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Theatre in the Backyard: “Is He Mad?”

Theatre in the Backyard is one of the seven projects being supported by the ACC as part of Public Art and the Power of Place. Theatre in the Backyard presents “Is He Mad?” written & directed by Mhlanguli George and performed by Lamla Ntsaluba. According to the project organisers, “Is He Mad?”: ‘A story of a man who doesn’t want to accept the death of his wife and has not become himself ever since, the story is developed from the monologue from the well-known play of Dario Fo called “Accidental Death of an Anarchist” and some of the ideas are coming from the newspapers such as the Daily Sun, the play deals with people who are ignorant about real issues in their lives. The production will be performed in the backyard. Theatre in the Backyard has developed as a creative response to untapped resources of backyard life. Theatre in the Backyard uses actual backyards as the site for intimate theatrical production, working closely and powerfully with available light, space and other scenographic elements The Director of Theatre in The Backyard spends a lot of time exploring different yards to eventually come up with a pure story, this takes time as he has to use every element of the yard to put together the story, one of his main objectives is to find character’s to this mysterious venture and ways of revealing the backyard secretes. This is theatre based on reality – raw and alive experience. Writer, Director Mhlanguli George is the innovator of Theatre in the Backyard and founder and the Artistic Director of New-born Theatre Productions. Working as theatre writer, director and the choreographer of the company, he produced productions like “21st of march” ”June 16-isichotho semvula” “Teenage pregnancy” “Ndidliwa-ngumvandedwa” “Driven by faith”, “Kwa-Nongqongqo” ”Fourth person in the yard” ”Letters” and “Finding the space” Mhlanguli George has come up with a new form of theatre called “theatre in the backyard” that focuses on revealing secrets of the backyards good or bad. The first piece that George has created out of theatre in the backyard is called “Fourth person in the yard” and recently produced his second installation of theatre in the backyard “Is he mad?” Mhlanguli George worked at Uct Dance School as a lecture for 4th years introducing a new course “African Dance Performance Technique” The Production manager/administrator Sisa Congress V Makaula is the Founding member of Rainbow arts Organisation, one of the master minds in converting the Delft Rent Office to what is now known as Black Box Theatre, He has written a number of theatre productions: Behind My Shadow which went to the NATIONAL FESTIVAL IN GRAHAMSTOWN in 2008 and 2009, The Prophet Must Die recently performed at the Iqonga Creative Festival in Delft, and Freedom Speech to name a few. Today, Sisa Makaula is regarded as professional actor, theatre-maker, drama facilitator, writer, arts administrator and he is the Director and Executive producer of Rainbow Arts Organisation.

Ghetto Trekk! Interview

GHETTO TREKK! is a touring platform that is designed for visual art, music, film-making, fashion, design, curatorship and theatre, while providing a podium for individuals from a wide variety of communities to engage in meaningful conversations about the challenges that face our society – and to create social change to reflect, reconstruct & address the negative connotation associated with our communities. It provides an opportunity to profile Unfunded & Self-Start Artists / Crafters / Entrepreneurs / NGOs / CBOs / Activists…and exhibit their works in different communities. In this session, project coordinator will be interviewed by Tinny Ntshili. They will be joined by Blaq Pearl. Date: Saturday 28 November 2015 Time: 10h00 - 12h00 Venue: Cape Town Central Library, Google Map: -33.925470, 18.424417

Artfricraft Studios Music Event

Delft Rent Office 583 Delft Main Road, Cape Town

Artfricraft Studios is one of the seven projects being supported by ACC as part of Public Art and the Power of Place. Artfricraft Studios will be hosting a series of events as part of their project. This music event will feature Very Lutumba, Sylvestre Kabadassi and African All Stars. The purpose of these events is to use art as a way to draw different artists and residents together to challenge xenophobia.

R30

Africities 2015

Unnamed Venue Johannesburg, South Africa

The CoJ, South Africa’s economic hub, will be hosting the 7th Africities Summit of cities and local governments of Africa on 1–4 December 2015. The summit is held every three years and looks at issues affecting urban and economic development in African cities. The theme for 2015 is ‘2063 Vision for Africa: Which contributions from the African local governments?’ It will explore the local government vision for the next 50 years and creative ways of solving the problems facing cities on the continent. more  

Ghetto Trekk! Festival

GHETTO TREKK! is a touring platform that is designed for visual art, music, film-making, fashion, design, curatorship and theatre, while providing a podium for individuals from a wide variety of communities to engage in meaningful conversations about the challenges that face our society – and to create social change to reflect, reconstruct & address the negative connotation associated with our communities. It provides an opportunity to profile Unfunded & Self-Start Artists / Crafters / Entrepreneurs / NGOs / CBOs / Activists…and exhibit their works in different communities. Date: Saturday 05 December 2015 Time: 16h00 - 21h00 Venue: Valhalla Park, Angela Road connecting to Charles Lane, Google Map: -33.953538, 18.574632  

Ghetto Trekk! Festival

GHETTO TREKK! is a touring platform that is designed for visual art, music, film-making, fashion, design, curatorship and theatre, while providing a podium for individuals from a wide variety of communities to engage in meaningful conversations about the challenges that face our society – and to create social change to reflect, reconstruct & address the negative connotation associated with our communities. It provides an opportunity to profile Unfunded & Self-Start Artists / Crafters / Entrepreneurs / NGOs / CBOs / Activists…and exhibit their works in different communities. Date: Sunday 06 December 2015 Time: 16h00 – 21h00 Venue: Kwa-Langa, Zone 22 No. 16 at Noxolo Street Google Map: 33°56’39.2″S 18°32’19.5″E

Celebrating a bumper year of publishing

The Design Bank 75 Harrington Street, Cape Town, South Africa

Throughout 2015, ACC researchers and associates have been involved in a wide range of activities including the release of the following publications: State/Society Synergy edited by Mercy Brown-Luthango; the African Cities Reader III, edited by Ntone Adjabe and Edgar Pieterse; Mean Streets: Migration, Xenophobia and Informality in SA by Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda and Caroline Skinner; The Art of Public Space: Curating and Re-imagining the Ephemeral City by Kim Gurney; The Crossroads series of comics (1-4) by Koni Benson and the Tantraal Brothers and Cityscapes #7: Futurity, edited by Tau Tavengwa and Sean O'Toole. Henrik Ernstson has been working on a documentary film project titled One Table Two Elephants which will be launching soon. We invite you to join us in celebrating these projects

Ghetto Trekk! Festival

Bonteheuwel

GHETTO TREKK! is a touring platform that is designed for visual art, music, film-making, fashion, design, curatorship and theatre, while providing a podium for individuals from a wide variety of communities to engage in meaningful conversations about the challenges that face our society – and to create social change to reflect, reconstruct & address the negative connotation associated with our communities. It provides an opportunity to profile Unfunded & Self-Start Artists / Crafters / Entrepreneurs / NGOs / CBOs / Activists…and exhibit their works in different communities. Date: Saturday 12 December 2015 Time: 09h00 – 21h00 Venue: Bontehuewel, Als Road connecting with Apricot Streets Google Map: -33.942233, 18.544701

Conference on Informality and the Urban Food System: Policy, practice and inclusive growth through a food lens

UCT Graduate School of Business, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

The Hungry Cities Partnership, a research programme at the African Centre for Cities, will hold a conference at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business on 15 February 2016. The Hungry Cities Partnership is a research partnership led by the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town and the Balsillie School of International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. Southern partner cities include Bangalore, Kingston, Maputo, Mexico City, Nairobi, Nanjing and Cape Town. The focus of this five-year research programme is a collaborative, inter-disciplinary research, training and knowledge mobilization programme on urbanization, food security, informality and inclusive growth. See the programme on the AFSUN website.

World-class city making in Africa – a view from Angola through the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda

Seminar Room 1 Environmental & Geographical Sciences Building, UCT Upper Campus

The ACC is happy to announce the first academic seminar for 2016. Dr Sylvia Croese will be presenting a paper entitled, 'World-class city making in Africa – a view from Angola through the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda'. Abstract This paper examines the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda as the epitome of a process of world-class city making that has unfolded in the capital of Angola since the end of the war in 2002. In an era that has been marked by ‘Africa’s rise’, concomitant efforts towards the building of world-class African cities have generated growing research interest over the past years. However, often these efforts are seen as uncritically adopted or externally imposed imitations of global/world city models. This paper aims to take world-class city making in Luanda seriously by analyzing its dynamics on its own terms, thereby moving beyond accounts that either romanticize or demonize this process. Based on an analysis of the history of the Bay of Luanda and the actors, discourse and imaginaries involved in its redevelopment, the paper makes three interrelated arguments. Firstly, it argues that while discourses underpinning world-class city making may reflect external or economic drivers, such as a desire to attract international investment, the case of Luanda shows that this practice can be equally or even more strongly driven by internal or political objectives, such as the pursuit of national legitimacy and domestic stability. From this follows that world-class city making in Africa does not necessarily have to be externally imposed, managed or financed, but that it can also be ‘home-grown’ and led by national rather than city governments, especially in resource-rich and authoritarian states like Angola. Finally, the paper argues that while the mainstream world-class city literature tends to focus on the futuristic nature of world-class city aesthetics, the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda shows how efforts to revive modernist colonial architecture may equally underpin world-class city making. The study of world-class city making should then not only consider ‘introspective’ vs ‘extrospective’ politics but also ‘retrospective’ rationales or the ways in which utopia and nostalgia intersect across time and space. Bio Dr Sylvia Croese is a post-doctoral research fellow at the department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. She has written and conducted extensive research in and on Angola as a researcher and consultant and has an interest in issues related to housing and urban development, local governance and electoral politics in Africa.