Xabiso Vili

Xabiso Vili is a South African poet, new media artist, author, and speaker who has performed his poetry nationally and internationally. He earned the title of World Slam Poetry Champion in Brussels in 2022. He is also noted for his poetry, which has been published in various anthologies, and his interactive multi-media projects. Owing to the work he has done in the arts sector of South Africa, he was named one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans in 2022.

Biography Vili spent his early childhood in a rural area in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, although he has also lived in Pretoria and Cape Town, South Africa. His first poems were composed at the age of 12. Throughout his high-school career, he continued writing poems, some of which were published in English Alive, an annual anthology that showcases the work of South African high-school students. In 2008, he was elected head boy at Cedar House School in Cape Town. After completing his secondary education, he studied at Rhodes University for three years and worked as an assistant teacher at Cedar House School for a year, but soon moved back to Pretoria.

In 2017, Vili embarked on a 6-week of tour of India.

In 2022, Vili was one of 40 poets from 37 countries who gathered in Brussels to compete for the title of World Slam Poetry Champion. For the final round of the competition, he performed a poem titled "Forget How to Die". He was also awarded the 2022 Future Africa grant by Meta as part of the Future Africa: Telling Stories, Building Worlds programme. Vili's Black Boi meets Boogeyman, an interactive 360° visual album, formed part of an XR (Extended Reality) exhibition showcasing the works of Meta's Future Africa grant recipients. 2022: World Slam Poetry Champion 2020: The poems "A book of dead black boys" and "Carving a Goddess (out of your mother)" were published in Yesterdays and Imagining Realities: an anthology of South African poetry.