Team || Hear My Voice

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Hear My Voice is driven by a passionate team of artists, facilitators, and cultural practitioners dedicated to amplifying the voices of South Africa's youth through spoken word poetry.

Ishmael Sibiya

Executive Director & Co-founder

Ishmael Sibiya is a facilitator, event producer, and arts development practitioner with a longstanding commitment to nurturing emerging talent in the performing arts. Drawing on years of collaboration with government and private sector partners, he has designed and led a range of youth development programmes and international cultural exchanges.

Ishmael is the conceptual mind behind the Tshwane Speak Out Loud Youth Poetry Competition and Festival — one of the most impactful spoken word platforms in South Africa, awarding more than R50 000 in prizes and international touring opportunities to young poets annually since its founding in 2015.

Phomolo Sekamotho

Creative/finance Director & Co-founder

Known by his stage name Flex of the duo He & I, Phomolo Sekamotho is a South African spoken word artist who weaves poetry into live music. His work has taken him across Southern Africa, Zimbabwe, and the United States, where he has performed and facilitated writing workshops in schools across Washington D.C. and New York.

A 2012 headliner at the House of Hunger Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe and a participant in the Azania to DC cultural programme, Flex continues to build bridges between communities of young artists through performance, education, and his ongoing poetry-in-music album project with his six-piece band.