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Fabulous fabulous leads and a whole lot more
Review: West Side Story, Fugard Theatre production at Artscape opera house Run extended until April 22 In this mad and fast-moving world appetites change constantly, attention spans narrow and it is easy to dismiss things as old or tired. That said, this fabulous pairing of a sensational Maria and a reliable and gorgeous Tony in… Continue reading
The grocery store we’ve all been waiting for
I am just back from my first visit to Nude Foods, the grocery store we have all been waiting for! I do mean all of us. Cape Town’s new plastic-free grocer is heaven for hipsters, for sure, with its hemp seeds, healthy hair products and earth-friendly body and home products, and a veritable lezzer nirvana… Continue reading
Am I beautiful? Oh yes I am!
What a treat to see Zanele Muholi profiled in the Weekend FT. It brought to mind my first encounter with the riveting work of this activist-photographer … GRAHAMSTOWN, July 8 2016: In this challenging two-part exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery as part of the annual National Arts Festival, photographer and activist Zanele… Continue reading
Very familiar and completely vreemd
How I wished I didn’t have to read the surtitles in Moedertaal. Whenever I listened to the Afrikaans words spoken by Sandra Prinsloo I understood snatches of a beautiful, lyrical Afrikaans that cannot be translated. When I heard the Afrikaans and saw the translations in English I wanted to shout out: “That is not what… Continue reading
Spekbombing and other suburban dreams
As the windy season gets underway in the Cape of Hope and Storms we sit on a couple of ticking timebombs, one of them a natural disaster of epic proportions. Many of us feel helpless in the face of the corruption and the selling off of the state. The ANC, founder of the Rainbow Nation,… Continue reading
Zeitz Mocaa: It’s about us
Even in Milan, in London, in New York and other art-obsessed places it would have been difficult this week to totally escape the hype around the opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz Mocaa), the world’s largest museum of contemporary African art, in Cape Town. In the Mother City, too, there was… Continue reading
Pleasing to the mind, the body and the soul
If it feels too good to be true, it probably is, the saying goes. Too good to be true = couldn’t be better … or could it? It was certainly dreamy enough watching a wonderfully varied programme of top quality dance at the SAIBC International Ballet Gala at the Artscape recently, with professional dancers from as… Continue reading
Swing into spring in downtown Cape Town
Gangsters and their molls, bootleggers, poets and playwrights, flappers and assorted dandies … just another night at your favourite tavern in town, you might think, but Cape Town’s monthly swing nights, which are launching on 1 September at the Reserve at the Taj, promise a whole lot more. As winter breathes its last misty breaths,… Continue reading
Give reality the slip at the Wild Coast
The more things have changed the more they have stayed the same since the days when it was one of ‘Sun King’ Sol Kerzner’s original palaces of relaxation and fun in the nominally independent Bantustans of apartheid era South Africa. The resort – set on 750 hectares of natural bush on the Indian Ocean Coast, where the sun always seems to shine – continues to offer a haven from the chill and the rest of reality outside…. Continue reading
Dump maths? Sounds like a race to the bottom
10X Investments called on South Africa’s Department of Basic Education this week to reconsider the “potentially catastrophic proposal” to remove mathematics as a pass requirement in the education system. “Just when you thought we needed to raise our game in terms of maths literacy, the national education department starts a consultation on lowering the standards,”… Continue reading
Lest we forget …
Cheers to Sarajevo, which is showing at the Alexander Bar until Saturday July 8, is one of those universal stories about people who are not supposed to fall in love. This story about a love affair between a Serbian man and a Bosnian woman during the captured and corrupt times of the Yugoslavian war feels… Continue reading
The normalisation of madness
A number of insights during a debate at the University of Cape Town – Betrayal of the Promise: Understanding South Africa’s Political Crisis – came from the youngest panel member Sikhulekile Duma, a researcher at the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition at Stellenbosch University. One, in particular, resonated with me when he talked about… Continue reading
New classics infused with ancient African tradition
A Nigerian Kora player, a South African composer, a Kenyan master of ceremonies and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille were among musicians, VIPs and invited guests gathered at Iziko Museum in Cape Town to listen to “new classics” in celebration of the 54th anniversary of Africa Day on Thursday. After being warmed up by a… Continue reading
Musical feast at Durban’s beachfront festival
Durbanites look set to get a lot more than “what is needed” this weekend, May 26-28, when a star-studded line-up from around the world plays on two stages at the third annual Zakifo Music Festival at Blue Lagoon Beach. “Sakifo means what is needed in Creole,” says Jerome Galabert, one of the event’s co founders…. Continue reading
Artists given licence to disrupt (as if they needed it)
2017 looks like the year disruption will come full circle at Grahamstown’s National Arts Festival, from June 29 to July 9. Last year’s call for proposals urged, challenged, prodded and provoked the original disruptors – artists – to shake things up a bit. We have just a few weeks to wait to see how they responded. Urging dare devils and… Continue reading
Back by popular demand: #FeesMustFall
Back by popular demand! The Fall will be showing at Baxter Golden Arrow Studio from June 8 to 24. Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Research Chair of Studies in Historical Trauma and Transformation at Stellenbosch University, wrote of The Fall: “With all the images of violence in the media, it can be easy to lose sight of… Continue reading
Precious drinking water running down the toilet
As water experts gather for seminars to discuss the Cape’s crisis and pop groups record songs to help people manage the time they spend in the shower, thousands of litres of drinking water continues to run down the toilet. Robert Ince, from Cape Town-based company Bob The Plumber, says there are many small and effective ways… Continue reading
Education crisis ‘the civil rights struggle of the day’
Respected African elder statesman Jakaya Kikwete told the World Economic Forum’s Africa meetings in Durban that the education crisis in Africa was today’s civil rights struggle, and called on leaders in the developed and developing worlds to act urgently. Tanzania’s former president was speaking in his capacity as Special Envoy for the Education Commission, a global… Continue reading
A connection, a picture, a story is worth a million miles
Star Alliance is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a worldwide competition celebrating cultural connections made by travellers in which entrants stand a chance to win a million frequent flyer miles. Jeffrey Goh, Star Alliance chief executive, said: “As part of our 20th anniversary, we are celebrating the strength of human and cultural connections. In order… Continue reading
Afropunk is coming to Africa (Jozi strikes gold again)
Johannesburg will in December join New York, Atlanta, London and Paris as cities hosting global Afropunk events. The first batch of performers for the inaugural festival on December 30 and 31 – “two nights of music, style, art and food” on the city’s Constitution Hill – was announced by Sal Masekela at an event at… Continue reading
Think out of the box, put the farm into one
In this age of Eat Local campaigns, one might be a little alarmed to encounter vegetables called rucola, petite-this and mange-that, on a plate in the Nigerian capital, but fear not, Oluwayimika Angel Adelaja told a briefing at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Africa 2017 meetings in Durban, these micro greens are not just grown… Continue reading