Tutu Puoane: the South African singer on creating her new album out of Lebo Mashile’s poetry

Tutu Puoane’s Wrapped in Rhythm features words by poet Lebo Mashile.& © Tom Vandewalle by Nomfundo Xaluva, University of Cape Town From her base in Belgium, proudly South African singer, artist and actor Tutu Puoane has carved an international career predicated on consistency and mastery. Her new album, Wrapped in Rhythm Vol 1, features the writing of South African poet and cultural activist Lebo Mashile. Born Nonthuthuzelo Puoane in May 1979, she was raised in the Pretoria township of Mamelodi. Townships are urban black areas created under the apartheid policies of South Africa’s former government. Puoane began her artistic training at Fuba (the Federated Union of Black Artists), founded as an alternative training academy for artists denied access to whites-only institutions. She was under the tutelage of indigenous African music scholar and practitioner Geoff Mapaya, who was instrumental in her enrolment in a university jazz programme. Studying further in Europe, she would meet her husband, pianist and lifelong artistic collaborator, Ewout Pierreux, in Belgium. SoulFactory Records My first experience of Puoane on stage was at the University of Cape Town while she was on a visit to South Africa. I was a young jazz student then. Her rendition of the...