Malika Ndlovu

Malika Ndlovu (19**-). Also known as Malika Lueen Ndlovu and Lueen Conning. Performance poet, playwright, performer and arts project manager.

Biography

Born in Durban, she later settled in Cape Town, where she became a founder-member of Cape Town-based women writers' collective WEAVE and later joined The Mothertongue Project. She is married to Thulani Ndlovu.

Training

Having completed high school at Convent High School, Durban (1989), she obtained a National Diploma in Performing Arts (Natal Technikon, Department of Drama, 1993), completed Michael Kaiser's Arts Administration Course - USIS, US Embassy (1995), the Arts Management Training Certificate (The Playhouse Company, 1996) and the Dasarts Graduation Certificate (Amsterdam, 1999 and 2000).

Career

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Besides her extensive work as poet, performance poet and organisor of performance events (see her Website[1]), she has created a number of plays.

As Lueen Conning she was commissioned to write her first professional play, A Coloured Place, for the 1996 Women’s Art Festival at the Playhouse in Durban. In August 2006 she restaged the play by invitation of The Playhouse Company, in celebration of the 10th anniversary SA Woman's Arts Festival.

In 2004 Malika joined The Mothertongue Project, a women performing artists, writers and visual artists collective, scripting for their highly successful Grahamstown Festival 2004 production - Uhambo!: Pieces of a Dream.

In 2007 her next play, Sister Breyani opened at the Arena Foyer, Baxter Theatre Centre, as a Play>Ground Performed Play-reading. It was professionally produced in 2009, playing at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, followed by a run at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.