Nova (Lebohang Masango) is a writer, poet activist, feminist and speaker who based in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a student of anthropology, she is deeply passionate about feminism, social justice, the excellence of Africa, literature, and the arts.
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BACKGROUND
Lebohang ‘Nova’ Masango is a writer, poet, and activist. Currently studying towards a Masters in Anthropology at the University of Witswatersrand, putting out both written and spoken poetry, and forming part of local collective The Feminist Stokvel, she’s an incredibly busy woman. For Nova, the love for writing was born through a love for stories. In fact, it was set of children’s books with accompanying cassette tapes that first introduced her to the magic of the written word. She would then go on to pen her first short stories in her early school days, and now of course, Nova uses social media and blogging platforms as well as the occasional stage to platform her work− a mixture of poetry and personal writing that helps her and many others make sense of identity and every day politics in a young South Africa.
CAREER
Lebohang ‘Nova’ Masango is a writer, poet, activist, feminist and speaker – living her best life, in love and service to girls and women. She writes for Essays of Africa magazine and the acclaimed website for teen girls, Rookie Mag. She is currently featured on musician, Reason’s song “Endurance” alongside Hip Hop Pantsula. She is the ambassador of the ‘Zazi’ campaign, the official sexual health programme for girls and young women across all higher education institutions in South Africa. She has also collaborated with Zonke Dikana on the ‘Zazi’ theme song. She was the youth representative at the UNAIDS’ November 2014 meetings in Geneva, Switzerland to address sexual health programming concerns with global stakeholders. Nova has been invited as a speaker at the 7th Annual South African AIDS Conference in Durban. She has been published in the July/ August 2015 edition of the renowned Poetry Foundation’s publication, Poetry Magazine.
Nova is regularly called upon to provide social commentary on varying topics including Feminism, identity politics and youth culture. She has been featured on Kaya FM, Radio 702, Y FM, Power FM and on television shows such as SABC 1’s Shift, eNCA’s live debate with Trudi Makhaya and performed on the country’s most popular music programme, Live Amp. She was a panellist on Global Shapers Johannesburg’s #AreOurGirlsback? panel with Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Steve Letsike and Live Mag’s #VIPDebateclub with Panashe Chigumadzi. She has been published in Mike Alfred’s “Twelve Plus One” – an anthology containing the works and interviews of several South African poets and in 2014, she wrote the Nelson Mandela tribute that was performed at the Metro FM Music Awards. Nova is currently a member of recently founded organisation of South African feminists, the Feminist Stokvel and is studying towards her Honours degree in Social Anthropology.
Twitter: @NovaHerself
Instagram: NovaHerself
Tumblr: www.novaherself.tumblr.com
References:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/Nova#about
http://10and5.com/2016/06/16/lebohang-nova-masango-seeking-out-safe-spaces-for-a-more-inclusive-generation/
http://badilishapoetry.com/lebohang-nova-masango/
