She graduated with a degree in art history from the University of Cape Town, and Lady Skollie’s earlier work also engaged in the subversion and appropriation of the European / Western arts canon. She remains playfully resistant to the art establishment, describing herself as “someone who never fit in” and “an art school dropout” when she was younger.

There is an implicit critique here of the whiteness of the art world – skollie, she suggests, is a word that has been used “to describe a person of colour in a place where they are unwanted by its white inhabitants”. Lady Skollie has also explored histories of mistreatment and misrepresentation of coloured communities in South Africa.

She has had solo exhibitions at leading local galleries like Everard Read and has enjoyed residencies at institutions ranging from the Bag Factory in Johannesburg to Eastside Projects in Birmingham (UK). She continued to design 1million units of a R5 coin for South Africa depicting the long serpentine lines of the first democratic voting lines in 1994. Most recently she has been seen in a different role – as interviewer with her fellow artists for DW television show Afrimaxx.

Putuma observes:

 Mam’ Gcina Mhlope once said, “I tell stories to wake up stories in other people”. I feel blessed and lucky to live a life that is committed to stories, dreaming them,      creating them, sharing them, and consuming them. I am honoured to be recognised in this way and to form part of a long tradition of storytellers who have also woken       up stories in me. I use poetry and theatre to grapple with memory, archives, history, documentation, performance, and practices/processes of making. I engage stories as        a way to fill in the gaps … to question what is memorialised (through textbooks, curricula, institutions etc) and how that informs my being in the world.

In addition to performing her own work on stage, Putuma collaborates with other theatre makers. She wrote and directed Mbuzeni, an award-winning play that has struck a chord with teenage audiences both locally and internationally. Through her company, Manyano Media, and initiatives such as the Black Girl Live mentorship scheme, she works across various media (not only publishing and theatre but also film, television and advertising) to support black, queer, women storytellers.

Prior to this, however, Langa and Mokgonyana had already produced critically acclaimed works like Just Antigone (2016), a version of Sophocles’ ancient tragedy. Theatre Duo is known for the creative adaptation and appropriation of canonical plays, and for mentoring young actors who are launching their professional careers; following a similar model, they co-directed the Kwasha! Theatre Company in a celebrated production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinocerous.

What all these pieces have in common is an exquisite weaving-together of the physical and verbal elements of theatre practice. The intricate combination of movement and poetry that has become part of Theatre Duo’s signature style also invites audiences into the process, encouraging participation in a shared project of storytelling, listening and witnessing.

Commenting on the alchemy of their partnership, Langa and Mokgonyana offer this insight into the collaborative approach:

Collaborating is about co-elaborating … you work to further clarify ideas and processes. We also find value in the concept of duality – left and right will always balance. We don’t remain in our own spaces; what would be the point? Resistance to innovation is not something we subscribe to –  if you are resistant, your work becomes monotonous.

Majela situates his most recent work, like POP, within the context of the struggles of queer communities in South Africa and beyond:

          Most of my subject matter is “heavy”, especially pieces such as Mommy Mommy. I engage with real issues that reflect on the situation of our LGBTQIA+ communities, which go through a lot of turmoil. Lightness is necessary, it is needed, but we forget that the “clown” has emotions. 

Having studied dance at Tshwane University of Technology and P.A.R.T.S (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) in Belgium, Majela is deeply committed to arts education. In addition to his choreographic and performance work, he has taught young dancers at studios around South Africa.

This year Msaki returns to a town with which she has much personal history.  For the Festival 2023 programme, she presents a series of works across disciplines:

• Visit Atherstone Gallery for her exhibition Del’ukufa open throughout the Festival
• She offers an Ngoma Technology Workshop at the Black Power Station on Friday 23 June
• She performs Ndiyozilanda to an intimate audience on Saturday 24 June and 2 July;
• In the Cathedral, as part of Spirit Fest, she presents the musical performance Bawo Khusela including a 23 piece choir, uHadi ensemble and a String Quartet.

Embo Time Travel Experiment, at the Guy Butler Auditorium is her largest musical performance at the Festival which also encompasses aspects of the work she presents across the Festival, she presents two shows on Friday 30 June and Saturday 1 July.

On his debut album Two Sides, One Mirror (2017), Sikhakhane brought together a band of fellow musical mavericks from the improvised jazz scene to produce songs of deep spiritual yearning – a mood and style that continued into his second album, An Open Dialogue (2020), which was recorded live in New York in the same year that Apple Music named him Artist of the Month for November. An Open Dialogue was also nominated for Best Jazz Album at the South African Music Awards.

Sikhakhane’s third album, Isambulo, was released earlier this year. It has been described as “a fluid and deep exploration of jazz, seamlessly blended with tradition” – and, indeed, he is committed both to exploring and extending South Africa’s amazing jazz heritage. As he reminds us, this is best achieved through collaboration:

 History through sound is better expressed by a community than an individual, and  Standard Bank has always been a pillar for our community of creatives.