Maitisong capitalises on Dalai Lama visit
Dumisani Ncube | Tuesday August 8, 2017 15:10
The four-day festival dubbed Awakening and Nourishing Tenderness: Lore Lo Ojwa Lo Sale Metsi has production that range from poetry, music, dance and film that carry the same concept of Botho, dialogue and culture linear to the Dalai Lama conference.
The festival will be from August 16 to 19 at different venues such as Thapong Visual Arts Centre, Maitisong Theatre and Village Cinema.
“This is a festival that is in conjunction with the visit of the Dalai Lama who will be here to talk about humanity and we decided to have a series of productions that will touch on the same subject including other themes such as culture. Through these productions we want to give people a sense of why dialogue is important to us as people,” said Maitisong Theatre director, Tefo Paya.
He noted that they decided to convey the message through artistic performances because they have always been part of Batswana’s culture.
The first two nights of the festival will have a number of films such as Donald Molosi’s We Are All Blue documentary and the Dalai Lama documentaries playing at the Village cinema.
“These films explain more on the cultural aspect, We Are All Blue touches on the Botswana culture and the Dalai Lama footages will give people more about his background”.
Friday will be the main event of the festival that will feature acclaimed authors, Barolong Seboni, Leshie Lovesong, Gaborone Youth Choir and Mogwana Traditional Dance Group who will deliver story telling, poetry, music and dance respectively at Maitisong Theatre.
The festival will come to an end on Saturday with a dance party that will have ensembles and poets entertaining the attendants.
Paya stated that the festival would be graced by delegates who are coming for The Dalai Lama conference. However, he noted that the Dalai Lama might not attend the festival because they are all held during the night time and he sleeps early.