The Multi-Talented Siphokazi Jonas is about to return to Artscape with her hit show 'Around The Fire'. i was fortunate enough to be given the chance to ask her a couple of questions about the production but first let me allow her to set the scene: = = = = = = = = = = 'Following the success of her Wrestling With Dawn production, in late 2015, and 2016’s sold-out masterpiece, Around The Fire, [...]
i absolutely love the people in and around my life. It really does feel like a gift and on top of any male or white or anything else privilege that i recognise and acknowledge, the privilege of quality people is one i am most grateful for. The other night a new friend Mzi was visiting Cape Town from Joburg and we got to have dinner with him and spend an evening just chatting and reflecting [...]
The other day i tried my hand at a kind of spoken word piece with the title, 'i don't hate my skin' which you can watch over here. But i thought some of you might appreciate having a closer look at the words and here they are. i don't hate my skin - by brett "Fish" anderson I don’t hate my skin. The thought seems quite ridiculous. How could I possibly hate something [...]
For some reason this stuff seems to be on my mind. The other day i wrote a poem called 'Whiteness' which you can read over here. And i have a piece that i wrote when i was helping out with an exam the other day while waiting for my learner to write her paper. Which i haven't looked at again, but similar theme. And then i was working on this piece. i would love to [...]
A few weeks ago i got to help out at a camp with The LifeMatters Foundation, on this occasion with grade seven pupils from three different schools in the Cape Flats. They are doing some incredible things in schools and so i asked them to share a little bit of who they are: Who we are We are The LifeMatters Foundation, a proudly South African Non-Profit Organisation promoting holistic development in children through literacy, numeracy, life skills workshops, counselling and [...]
i know a lot of people in Cape Town who are involved in some exciting educational non-profit organisations doing a range of inspirational things with the young people in our province, particularly those in less resourced schools. One such group is Outliers and i asked them to share a little bit about what they are about: In South Africa, only 50% of children who originally enroll in school make it to matric. In addition, an [...]
"Where did you two meet?" "That's easy. He [me] is an activist and I [Napoleon] am an activist. We were introduced by another activist [Nigel Branken]." That was part of an exchange that happened yesterday as i got to hang out with my friend Napoleon Webster who i hadn't seen since he was released from spending over 200 days in prison for a crime he did not commit. But let's backpedal a bit... The Marikana [...]
Can i just start by saying that i absolutely LOVE the [majority of the] community who wrestle with me with aspects of race and privilege and poverty and more on social media. It is probably a wonder that more of you haven't given up on me, but when you stick around and when you push back and when we seriously engage with the topics at hand [and those hiding behind the hand] we learn so [...]
My friend Shelley Frost wrote this as her status on Facebook today and i couldn't not sure because it is such a gracefully written invitation to men to seize the opportunity to be a part of the much needed transformation that is needed in the world and so i repost it here as an endorsement. If as a male, and particularly a white male, you feel defensive when you read this, before you jump on [...]
When i say "Cape Flats", you say "Violence!" "Cape Flats!" "VIOLENCE!!" "Cape Flats!" "VIOLENCE!!" Because, along with Nazareth and townships and maybe even Africa as a whole, that is the kind of mindset that too many of us hold, right? The mindset that says [or suggests, or at the very least thinks]: What good ever came out of the Cape Flats...? Time to flip this narrative This past weekend i had the privilege - and [...]
