Poetry in motion : the taxi and taxi poetry as sites of mobility and creativity in Imraan Coovadia’s The Institute for Taxi Poetry

Abstract

This article examines how Imraan Coovadia’s The Institute for Taxi Poetry uses the taxi industry as a dynamic cultural space to explore intersections of mobility and identity in an alternate post-apartheid South Africa. Drawing on Mary Louise Pratt’s concept of contact zones and Mimi Sheller’s framework of mobility justice, this article argues that Coovadia reimagines the taxi as a metaphorical and literal space where diverse social and cultural interactions manifest. Through a comparative analysis of two central characters—Solly Greenfields and Gerome Geromian—the article highlights differing poetic expressions and scales of mobility. While Geromian’s cosmopolitan approach embodies global mobility, Greenfields’s deeply local focus challenges narrow interpretations of rootedness, reflecting a local scale of mobility and intimate relationship with his environment. The article contends that Coovadia critiques simplistic binaries of local and global by emphasising how these scales coexist and shape individual and collective identities. Ultimately, The Institute for Taxi Poetry reconfigures the taxi and its associated poetry as sites of cultural connection and negotiation, reflecting broader social dynamics and tensions within a post-apartheid context.