The Read Aunt Mzansi

I have learnt to appreciate time more in the period that I've been unemployed since holding a temporary position from mid -April 'til end of October. Waking up early and returning back after sunset tired from an hour's walk is no child's play, even for a girl like me with a Strong Rural Background (SRB -as Panashe calls it). As an avid reader, you always find yourself stealing excerpts from the reads around you as the thought of not reading anything goes against who you've become. Some nights I was too tired to even take off my 'work clothes' I'd just doze off. This is to say, I've taken my time reading books I'd normally finish in no time and now that I am in 'full control' of my time, I can fully immerse myself in my reads - a great example will be Panashe Chigumadzi's Sweet Medicine. Prior to this read, I was reading particularly heavy books, from Malebo Sephodi's Miss Behave I found myself in Pumla Dineo Gqola's Rape: A...

I read an article in City Press a while ago by Zamayhira Peter   on how our Minister of Basic Education is looking to popularise reading where she and company saw it fitting to use public figures as ambassadors for this campaign. All this to say, if kids see those they look up to reading, they will be inspired and want to read. Maybe. With that said, I attended a panel discussion over the weekend at Wits (organised by the SLLM Council) and one of the questions that kept going around was on how pop culture can/does influence reading, and also how we can encourage a reading culture. Your girls Beyonce and Bonang were thrown in the mix a few times. You will remember Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's cameo appearance in the Flawless music video, and despite much criticism, From A To B might get folks reading beyond the stan perspective.    I will call myself a reading ambassador as well. I am an avid reader, I try encouraging those around me to read by sharing my reads with...

When you hear a story of young rural girl moves to the City and 'forgets' where she comes from, you're thinking typical, right? But not quite. Championed by Champions of the Environment, Memories and Empty Spaces reminds audiences that the story is in the intent in which it is told. Because more often than not, we are different people, going through similar things all in pursuit of belonging. The story is centred around the character of a young womxn - Pulane (she who makes it rain, literally!) - whom like anyone of us is confronted with an identity crisis. Being raised to conform and follow what is believed and known to be true, only to go out and meet other worlds that threaten who you are and what you've known your entire life...it's a crisis. What now? Do you discard that which has brought you this far? Do you embrace this new you and see what truth it holds? Or do you perhaps put the two worlds together and see if they will work amidst negative connot...

Writer and Director Ntshieng Mokgoro allowed us to drink from her creative well as she presented an all-star cast in this emotional, yet witty story of a scarred family. What happens when a man's patriotism exiles him at his family's stake? Does he return the same man? Will he find his family intact? Mduduzi Mabaso brought the character of Thami - a guerilla - to life. The character goes through a series of psychotic episodes that will make you want to hold him and at the same time, make you fear for his life and that of his loved ones. Having had dreams, and the love to deliver freedom to your people, to only come back with a torn and scarred soul, you become a walking corpse. Feelings of betrayal and questions of what could have went wrong cripple your mentality. Given that, our limited human perspective deems you insane.    Pretty Ncayiyane did justice to the character of Buli - a young soldier in her own rite. Always on a quest to challenge her family and community...

When was the last time you acknowledged womxn? When was the last time you acknowledged being womxn? When was the last time you sat back, looked at your womxn, said to yourself  You're doing okay, and patted yourself on the back? I know. With recent events that have seen stories of womxn abuse surfacing, and some resurfacing, it hasn't been everyday that you could reflect(on the good), as a womxn, and take in fresh air. How do you carry on when the womxn in your life can't even carry themselves? How do you walk the streets when the womxn in your life don't even want to see a street corner? How do you  brave the day with a smile when it's a cover for what's really going on? Well, be a womxn. I got a breath of fresh air when I went to watch the amazing ten-womxn-band, Abafazi. LORD, I haven't floated in the air like that in so long! Seeing those  Marimbas,  Drums, and Shakers on stage sure set the mood for a once in a lifetime performance. The eccentric entra...

When poetry is intertwined with prose to tell a story of  creation and being, there is a rebirth. Tswalo, loosely translated -  birth -  is a story about the beginning. Creation. Birth. Life as we know it begins here, and after that we find ourselves looking for pieces of Self - some of which we may have lost or discarded along the way - that'll make sense of who we are, and are becoming. The main character portrayed by Billy Edward, does exactly that, as he takes us through that journey of creation - maybe from the beginning of time - his and ours.  The directorship of Mahlatsi Mokgonyana is telling. You can see how intentional he was in wanting the audience to connect with this masterpiece. Every action was carefully curated to match the right words that'll drive the play's message home.  The piece swallows the present, taking you into a new space that forces engagement with an existence that you might have not taken notice of before, an existence that you m...

What makes the world go round? Money, you'd say. Well, most of us would attest to that whether we've had money or not. Money Maker looks at the typical life of making money through the Profession of Prostitution. Typical as it looks and sounds, there's more to the womxn in this Profession. For most, we go judging as we sit mightly on our Moral Horses, throwing around comments and instructions (disguised as suggestions) on how They should have made better choices; should have asked for help; should've found a job; how they should lead their lives, and and and.  To paraphrase the lead actor in this play, life demands you make choices - if you don't, it'll make them for you. I find more often we are caught between standardising these choices as to whether they are wrong or right. As to who is far down and out to be making certain choices and why. The play looks to answer questions that most of us have about Prostitution, and, it leaves you asking yourself if you ...

Just as life doesn't ask you when to peak, death doesn't ask you when to come.  It's rarely ever about you, really. But because it is about your people, the people in and around your life, it really will affect you. And because God is God, he will give you courtesy as His Child, which you'll mistake for confirmation that the inevitable will be delayed, or won't happen. Loss is real. Loss is hard. Loss will find you. None of us can escape it. It doesn't matter who or what, when loss hits, it hits where it hurts the most. As if losing a friend can be handled (RIP Sibulele Mgudlwa) , in less than 4 days, I receive the news that another incredible human being has left us. My High School Class Teacher, Meneer Teffo aka Mothokoa -   if you got that close. I am here bleeding on my keyboard and as Rupi Kaur put it, I don't know if this writing is healing or detroying me.  :'( :'( You remember your first day in High School where there'll be that First...

what do you do? what do you say? what do you feel, really? you knew him  but not really you spoke but not too much you shared a piece of each other, with each other but not every piece (how much is enough, anyway?) you laughed about life you cried also but you continued to live still to love to share he was what courage looked like bravery and all its fearlessness he had his cross to bear but he still helped others carry theirs seeing potential in others he  did believing that the ultimate truth will find us all he's gone today but in us he remains a pART of us he stays God knows, right? He knew See you soon [Now, I'm gonna go have that cup of Tea and pour a lot of brandy in it like Joseph Stalin used to , I'll make it two, actually. Cheers!] . Rest In Perfect Peace and Power, Sibulele Mgudlwa. Uyathandwa, wethu.

In a society where we are constantly forced to conform to pressure and the status quo, nothing gets as much attention as protest does. I'm not talking toyi-toying down the streets kind of protest, no. I am talking using the body to defy the norm and speak up. Breaking the Cycle, choreographed and performed by Funeka Ramorula, was out to speak up, protest. He used dance to say to the world, I am who and what I am. His piece conveyed messages we know all too well, issues of finding Self in a society that's constantly looking to change you and make you who they want you to be. We missed a connection with the performer on more occasions than one, his face was rather invisible - maybe as a form of protest - but for those of us who do not know dance, we would have liked to pick up some of his emotions through his facial expressions. As a horrible dancer, I wondered if my thoughts of 'I can do that' every time he jumped or swayed on stage, meant that he makes it look easy or...

When two impeccable actors are able to set the stage alight, all you see is yellow Or is it orange? Hell, it's colour!  Yellow Man; acted by Jacques de Silva and Mmathabo Tlali, under the direction of Tshego Khutsoane is nothing short of beautYful, great acting and characterisation. With a smart (and dangerous) stage that had the audience's imagination working full time and holding their breaths hoping nobody falls or trips. The lighting a bit confusing here and there. The play delves deep into lines that some of us want to grow blind to - colour. Can we ignore it? Should we ignore it? Is ignorance bliss when it comes to colour? Whatever your colour is, fact about it is that it shapes your future. Just as colour is genetically passed on through reproduction, so are the misfortunes or fortunes that come with it; wealth (or not), dreams (that are sometimes shattered), hope, a sense of believe, trust, confidence, a pinch of love to season it up. These are the things that make Ye...

Music, Dance, Storytelling, and Drama! This is what Nhlanhla John Lata's Musical Play, The Driver had to offer. A play set in a bus destined for Durban, centred around the life stories of three womxn  from different but similar backgrounds.  With an energetic yet sloppy (in the handling of props) musical opening, the three womxn played by Busisiwe Tsoaledi, Lindokuhle Ngomane, and Khabonina Magasela were able to capture the attention of the audience. Song and dance were the crux of all the experiences the womxn had been through, lightening the seriousness and easing the mind of the audience as these womxn's issues layered up. The play still needs to grow, delve into the realities of what womxn go through and maybe change the focal point of Adam and Eve wherein men are the crux of these womxn's stories, and in that, the actors need to be one with the characters. In as much as they are representing womxn out there, we need to see them drive the womxn in this play and give th...

POETS In Autumn. “It’s the season to be wordy, it’s the season to be wordy.” When all plans to attend one of the biggest International (note well) Poetry Festivals fail, you start looking for something to self-destruct as a way of healing. Because the Universe conspires with our thoughts, there I was on my WhatsApp when I saw a poster on a friend’s profile about an upcoming International Poetry and Arts Festival in celebration of womxn. This couldn’t have been better timing, and for the cherry on top – IT WAS TO BE HELD IN POLOKWANE – HOME. Saturday, March 25 2017; there I was with my overnight bag. Elated and looking forward to the event, I arrived on time (this is when you know an event is special – me on time) and almost got lost. I was met by an A3 poster at the gate which prompted my mind to ask about the marketing quietness on the streets as I made my way here. Hosted at a car wash, a good spot if you ask me, I was met by c...

You know how most, if not all of us, have a fetish for 'celebrities'? We want to meet them! Take pictures with them! Tell the next person about the experience and write the moment in the history books of The Celebri ty I Met. These are the people that we look up to, the very people who have a huge influence on our lives - be it negative or positive. So, when you get an opportunity to meet one Moeti Tsiki, better known as MoFlava, you gather all your cool, check your Crush Pulse, go on a search for the 'adult' in you and then maybe you're ready to meet him. Then it hits you, he's human. I for one was puzzled at the reactions of hundreds of people (Fe/male) after their encounter, a first for most, with MoFlava. We were granted an opportunity of a lifetime for a shot at a promising future - if I may put it that way. Now, why was everyone on a high after meeting this fellow human being? Does he maybe have a Bursary for each one of us? Or maybe a job in the Media A...