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DOWNLOAD The Migrant Artist's Handbook (Cape Town/Joburg)

 

Handbook serves migrant and SA start-up artists

The African Arts Institute launched The Migrant Artist’s Handbook: A guide to living and working in Cape Town & Johannesburg - online - on 25 April 2012.

The Institute invites and welcomes all suggestions, comments, corrections and additions to be sent to intern@afai.org.za by 15 June 2012, in preparation for a first revision by 30 June 2012.

Congrats & Support

Following the launch, attended by close to 30 local and diaspora arts practitioners, representatives of arts and culture organisations, as well as civil society organisations, messages of acknowledgement and congratulations were received from representatives of the City of Cape Town as well as the City of Joburg, where a Migrant Help Desk has been active since 2007.

“As Arts, Culture and Heritage in the City of Johannesburg, we are approached on a daily basis by migrant artists who are trying to find their way in the city in order to establish themselves as artists”, commented Alba Letts, Acting Director: Arts, Culture and Heritage at the City of Joburg.

“We recognise the need for putting in place a support system that will provide them with information and increase their independence within a new environment.  The Migrant Artist’s Handbook fills this gap and will be an invaluable tool for these artists to assist them to understand the cities they have come to work in."

 Resources, references and tools

The handbook undertakes to provide both Migrant and South African start-up artists with resources, references and tools to approach various arts disciplines with self-fulfilling and self-sustaining imperatives.

It includes two sections, the first covering five disciplines, Music, Film, Performing Arts, Visual Arts and Literature. Each discipline is introduced by an overview of the South African context, followed by personalized “how to” contributions from specialists in the respective fields.

Contributors include musicians Neo Muyanga and Concord Nkabinde, producer Rhoda Isaacs, filmmakers Aryan Kaganof and Dylan Valley, performing artists Mamela Nyamza, Mwenya Kabwe and Quanita Adams, visual artists Kemang Wa Lehulere, Mimi Cherono Ng'ok and Maurice Hermes Mbikayi, writer Phillippa Yaa de Villiers and publisher Colleen Higgs.

For each discipline an extensive list of resources is provided, of professional associations, educational, training or funding institutions, recording studios (for music), galleries and art shops (for visual art) and bookshops (for literature).

The second section of the book is resource focused, covering Communications, from how to use the internet as marketing tool, to where to access English language courses; Business, from opening a bank account to processing orders, deliveries and payments; and including substantial chapters on Personal Documentation and Legal assistance.

The handbook was researched by AFAI Project Manager and migrant artist Patricia Matongo and conceptualised by a team of African diaspora artists, Jedaja Ikoli, Ronald Muchatuta, Marcelino Manhula, Richard Mudariki, Musa Banda, Cosmas Mairosi and Mwila Mambwe. It was edited by Liepollo Rantekoa with content directed by Rucera Seethal.

Acknowledgement is given to contributors Joyce Tlou of the South African Human Rights Commission, Braam Hanekom and David Burgsdorff of Passop, Hilton Johnson, Marco Zumpt and the City of Joburg Migrant Help Desk.

Also see information about an earlier AFAI publication, VOICES: A collection of testimonials of African Diaspora Artists living & working in Cape Town & surrounds.

2012: Learn Africa Love Africa event series continues

Cinema, music, art and culture from around the African continent will remain in the spotlight in Cape Town this year as the African Arts Institute (AFAI) continues its popular ‘Learn Africa Love Africa’ event series.

Plans are also underway to launch similar events in Johannesburg and Durban later this year.

Already a fixed event on the Cape Town calendar, AFAI’s All Africa month-end Dance Parties kicks off again on Friday 24 February, at the Kimberley Hotel. The first such event for 2012 will feature DJ Jumbo whose impressive collection of classic African dance music, many on vinyl, spans thirty years. His playlist will include music from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Kenya, Gabon, Congo, Cameroun, Nigeria, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal, with a taste from the African Diaspora and Cape Verde, from African guitar heroes to rolling bass lines and irresistible rhythms. Tickets are R30 at the door, from 9pm.

On Wednesday 29 February at 9am the first in a series of AFAI Coffee & Networking Mornings will introduce as guest the Artistic Director of the Royal Flemish Theatre (RFT) of Brussels, Jan Goossens. Goossens has been involved with the RFT, or Koninklike Vlaamse Schouwburg, since 1999 and took his current position two years later. He will introduce the work of the much lauded theatre and company, focusing on an ongoing international project in Congo. The event will be hosted at the AFAI offices at Union House, 25 Commercial Street. It is free of charge and with limited capacity so booking is essential. To book, AFAI 021-465 9027 or info@afai.org.za.

Visit the Calendar for more Networking events.

On Tuesday 13 March African Film Nights continue at the Labia on Orange, in collaboration with the African Film Library. The first title to be screened is Le Silence de la Foret (The Forest, 2003), directed by two filmmakers from the Central African Republic, Didier Ouenangare and Bassek ba Kobhio.  The drama is centered around Gonaba, a French African intellectual who returns to his country after decades spent in Europe and finds his ideas challenged by the local community. The film is in Diaka, French and Sango with English subtitles. Tickets are R30 from the Labia on Orange, 021-424 5927 or from AFAI 021-465 9027 or info@afai.org.za

Other titles to be screened in following months include the comedies Le Ballon D’Or (The Golden Ball), directed by Cheik Doukoure (Guinea, 1994) and Lalla Hobby, directed by Moumen Smihi (Morocco, 1999), a science fiction film, Les Saignantes (The Bleeders), directed by Jean-Pierre Bekolo (Cameroon, 2007), the drama Le Destin (Destiny) directed by Youssef Chahine (Egypt, 1997) plus two short films, from Burkina Faso and Mozambique.

Visit the Calendar for Film Night dates and detail.

Details regarding a similar series of African Film Nights to be hosted by AFAI and partners in Johannesburg from May 2012, will be announced soon.

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