Living as an art form: 2018 Grahamstown Art Festival
A friend and I booked ourselves a long bus ride to Grahamstown, now renamed to Makhanda for the Art Festival. It ran from the 28th June - 8th July and we attended the last three days of it and it was awesome!
Now, planning this trip was VERY stressful, filled with so much anxiety because my friend and I are very "chilled" people and by chilled I mean we are both the epitome of procrastination! As much as we both knew we were really attending the festival, we left the securing of a place to stay at for last and obviously we had a challenge finding one the week before the festival kicked off. All the venues we contacted were either fully booked or way out of our budget constraints! So we opted for renting out a student's apartment! Cost effective!!
The few days at Grahamstown were filled with thrift shopping, admiring of the buildings and ART! Tons and tons of art I felt my soul thank me throughout the weekend! And now, the coolest thing happened, I had people come up to me, saying/asking in passing if I was an artist. I was at the Rhodes School of Fine Art viewing the below art and someone walked up to me and asked if that was my work. His partner continued to say I look like an artist when I collapsed into laughter from the gentleman's comment. After that I got several comments from people asking what and when I will be performing. That right there - was the most warmest compliment my heart welcomed happily and easily.
Post the art festival when reflecting, I realised how spiritual some trips are and how they feed your soul in a way you weren't aware you needed to be fed. If anything in you tells you to go away for a while, pack your bags and go! Well, I know we aren't always financially privileged to do so, but when you get even a slight chance to leave your city, please do. Your soul will reward you with a renewed sense of peace when you come back.
The art festival overall was beautiful to experience, even though I strongly feel like they should look into partnering with Uber, to make it easier to travel from one venue to the other. Despite how small the place is, for someone whose not a based in Grahamstown and struggles with reading a map, its really sad to have to miss a show because you took half the time trying to get to the venue. Plus the sun isn't that kind on our skins as well. I know there are shuttles, but we missed those too, never knew where to catch them due to lack of communication from the organizers!
Anyway...
Shutout to the production team for the following shows I watched which I thorough enjoyed:
1. HUMAN PIECES II
Human Pieces II is a surrealist production directed and written by Mariska Denysschen and stars Mimi Mamabolo and Calvin Ratladi as two siblings locked in a room, with time running out as the conflicting goals of our characters threatening to end both of them.
2. UDODANA
Udodana is a full-length dance theatre work that seeks to explore the black male body; its associated and constructed identity, its placement in the society (particularly in traditional African communities, households and churches) against the many on-going incidents that constantly draw attention to the silenced brokenness of the black male identity. Fusing both the abstract and the narrative approach, the work explores the continued brokenness of the black male body; its indoctrination and incubation into the systems whose role plays ignorant if not tyrant to the development of black power and unity
3. NINAH
Ninah is an experimental, ritualistic and bold theatrical performance lead by powerful African women. The narrative drives home the possibilities of Africa becoming no more. Designed to be educational as well as entertaining with oral traditional elements of storytelling, music and performance, Ninah gives African women the opportunity to celebrate being African in 2018. With dynamic performances being led by each woman in the scene, spiritual upliftment will be felt.
4. THE DEVIL & BILLY MARKHAM
The 2017 Standard Bank Ovation winner is back for firv performances only. Gambling with the Devil is such a bad, bad idea. But Billy’s been around for years and he ain’t afraid of nobody or them devilish dice. An epic Faustian tale brilliantly recounted by a master performer.
5. TATS NKONZO IS PRIVILEGED
Tats Nkonzo’s three-year-old kissed a homeless man at the robots. His life changed. “This is my truest and funniest show yet,” Tats says. Tats Nkonzo is Privileged is the hilarious confession of how one comedian went from thinking he was an angel to realizing he was an asshole
