Being queer in South Africa is complicated. Despite having one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, South African society remains rife with homophobia – and in a country where ‘corrective rape’ is common, the consequences are often physical. Overt expressions of queerness are unsafe in public, but also often in private too; pervasive…
Genealogies of a particular Black queer existence and expression are etched into the very skin, the very memory, the very breath of Joburg as a city. From the years of its creation as a metropolis built on gold and Black migrant labour; tributaries of queer existence have flowed out onto Johannesburg streets in abundance.This fact…
The Natural Nancy Doll was supposed to help soothe some of the tension that lay lingering after the riots had quieted down. After the Watts Rebellion of 1965, the city of Los Angeles was in critical need of a social rebrand. Decades of racialised inequality and a matchstick incident of police brutality against Marquette Fry…
Some surprise was expressed recently when Travis Scott featured 90s gothic metal icon Marilyn Manson on the bill of his Atlanta-based Astroworld Festival. Manson, with his cartoon Satan image, seemed out of place among the trap bangers of Migos and Young Thug. However, his inclusion is not that surprising when you consider how many of…
An Attempt at an Opening, humour me a while dear reader; What about the body? What about the body? What about the body? “Well I stopped in at the Body Shop Said to the guy: I want stereo FM installed in my teeth And take this mole off my back And put it on my…
A new kind of citizenship is emerging —it’s not assigned at birth i.e. right of the soil known as jus soli, nor is it assigned through nationality of the birth parents i.e. right of the blood known as jus sanguinis. Algorithmic citizenship is a new form of citizenship that does not depend on where we…
Just four days before South Africans celebrated Women’s Day, we were met with the painful news of Toni Morrison’s passing. The world had lost a one of a kind playwright, teacher, poet and author who had always remained intentional in making readers aware of the black experience in the United States and equally intentional in…
It was July 2018 when the realisation of it all sank in. We were sitting in a workshop and my friend simply said “quarter life crises is real”. I had never thought of such a thing. She seemingly had it all (from my point of view anyway). She had a top position at her company,…
Johannesburg has always been a city obsessed with money and power. In 1886 when hundreds of men (and their families) flocked to the Witwatersrand in search of gold, they were also searching for the power and status that the mineral would provide. The discovery of mineral wealth in the Witwatersrand lit the match for the…
Abstract The piece that is to follow is a Song of Mo(u)rning from a place of love for my grandmother. However, it is made complicated by its location inside the House of History. With it I fabricate a ceremony of re/membrance and healing. With it I enter into the History House packed to the ceiling…
In Jamaican reggae and dancehall culture, there is a thing called a riddim. An artist will release a track, and if the track becomes popular, multiple other artists will use their own lyrics on top of the already existing beat. Major 2000s dancehall hits like “No Letting Go” by Wayne Wonder, Sean Paul’s “Get Busy”,…
In the 1920s, Josephine Baker left Jim Crow America for Europe. She had spent her youth between the streets and stages of St Louis, with no stable place to live while performing as a backup dancer for show troupes. Dreaming of stardom and tired of being too black to enter her own shows through the…
