Adrian van Wyk
Adrian van Wyk (19**-) is a performance poet, filmmaker, creative producer and cultural historian.
Has also performed under the stage name "Diff" (or "Different")
Contents
Biography
Adrian van Wyk was born in Kuilsrivier, Cape Town and studied at Stellenbosch University, where his MA dissertation, "From Jamaica to the Cape Flats", examined the diasporic roots of hip hop culture in South Africa — research that underpins much of his later film work. He was named an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity (2025/26) and went on to pursue a PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Van Wyk first became known as a spoken-word and hip hop performer, active on Cape platforms from 2005. In 2011 he co-founded the InZync Poetry Sessions with Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal, a series of multilingual, multi-genre poetry evenings held monthly in Kayamandi, Stellenbosch, deliberately sited in a township to draw a wider and more diverse audience. As the sessions' regular host and organiser he curated more than thirty shows, and he ran the associated INKredibles workshops developing young poets, as well as serving as events organiser for the Stellenbosch Literary Project (SLiP). He has performed at venues and festivals including AmaZink and the Open Book Festival.
In film, van Wyk produced What the Soil Remembers (2023), directed by Ecuadorian filmmaker José Cardoso, a documentary on the forced removal of the Die Vlakte community to make way for Stellenbosch University; he is also credited on its cinematography and story. He co-directed, with Chris Kets, the feature documentary Notes from the Underground (2026), an eight-years-in-the-making history of Cape hip hop featuring artists such as Ready D and Isaac Mutant, which premiered at the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival. He also produced the short Flores (2024), and has been an artist in residence at the Singapore Art Museum.
Awards, etc.
What the Soil Remembers (2023) won the Ammodo Tiger Short Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Flores (2024) won the International Short Film Competition at Sheffield DocFest.
Sources
'Adrian Diff van Wyk', Open Book Festival: https://openbookfestival.co.za/authors/adrian-van-wyk/
'What the Soil Remembers', International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2023.
Oluwanisola, E. 2026. 'Notes from the Underground', Modern Times Review, 6 June 2026.
'Voices of reclamation and resistance at Encounters International Documentary Festival', Daily Maverick, 28 May 2026.
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