Friday News brought to you by South Africa's best read!

The Portfolio: Lindokuhle Ndlovu meets Mr Mbhele

Friday Lindokuhle Ndlovu -

A chance encounter with a stranger had the photographer rethinking the meaning of scars

Escape from Pretoria: ‘Our cells were on the first floor, so there was nowhere to dig to’

Friday Tim Jenkin -

How Tim Jenkin, Stephen Lee and Alexandre Moumbaris escaped Pretoria Central with a handmade wooden key

Matthew Krouse’s ‘mid-career retrospective of a no career’

Friday Sean O Toole -

An exhibition of Matthew Krouse’s underground films reveal an agitator awed by the tradition of ‘dirty queens’

The voices in Makhafula Vilakazi’s head

Friday Vus'umuzi Phakathi -

A poet raised in transit, Makhafula Vilakazi speaks from the margins, even as he has almost escaped them

The Portfolio: John Phalane’s art ‘gives me a sense of being myself’

Friday John Phalane -

Emanating from years spent behind the wheel, the artist’s style is part memory, part imagination

‘Skemerdans’: A mal interpretation of Cape Flats nightlife

Friday Mia Arderne & Duane Jethro -

Amy Jephta and Ephraim Gordon have written and directed a noir TV series that evokes nostalgia as well as tension and violence

Chichu Art Museum: ‘A site to rethink the relationship between nature and people’

Friday Julian Meyrick -

A visit to Japanese art island Chichu is both a meditation and an education

(R)evolution in 4/4: The contribution of South Africa’s urban music to new meanings of freedom

Friday Njabulo Zwane -

Kwaito and house music have broadened the scope of struggle and stretched the definition of freedom

Cabin Fever: A short story by Phumlani Pikoli

Friday Phumlani Pikoli -

Cabin Fever was originally written in June 2020 and edited by KT

The Portfolio: Monageng ‘Vice’ Motshabi

Friday Monageng ‘Vice’ Motshabi -

Playwright Monageng ‘Vice’ Motshabi is always looking for something outside a Western “slice of life” kind of theatre

Don’t Miss: A weekly round-up of virtual and in-person events

Friday Arts Desk -

Art, music and theatre to indulge in this long weekend

Capturing Dambudzo Marechera: A review of Flora Veit-Wild’s memoir

Friday Marzia Milazzo -

Flora Veit-Wild’s memoir provides a disquieting look into the author’s relationship with Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera

Angel face: painting Bheki Mseleku

Friday Justin Nomad -

‘I never looked at it like it was my work’: Justin Nomad says his mural at The Orbit ensured the musician never left the building, even when the music stopped

Bheki Mseleku: An activist on his own terms

Friday Steve Dyer -

Steve Dyer reflects on jazz musician Bheki Mseleku’s contribution to the canon

Bheki Mseleku: Living inside the sound world

Friday Nduduzo Makhathini -

‘Beyond the Stars’ forces us to think about Mseleku’s solo piano practice as an approach to inhabiting sound

Bheki Mseleku: ‘He could play anything in any key’

Friday Neil Gonsalves -

Neil Gonsalves was formally taught, unlike his colleague Bheki Mseleku, but he was in awe of the genius the of multi-instrumentalist

‘Mr Bruce’ remembered: An indelible first impression led to a lifelong friendship

Friday Rafs Mayet -

Bheki Mseleku, or ‘Mr Bruce’ as he was known, roamed the globe but was at home in mantra mode

The Portfolio: The piano offers Nomfundo Xaluva place to dream and become

Friday Nomfundo Xaluva -

Although it is in many ways a prohibitive instrument, particularly in terms of access, the piano offers both simplicity and richness to this songwriter

MAIL & GUARDIAN: Friday

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