SENSES: A Sensory Experience Poetry Workshop by Zizipho Bam at Curiocity Kloof Street.

The body remembers: what we say, what we see, what we smell, what we hear, and how we feel. This workshop invites you to give yourself permission to explore those senses through memory and emotion, allowing poetry to respond.

Guided by award-winning poet Zizipho Bam, we’ll write a “sense poem”. The session is a gentle mix of reflection and intuitive creativity. As the year comes to a close, we’ll reflect on what home means to our senses. Is it a place, a feeling, or a fruit? Come and join us as we create space to write, share, and discover how and where the body carries memory.

This workshop is suitable for seasoned, curious, or beginner writers – either way, you’ll leave with new tools and perspectives for expression. Ultimately, a deeper sense of how poetry can live and flow from the body.

About Zizipho Bam:
Zizipho Bam is an award-winning poet whose work seeks to heal. Drawing inspiration from the body and its lived experiences, she reimagines longing, loss, and love, transforming personal stories into works of art. Her debut collection, Sunflowers For My Lovers, reflects this vision.

She has performed at Poetry On The Lawn, Open Book Festival, and Poetry Africa, with her curated poetry experiences resonating at festivals such as Pangea, Wolfkop Weekender, Tribe In, and Kunda Valley. Bam is also the co-founder of Slam City, a Cape Town-based poetry collective that nurtures both emerging and established voices.

Her practice extends into facilitation, where she frames poetry as a tool for social justice and self-expression. She has taught poetry at Springfield Convent School for Girls, and in 2025 led a three-day retreat for Inclusive Affirmative Ministries.

Bam’s accolades include the 2020 New Coin Prize for her poem Learning to Swim and the 2021 New Contrast National Poetry Prize for Silence in Church.