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F*ck this view, we’re heading north: Reliving ‘Mermaid Fillet’

Friday Phumlani Pikoli - 16 Jan 2021

Mia Arderne’s debut novel is, partly, a homage to place. Flashes of Cape Town’s northern suburbs pop up, offering hazy solace to the characters. Phumlani Pikoli went along for the ride.

The Portfolio: Nocebo Bucibo

Friday Vusumuzi Phakathi - 16 Jan 2021

Photographer Nocebo Bucibo explores the role of photography in the production of the Thokoza hostels as spaces

‘Joburg Noir’ extract: ‘Weep for Me, Willow’ by Fred Khumalo

Friday Fred Khumalo - 16 Jan 2021

Fred Khumalo’s contribution to Niq Mhlongo’s ‘Joburg Noir’ opens with a scene of five gangsters chilling around a braai

Nompumelelo Ebronah Moholo: The first lady of jazz

Friday Madoda Nethi - 16 Jan 2021

Mpumie Moholo (1947-2021), who passed this week, was the engine driving the success of her husband, jazz drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo

Violet Gwangwa: Natural class, nurturing brass

Friday Gwen Ansell - 16 Jan 2021

A builder of networks and a tactical freedom fighter, Violet Molebatsi Gwangwa nurtured not only the liberation movement, but also the creative spirit within her family

Ma Rainey robbed of complexity on a ‘Negro’ path leading nowhere

Friday Bongani Madondo - 16 Jan 2021

The life of blues pioneer Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey and her song Black Bottom have been turned into a film. Bongani Madondo laments its anticlimax

A Seat at a Table ep. 2: Authenticity versus responsibility

Friday Phumlani Pikoli - 10 Jan 2021

In the second instalment of A Seat at a Table, writers discuss authenticity, character development and the value of handwritten drafts

ByLwansta: Walking in the shadow of DOOM

Friday Kwanele Sosibo - 8 Jan 2021

Rapper, producer, designer and ardent DOOM fan ByLwansta shares the influence the masked villain had on his craft

Meeting DOOM, the man behind the mask

Friday Mpho Moshe Matheolane - 8 Jan 2021

Hip-hop artist DOOM passed away in October, but the world found out only last week. Mpho Moshe Matheolane met the man himself in 2013

The Portfolio: Lewis Holiday

Friday Kwanele Sosibo - 8 Jan 2021

Photographer Lewis Holiday’s late-’90s image of DOOM captures the hip-hop artist’s early experiments with concealment

The rhyme and reason behind DOOM’s villainy

Friday Kwanele Sosibo - 8 Jan 2021

Hip-hop auteur Daniel Dumile’s rapping was fuelled by a remarkable erudition, his multiple characters broaching diverse topics with a beguilling playfulness

Forever dope: Stahhr on lessons from DOOM

Friday Kwanele Sosibo - 8 Jan 2021

DOOM collaborator Stahhr shares game from the masked villain and how they crafted some of hip-hop's dopest songs

Wanuri Kahiu, the Kenyan film director taking on the world

Friday Lyn Johnstone - 17 Dec 2020

In ‘Rafiki’, director Wanuri Kahiu tells positive stories about queer, black lives. Her success has landed her new film projects in the United States

Unpacking Johannesburg’s myriad anxieties

Friday Theresa Mallinson - 17 Dec 2020

Anxious Jo’burg, edited by Nicky Falkof and Cobus van Staden, acknowledges the city as a real place and not a horrifying stereotype

Review: Sam Msibi’s perilous dance on the frontlines

Friday Hazel Friedman - 17 Dec 2020

Lensman Sam Msibi’s memoir, The Accidental Frontline Journalist, reveals a life irrevocably bound to South Africa’s history

The Portfolio: Thato Monare

Friday Thato Monare - 17 Dec 2020

For photographer Thato Monare, documenting the rural Eastern Cape is a personal favourite

The 2020 Hugh Masekela Heritage Festival: The magic you find when truth and sound meet

Friday Kwanele Sosibo - 12 Dec 2020

A raucous, reliable addition to the annual calendar, the Hugh Masekela Heritage Festival lives on online

‘Kartografi’: The testing of our boundaries

Friday Nkgopoleng Moloi - 11 Dec 2020

Scott Eric Williams's new art project challenges our ideas of mapping, moving into philosophical territory

MAIL & GUARDIAN: Friday

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