ART + ACTIVISM

Permaculture Design Course (Pachamama, Knysna, 2020)

AgroForestry Workshop (Rondevlei, Wilderness, 2022)

EcoVillage Design Workshop (Thlolego EcoVillage & Learning Centre, Rustenburg, 2022)

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period I've attended three courses and workshops focused on the practice of permaculture. During this time I've been lucky enough to have been taught by Alex Kruger (legendary PDC facilitator & seed activist), Kate Curtis (greenhearted.net), Christopher Nash (pachamama.co.za), and Casparo Brown (The Wandering Wild School). The overall aim is to invest my experience and skills in environmental activism in how it intersects with human and animal rights issues.

These experiences build on the Greenpop treeplanting festival and animal communications workshop in 2019 & 2017.

inequality!!! seizing the megaphone was the theme of this year's Vavasati International Women's Festival at the South African State Theatre, once again a groundbreaking moment under the curatorship of Mamela Nyamza (Deputy Artistic Director) and Kgaogelo Tshabalala (Misskay, independent performance artist). The curators insisted that the festival be run by wom_n, staged by wom_n, and managed by wom_n. As the person documenting the festival, the end-result was palpable. This festival presented a definitive and unapologetic challenge to a predominantly male run and acknowledged industry. In support of the festival I started the Vavasati Initiative in collaboration with academic researcher Dr Akhona Ndzuta, inviting wom_n academics, artists, writers, media activists, journalists and marketers to step forward and support the festival with their networks and skills. Once again I used my documenting skills and captured the majority of productions from 2 August to 31 August 2019.

Dance Umbrella Africa came to the South African State Theatre under the guardianship & curatorship of Mamela Nyamza in her new role as Deputy Artistic Director, heralding in a new era and lease of life for the festival. When I found out Mamela was heading to my city, I stepped forward with my camera to document the groundbreaking 2019 festival from 31 March to 7 April.

16/365 Days of Street Theatre in collaboration with Mamela Nyamza (Deputy Artistic Director, South African State Theatre) and Selogadi Mampane (independent performance artist & activst) as part of #TheTotalShutdown intersectional wom_n's protest movement against gender-based violence.

Water Catcher is another animation project in collaboration with Anni Snyman, Eugenie Grobler and katty vandenberghe (myself). This time we are looking at the Cape Town water shortage crises, collaborating with a project aimed at preserving and protecting a local underground freshwater aquifer that is in danger of being flooded with unpotable seawater as sea levels rise due to climate change.

The total Shutdown is a feminist activist movement aimed at addressing South African governmental, legal, policing and administrative institutions for failing to address gender-based violence against women and gender non-conforming individuals. Ongoing escalations of violence have provoked a powerful response across the region, including South Africa's neighbouring countries. Marches took place on 01 August 2018, the beginning of Women's Month, as a protest against the token 'all talk no action' events that take place each year, particularly the celebrated Women's March of 1956 on 9 August. The movement is founded on a list of 24 demands, one for each year since the ANC took over the reigns of power from the apartheid government in 1994. This intersectional movement consists of women from all walks of life, races, classes and gender non-conforming backgrounds, and marks another landmark event in the women's movement. It's mandate is to see to it that the 24 demands are carried out.

I am participating as a media activist, artist and gender non-conforming black consciousness eco-feminist.

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYEs selected for viewing at the Joziwood film festival in Perth, Australia.

"The Twisted Oyster Film Festival is a short film and video art exhibition presented by Kinetic Art Projects and Pia Cruzalegui in Chicago, IL., USA.

The focus of Twisted Oyster is to highlight independent, experimental short films and video art produced by auteurs from around the globe. Works that will engage diverse audiences on a range of aesthetic and content.

This year the Film Festival takes place November 18, 2016 – December 2, 2016 and celebrates the creative outlet of filmmakers who want to share a story. The films we present are relevant to our community and address some of our most current, critical challenges and also provoke reasons for hope and optimism."

Filmverse Selected as one of 12 sets of animators to animate a series of popular Afrikaans poems. In collaboration with Anni Snyman (visuals), Eugenie Grobler (musical score), Johann Kotze (sound engineer), Danie Marais (poet), Diek Grobler (overall creative director) and Fopspeen (DVD compilation). The Filmverse project is directed by Diek Grobler and sponsored by the ATKV.

In 2012 the One-in-Nine feminist activist NGO ran the 'No Cause for Celebration' campaign, protesting the lack of action against gender based violence at the ANC-led Women's March, the Soweto Pride March and Johannesburg Gay Pride Parade. At the Gay Pride Parade a conflict ensued between the protestors, the organisers, and their appointed marshalls. What started out as an inexcusable misunderstanding escalated into outright violence as organisers and marshalls physically assaulted the One-in-Nine protestors for disrupting the Gay Pride Parade march. The incident caught media attention and a vociferous debate unfolded on social media platforms. Once the dust settled it became clear that the LGBTI+ community was dvided along apartheid-era lines of race and class. Out of the ashes rose the Johannesburg People's Pride, a mass movement based on ideals that confront the reality that only a small privileged class are protected by the high ideals of South Africa's LGBTI+ friendly constitution.

The most valuable document to come out of this movement after a year of mass meetings and consultation with the larger LGBTI+ community, was the Johannesburg People's Pride manifesto.

I participated as a black consciousness media activist and artist.

LIFE