It is those moments when I speak to myself
And feel the God in me resonate with the beautiful image
Of Him and I that I see in the mirror.
I live for those moments.
And it is moments like these
Where I scribble my soul on a piece of paper
To later share them with willing ears
That make me get out of bed in the morning
~ Itumeleng Motuba
We are with the gorgeous, multitalented Itumeleng Motuba, a Pretoria born art lover. She is a speaker, radio presenter, poet and writer. Her life revolves around words. Her love for conversation lead to the birth of her Instagram segment, Talking Issues With Itu Motuba, where she talks to everyday people about issues that touch their lives. She grew up surrounded by art and faith, so it only made sense to study journalism. While in varsity her love for poetry was sparked and has never died out. She loves being around other creatives, “their creative positive energy is so contagious, and I knew then that I needed to share my art with the world too”, she shares. She also adds that poetry is a great way to express yourself and a powerful point of activism.
She shares that God gave her the talent and that He is not only in her art, but He is her art. 1 John1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”, “that bible verse always reminds me that God lives in all my words and that is why I take them so seriously”, she tells us. She tells us with stars in her eyes that she believes that most of her work are prayers and sometimes even answered prayers, “I sometimes get surprised when certain poetry pieces that I wrote come from as it would feel like, messages from another realm”. She also shares with us that life inspires her poetry, “I let life influence me and I just paint pictures with my words”.
The highlight of her art career so far is the manifestation of their poetic play, Her Shoes, “my team and I had the honour of performing it at the South African State Theatre for the Vavasati Festival”, she shares. Her Shoes is about four women who grew up together and when they meet again after years of not seeing each other, they find out they are all going through issues in their lives. Issues like gender based violence, alcoholism, black tax, homophobia, depression, etc. They voice out their pain and spark a much-needed dialogue about these issues. The play touched on a lot of issues that affect women today and sparked much needed conversations among the audience.
There is a novel and a talk show in the pipeline from Itu so be in the look out. She also plans on making Her Shoes go even bigger than before and start a whole movement with it. “I also plan on releasing a poetry EP soon”, she concludes. There is clearly a whole lot to expect from her so keep her on your radar. She is @Itumotuba on both Instagram and Twitter, Itu Motuba on Facebook and if you love all things women you can join her on Winning Women’s Circle on Facebook.
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