Toni Stuart

Toni Stuart, photo (c) Amaal Said

Toni Stuart (1983, Cape Town) is a South African poet, performer and spoken word educator. In 2013 she was named in the Mail and Guardian’s list of 200 inspiring Young South Africans. She has an MA Writer/Teacher (Distinction) from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she was a 2014/2015 Chevening Scholar.

Stuart’s work has been published in anthologies, journals and non-fiction books locally and abroad. Her performances include a group show at the Paris Autumn Festival 2013 (as part of France South Africa Seasons 2012/2013), poetry installation Here To Listen (London, 2015), poetry & film exhibition From My View with filmmaker Shelley Barry (South Africa, 2013); Stretching Silence with visual artist Firdous Hendricks (South Africa, 2013); sound installation Between Words and Images with curator & visual artist Ernestine White (South Africa, 2013). In 2014 she was part of the Scottish Poetry Library’s Commonwealth Poets United exchange. Her work has been published in anthologies, journals and non-fiction books in South Africa and the United States of America.

Her first poetry collection: Krotoa-Eva’s Suite – a cape jazz poem in three movements which tells the largely unknown story of the 17th century Khoi woman Krotoa-Eva who played a significant role in South Africa’s history during the time of the first Dutch settlers, was first presented at Framer Framed in Amsterdam as part of the exhibition Re(assisting Narratives (2016) curated by Chandra Frank. Toni Stuart’s poetry takes on the re-imagined story of Krotoa-Eva, a 17th century Khoi woman who lived and worked in the house of Jan Van Riebeeck, the first VOC Commander at the Cape, and played a pivotal role in South African history. Speaking Koina, Dutch and Portuguese, she worked as a translator between the Dutch and the Khoi. The poems give voice to Krotoa-Eva’s ‘interior’ life, and aim to offer a counter-narrative to the predominantly white, male, colonial perspectives through which her story has previously been told. Kurt Orderson’s loose visual interpretation of the story gives weight to the presence of Krotoa-Eva’s voice.

In 2021 she participated in the project Future for the Past; A journey back in time to the connected colonial past between The Netherlands and South Africa, a project by Sites of Memory. Artists from both countries translated their vision to this history in music, poetry, dance, visual art and theatre. With this site specific performance, Sites of Memory shares insight into how the colonial past plays a role in our present and to reimagine the future. Future for the Past takes the audience on a route through the city from the Slave Lodge, to Church Square and ending in the Company’s Garden.