By: Sibusisiwe Buthelezi

Collective musical instruments and word play were the glamour of the night as Mimmo’s Musgrave hosted the Poetry Soul Music (PSM) show on Friday in partnership with SD Productions.

The show featured a live band from KwaMashu, Genesis, and a number of well-known Durban poets including the likes of Jericho and Original Material Award (OMAZ) winner and South African Traditional Music Awards (SATMA) nominee, Minenhle Mthembu.

“The crowd is amazing, the vibe is good. We are looking forward to hosting other shows like this at least once a month,” said Mimmo’s manager, Taruna Ramadhani.

“It’s amazing to see new Durban talent and all the support that they are getting. This is good entertainment,” she added.

By 7pm, the crowd was moving to the rhythm that was being played by a Genesis drummer and the keyboard had the crowd looking mesmerised.

“We hosted this show because we wanted to make people aware of the launch that will be at Seme’s place in KwaMashu, Mancinza Road, on 7 December. We wanted people to see what vibe it will be,” said Sandile Mnikathi, one of the organisers of the show.

Mnikathi also said that PSM is now an established company on it’s own and there will be tours starting from next year.

“The main purpose is to let poetry and music blend because poetry is often isolated. We want people to see and understand the beauty in the two, especially poetry along with a live band.”

The success of this show did not come easy. There were challenges along the way but in the end all came out almost perfect.

“We had a minor setback in terms of time, the show started an hour late but so far so good. This serves as a demonstration of the talent that we have in Durban,” said Themba Ngidi who is better known by his stage name, Curiosity Locksmith.

“I’m here to just enjoy the show today, I’m not performing,” he continued.

The main act was Musa SA, who recently shot a music video at Mimmo’s. He is under Guluva Entertainment, which belongs to kwaito star, Zola. The main poet was Jericho and he had the crowd’s appraisal each time he got up the stage and a standing ovation was guaranteed at the end of his piece.