Cultsha Kennis

Artists, friends, comrades and chommies of Quintin Jitsvinger Goliath all gathered at the District Six Homecoming Centre on Saturday 29 th October to celebrate the launch of his new EP titled J itsologie . Jitsvinger – or as we affectionately call him, Boeta Jits – is a musical poet in Cape Town who is known for his vernacular-styled performances. He has a lekka on stage presence and his musical stories capture the authentic voices of the Kaaps community. The title of his EP, Jitsologie , is a mixture of jits and ology – the study of being cool! The Jitsologie EP launch was a final endeavour before Jitsvinger left to tour the Netherlands with the “SA Road Trip: Celebrate Life” produced by a Dutch Company called Bostheatre Poducties. The launch was opened with a welcome by Vicky Sampson following a range of live performances of the Jitsologie EP track list – Bruinsuiker and Kamer Soet Maak being our favourites! The performances included a band of musicians on bass gui...

The V&A Waterfront ampitheatre was vibrant with colour and sound on Sunday 22 October as we joined in on the Diwali celebrations – a Hindu festival of light with music and dance! The event was hosted by the Hindu Association of the Western Cape (HAWC) in collaboration with the South African Hindu Maha Sabha and Consulate General of India in Cape Town. The performance feature of the show included musical and dance items rendered by vocalists Nuur Leeman, Fayyazi Mohammed, Christopher Naidoo, Lilaven Gangen and Renu Joshi. There was also Vedic chanting rendered by the Sathya Sai Seva organisation as well as dance items beautifully performed by Nateswhar Dance Academy, Vadhini Indian Arts Academy, Parklands Hindu Cultural Society, Taare and Araadhana.    The program for the day also featured a dance routine workout by Bollywood Fitness. Their performance included an interactive dance session with a few audience members who all competed to win a prize, lead by the c...

Visual artists of all kinds gathered on Saturday 7 October at the Ahem! Art Collective in Observatory to take part in a Cartoonist Workshop with Gavin Thomson. Gavin is originally from Noordhoek and is the illustrator of Treknet and Mama Taxi, popular daily cartoons which have been appearing in the Cape Times, Saturday Star and Independent newspapers since 2005 - the 2 nd longest running daily comic strip after Madam & Eve! Gavin showing the basics of illustration Gavin's is also an editorial cartoonist whose work has appeared in the People's Post for the past 10 years. He has also illustrated numerous children's books such as the “And Friends” series written by Roy Harding, and he has exhibited his famous artworks and cartoons at his first solo exhibition titled “Starry Nights Over False Bay” in December 2016.  The cartoonist workshop included the basics of animation and illustration, types of cartoons (comic strips, editorial cartoons),...

  On Friday 8 September 2017, Cultsha Kennis had the extraordinary opportunity to finally see For Generations at the Artscape Arena Theatre, a show written and performed by Kurt Egelhof, and addresses the life stories of four generations of Egelhof men from WW2 to the present time. For Generations formed part of the SoloAfrika Festival of Monodrama, a 6-day festival that showcased a series of one-man shows at the Artscape Theatre. The characters were presented on stage via four mannequin stands with their accompanying costumes suited to their characters, alongside an impartial  narrator bringing the four intermingling stories together. They appear in descending order of age: Sonny, a father of three and self-taught jazz musician who gives up his dreams to work as a soldier in World War II, Basil (also known as “baasie”) who works at the Durban Whaling station, Kurt a working actor who navigates himself through the apartheid prejudices of the acting industry...

The set  There certainly isn't a bigger fix than a jazz mix, and from the moment we walked into the Concert Hall at the Baxter Theatre last night at 8pm, we knew we were going to get exactly that! A music-lover once said to me that “music is what feelings sound like” and I have never heard it said more accurately than that. Last night at 'I'm In Love With A Guitarist' I was trying to define what Jonathan Rubain's music feels like: a serenading, and that Old Skwl playlist on Heart 104.9 when there's Sunday lunch and life appears to be so ordinary, until that bass on that Toto song starts playing and you're reminded of the extraordinary pulse of life. Jonathan Rubain was accompanied by an impressive band – two keyboardists, a djembe drummer who plays chimes, a bass drummer, a bass guitarist, a saxophone player and two back-up vocalists. The show featured a range of guitarists, with Jonathan intermittingly on lead guitar and vocals. ...

MC Vernon Rose with Cultsha Kennis  What happens when you put music, dance, poetry, people and vetkoek together in a community that is constantly overpowered by the social ills of our time? A revolution, that's what you get! This was proven to be true last weekend at the Concert for Healing and Social Justice in Elsies River, Cape Town. Residents, visitors and entertainers from  Elsies River, the surrounding Northern Suburbs as well as the broader Cape Town gathered in celebration of healing and social justice through music and spoken word. Razak Johnson and Byron Clarke - preshow!   The concert took place at the Shawco Hall in Elsies River, and was hosted by the Cape Cultural Collective and artists from the Northern Suburbs in Cape Town. This space was also created in love and remembrance of Courtney Peters, a 3-year old who was murdered recently in the area, and to remind the public that Elsies River is so much more than the gang violence ...

Twee weke gelede het 'Cultsha Kennis' by die Book Lounge in Kaapstad gekuier saam met ander lesers, skrywers en akademies gemeenskap om Jolyn Phillips se nuwe gedigboekkie 'radbraak' te vier. 'radbraak' is 'n kolleksie van Afrikaanse gedigte wat geskryf is as 'n follow-up van haar kortverhaalbundel Tjieng Tjang Tjerries and Other Stories wat in 2016 gepubliseer was ('os is excited om daai een ook te lees, Jolyn!).  Al hoe ken 'os vir Jolyn oor die jare as 'n skrywer en akademies persoon, 'radbraak' was soos 'n time-majien wat vir 'os terug vat na haar vorige lewensrole, soos wanneer sy varkvis en bokkie polony by die deli gesny't. Ons het ook nog van haar familielede leer ken, soos haar neef in die tweede hoofstuk van “kronieke van 'n plaasjapie in die stad” wie se abdas sy moet nie breek nie (Jolyn, hoekom het jy nie gese dat jy familie het in Athlone nie? Jy kan mos by 'os kom gekeuier't!). ...