Natalia Molebatsi

Natalia Molebatsi is a South African writer, poet, performer, editor, and cultural organizer.

Biography
Natalia Molebatsi was born and raised in the township of Tembisa, near Johannesburg in South Africa.

She is a Pan-African queer feminist poet, writer, and performer. She is the author of two poetry collections, Sardo Dance and Elephant Woman Song, and the editor of We Are: A Poetry Anthology and Wild Imperfections: An Anthology of Womanist Poems. She is a founding member of the band Soul Making, and in 2015 her CD Natalia Molebatsi & The Soul Making was released.

Her work is included in Letter to South Africa: Poets Calling the State to Order, Happiness the Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, New Coin, the Anthology of World Poetry (2010), and New Daughters of Africa (2019, edited by Margaret Busby), among other publications. Her prose writing has appeared in academic literary journals, such as Muziki, Agenda Feminist Media and Sasinda Futhi Siselapha: Black Feminist Approaches to Cultural Studies In South Africa’s Twenty-Five Years Since 1994.

Molebatsi has performed poetry and facilitated creative writing workshops internationally, including at universities and festivals in Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, Zimbabwe, England, Italy, Azerbaijan, Argentina, China, Palestine and Germany. Among notable events where she has participated are the Yari Yari Ntoaso women's conference in Ghana, the Aké Arts and Book Festival in Abeokuta and the Lagos International Poetry Festival.