya is a theatre maker, storyteller and writer. His work investigates orality and literature, and the emancipatory and imaginative potential of personal narrative. He explores new forms of storytelling with a profound curiosity in the connection between the spiritual and the neurological, between realms of thinking and meaning, change and understanding. His recent book - ‘How do you observe a stone that is about to strike you?’ explores the practice of diarizing while sharing with readers his diasporic experiences living and studying in Amsterdam. His performative works and storytelling have featured in several theatres and festivals including- La Mama (NYC), The Hay Festival (Wales), HIFA (Harare), SICK Festival (Manchester), Ranga Shankara (Bangalore), Afrovibes Festival (Amsterdam), Spielart (Munich), Theater Spektakel  (Zurich), Festival Theaterformen (Braunschweig), Theatre is Must Forum (Alexandria), Theatre Commons (Tokyo) & within East Africa. He is based in Malindi, Kenya where he continues his artistic practice and also works with Maabara - a performance, practice-oriented collaborative laboratory for artistic research and work processes.