Katlego K Kolanyane-Kesupile – “Developing the nerve to possess yourself”

Katlego K Kolanyane-Kesupile (Kat Kai Kol-Kes) is an international award-winning Trans* ARTivist, writer, theatre producer, educator, performer, and skill donor. A self-defined, relentless Motswana, her work on queerness and queer livelihoods in contemporary African society is strongly rooted in situating herself – and others like her – as citizens and participants in the shaping of the Botswana’s future.
Her groundbreaking work as a theatre producer includes founding the Queer Shorts Showcase Festival (Botswana), and crafting productions like AfriQueer Now!, Shelf Life Zero, and Keledi. Her debut poetry collection, …on about the same old things, published by Bahati Books is Botswana’s first collection of queer-themed poetry.
Katlego is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, the Mellon Mays Fellows Professionals Network, and was a highly commended runner-up for the 2016 Queen’s Young Leaders Awards. She is a 2016/17 Chevening scholar and an alumnus of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) programme. Her goal is to shape a world which nurtures dialogue and where ignorance is a choice, not an inevitable state of being.