Marcia Elizabeth / Pop Archive

Kewpie – A South African Trans Icon before Trans Icons

Kewpie was a hairdresser and celebrated queer figure from District Six. She was born in 1941 and identified as gender fluid according to ava...

Bob Perfect / Pop Archive

How to Blog Dirty and Influence People – Notes on Durban is Yours

You never know where the decisions you make will take you. Back in 2011, I got a few friends together to start a blog that would focus on th...

Marcia Elizabeth / Pop Archive

Billy Monk and the Catacombs – Underground Dockside Culture in the Late 1960s

As your body descends into the underground the darkness slowly caresses your cheek. You are met by a crude yet unflinching interior as you t...

Motlatsi / Pop Archive

Mike Leather’s vintage biker’s boutique: A homage to Joburg’s vibrant 80s punk past

One of my favorite hidden gems in Joburg just so happens to also be a “tribute to South Africa’s punk and alternative scene” past!  On Jan s...

Beth Vale / Pop Archive

If Kitchener’s (KCB) is like a home

“There are venues and there are institutions”, I was once told: a friend attempting to draw categories in Johannesburg’s night-time cartogra...

Beth Vale / Pop Archive

Techno in the City: the story of TOYTOY

Run your finger through the history of techno and you will eventually come to the source: Belleville, Detroit in the mid-1980s. It was here ...

Beth Vale / Pop Archive

Of Parties Past: the Cellardoor Archive 2005–2007

‘In two more years, my sweetheart, we will see another view’. Bloc Party lyrics that once punctuated the playlist of a monthly Newtown party...

Ghost Writer / Pop Archive

The Beard magazine and a look into the archive of Durban’s cult subculture

Durban is a city that is constantly evacuated, reconstituted, and returned to; kids throw their lives into bags and haul pieces of themselve...

Christa Dee / Pop Archive

Women’s World Wide Web – Reviewing SA’s Feminist Movement in 2015 

While it may be true that over the years certain features of the multilayered feminist project have been incorporated into laws and institut...