ColabNowNow: Heartbeats

Make Your Heart a Beat
Art installation

Concept: Eliot Moleba
Artist: Prince Kojo-Hilton
Location: Johannesburg

I was invited to take part in CollabNowNow with 15 creatives (10 digital artists and 5 storytellers) from African countries and the UK. The artists co-created work with and in response to one another and/with to the programme of the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival. The theme for the 2017 edition was BRAVE TECH HEARTS BEAT AS ONE.

We created the heartbeat of the festival!

A collaboration between Eliot Moleba (ZA) and Prince Kojo-Hilton (GH) during the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival, 2017.

Live recording of the installation: https://www.facebook.com/SouthernAfricaArts.British/videos/1664152590292735

The Border Game

As part of The War You Don’t See project, I am currently developing a game that is intended to educate young people about the history of (pre- and post-colonial) borders in Africa and how they affect our movement within the continent. The game animates the borders that divide Africa, making it possible for players to explore and experience the different ways travel and movement is restricted or limited for Africans on their own continent.

The game is intended for general and school use.

The initial phase of the game was developed this May in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where I took part in a writer’s residency programme organised by The Goethe-Institut.

List of participants at the writer’s residency

I went there with the intention of writing a play about the same theme for a young audience, but the task took an interesting twist, instead of writing about the issue I became more and more interested in activating the audience to not only think about the theme but to act on it. I began to experiment with different ways I could activate the audience to be a part of this (re)imagination. The result of the experimentation was that I walked away from the residency not with a play, but a game. The game takes as its starting premise, a seemingly, simple question: where are Africans allowed to go – visa free – on their own continent? The outcome is a game that animates these colonial and post-colonial borders that divide Africa and allows the players to experience how the borders limit their movements on the continent.

The game exposes the player to Africa’s transformation from its pre-colonial to the now post-colonial borders. After playing the game, the players are invited to discuss and (re)imagine, 1) what a post-post-colonial Africa could look like, 2) and how Africans should be allowed to move in it.

For school use, an educational resource pack is being developed that will enable teachers to use the game as a starting point in activating their pupils to learn about the history of Africa’s borders.

The concept of the game has been fully developed, and now I am working on the prototype that will be launched in the near future. If you’d like to follow the developments of the game or be notified when the prototype is being launched, please get in touch.

Potential collaborators are also welcome to make themselves known to me! ❤️

Looking forward to sharing this beautiful project with you! 😊

One Night In Snake Park

Grappling with South Africa’s xenophobic demons through the death of 14-year-old Siphiwe Mahori

Trailer of One Night in Snake Park
NEW PODCAST INVESTIGATES VIOLENCE, XENOPHOBIA, AND CORRUPTION IN SOUTH AFRICA’S TOWNSHIPS IN ONE NIGHT IN SNAKE PARK

Sound Africa has launched a new six-part narrative podcast, One Night in Snake Park, exploring violence, immigration, and the politics of South Africa’s townships.

In 2015, 14-year-old Siphiwe Mahori was killed in Snake Park, Soweto by a foreign shopkeeper. His death made international headlines and sparked renewed xenophobic violence across the country’s black townships. But by the end of that year, his name was all but forgotten.

In recent weeks, South Africa’s xenophobic violence and its accompanying rhetoric on and offline reached fever pitch. From the Sunday Independent’s controversial headline “South Africa Under Foreign Control” and the #PutSouthAfricaFirst social media campaigns calling for South Africa to close its borders and remove foreigners from the country.

Yet, this rhetoric is not new. Nor are the attacks. But focusing on immigrants alone ignores what is really at stake. This is a story about South African townships: about hope and aspiration; about promises broken; about people frightened of those meant to guide and protect them.  This is a story about South Africa’s transformation. About its future.

Building on I Want to Go Home Forevera collection of oral histories of violence in South African townships, researcher Eliot Moleba and journalists Rasmus Bitsch and Tanya Pampalone, return to Snake Park to find what really happened the day Siphiwe Mahori died. Each 30-minute episode explores aspects of his life and the world in which he lived: urbanisation, xenophobia, the justice system, and the value of black lives in contemporary South Africa.

Filled with voices and sounds from across the township, this cutting-edge investigation speaks to a cast of rarely explored characters and processes. Guaranteed to unsettle your presumptions about violence, the township economies, trade, immigration, and inequality, it is a must-listen for anyone invested in South Africa’s future.

One Night in Snake Park is supported by the Taco Kuiper Investigative Journalism grant. This collaboration is brought to you by Sound Africa; a non-profit podcasting organization based in South Africa.

For more information and interviews

Contact: Jedi Ramalapa
Email: info@soundafrica.org

Email: Tanya Pampalone
tanyapampalone@gmail.com

HOW TO LISTEN:

If you want to listen directly on your computer, just go to the Sound Africa front page and click on the episode you want to hear. You can do the same on your phone or tablet, but if you want to subscribe or download you will need a podcast app.

It’s really simple and can make your commute or gym time 10 times better.

For iPhone or iPad:

On your device there is an app called Podcasts. Open that app and search for Sound Africa. Click subscribe and you will automatically see all our episodes. In the app you can stream directly or download to listen on the go!

For Android:

For Android phones and tablets you will need a podcast app. You can get one from the Google Play store. Anyone will do, for example Podcast Addict or Stitcher. When you have downloaded your app, you can search for Sound Africa and click subscribe. In the app you can stream directly or download to listen on the go!

Same procedure for any other podcast!

Connect on your favourite platform

If you can’t find Sound Africa in your app or want to listen on another platform, you can copy and paste this RSS-feed into your podcast player:

PC: Right click and copy link address

Mobile: press and hold here then copy URL

Or simply click on any of the platforms below:STITCHER | APPLE PODCAST | SOUND CLOUD | TUNE IN | SPOTIFY

Alternative Histori[es]: A Place Where Something Happened.

[Scroll down for Norwegian]

Dear potential participant,

This information sheet provides you with a short breakdown of the study. Please carefully read the information to understand what you are being asked to undertake.

Description of Research Project

This artistic research project is aimed at exploring narrative accounts of Norwegians who self- identify with having an ‘immigration background’. I am interested in collecting stories of their ordinary, daily lived experiences. If their lived experiences were like footprints, this project wants to find out which paths have they walked, and what traces have they left behind? To do this, every participant will be asked to share an important event or story that happened to them. It must be something that has – in some way – shook your life to the core. In other words, it could represent an important turning point in your life, which makes it one of those ‘unforgettable’ moments, imbuing the event with a memorable personal value. Evidently, this is an event that you remember well and can still tell others about in great detail. For example, it can be about how you fell in love or lost something important to you, etc. It can be something amazing, sad, happy, tragic, funny, heroic, etc. as long it has had an influential effect on you. Notably, it needs to be something that happened to you in a public space. This is necessary because part of this project may include turning your story into a public ‘monument’ that will be installed on the exact same spot or location where your story took place – as a way to commemorate the narrated event.

What will the study do with your stories?

Firstly, the stories will be published as a collection. Secondly, a public ‘monument’ will be developed for each story and installed where the event took place. Thirdly, the stories will be used as source material to put together a theatre performance as part of the artistic research. The theatre performances may be presented inside and outside academic contexts, in various venues, as part of the investigation process. The results will also be recorded and published online for further use.

During this process, your data will be stored in a secured, password protected computer where only key collaborators and supervisors will have access to it.

Why have you been asked to take part?

Because you are a legal Norwegian resident/citizen who self identifies with an ‘immigration background’. The study is interested in Norwegians of all possible kinds of immigration backgrounds. This will mean different things for different people. For example, it could mean that you were born in Norway from foreign nationals; born to one parent who is Norwegian and the other is foreign; born to Norwegian parents but outside of Norway; born to parents whose parents or parents’ parents were migrants from elsewhere; born elsewhere and moved to Norway for school, work, as a refugee or an asylum seeker, etc.

If this is you (or you know someone like this), then this artistic research project is interested in your story.

Participation in the research project is voluntary.

Researcher’s Contact Details

Name: Eliot Moleba
Department: Theatre (Directing)
University: Oslo National Academy of the Arts
Email: eliomole (at) khio.no

https://khio.no/en/about/staff/eliot-moleba

*****

Kjære potensielle deltaker,

Dette informasjonsskrivet beskriver dette forskningsprosjektets innhold og oppbygning. Vennligst les dette skrivet nøye for å få en god forståelse av hva det er du har blitt spurt om å delta i. 

Beskrivelse av forskningsprosjektet

Dette kunstneriske forskningsprosjektet har som mål å utforske narrative skildringer fra eget liv, fortalt av nordmenn som selv-identifiserer med det å ha immigrantbakgrunn/innvandrerbakgrunn. Jeg er interessert i å samle inn denne gruppens historier; deres erfaringer fra dagliglivet; deres levde erfaringer. Hvis man tenker på livserfaringer som fotavtrykk, så er jeg interessert i å lære mer om disse fotavtrykkene. På hvilke stier har føttene dine tråkket? Og hva slags spor har føttene dine etterlatt seg?

Alle som deltar i dette forskningsprosjektet, vil bli spurt om å dele en viktig hendelse, opplevelse eller historie fra livet sitt. Denne hendelsen må være en viktig hendelse eller opplevelse i ditt liv. For eksempel kan det være en hendelse som representerer et vendepunkt i livet ditt, eller det kan være det man kaller ‘et uforglemmelig øyeblikk’. Med andre ord, et øyeblikk i livet ditt som har stor personlig betydning for deg. Det er nødvendig at hendelsen/opplevelsen/historien du velger, er én som du husker godt. Slik at du kan gjenfortelle den i detalj. For eksempel kan det være en historie om en gang da du ble forelsket, eller om den dagen du mistet noen eller noe som var viktig for deg. Det kan være en fin historie, en glad historie, en trist historie eller en tragisk historie fra livet ditt, det velger du selv. Det viktigste er at hendelsen gjorde et inntrykk på deg.

NB. Det er også et krav at hendelsen/opplevelsen du velger, fant sted i det offentlige rom/i den offentlige sfære (ikke i den private sfære). Grunnen til at dette er et krav, er fordi noe av det som vil skje i dette kunstneriske forskningsprosjektet er at et lite ‘monument’ vil bli satt opp akkurat på det stedet der hendelsen fant sted. Dette vil vi gjøre for å minnes hendelsen. 

Hva vil forskningsprosjektet gjøre med historien din? 

Historiene som blir samlet inn, vil bli publisert som en kolleksjon. I tillegg vil et ‘monument’ (en kunstinstallasjon) bli plassert der hvor hver av hendelsene fant sted. Videre vil historiene som samles inn bli brukt som kildemateriale/inspirasjonsmateriale for en teaterforestilling som skal settes opp. Det er sannsynlig at denne teaterforestillingen vil bli vist både i og utenfor akademiske sammenhenger. Kunstuttrykkene som blir produsert som følge av dette prosjektet, vil også bli filmet og publisert på internett. 

Datamaterialet/kildematerialet som jeg samler inn fra samtaler med hver enkelt deltaker vil bli behandlet konfidensielt. Datamaterialet vil bli oppbevart på en passordbeskyttet datamaskin. Kun jeg og mine to doktorgradsveiledere vil ha tilgang til denne datamaskinen. 

Hvorfor har akkurat du blitt spurt om å delta i dette forskningsprosjektet?

Du har blitt spurt om å delta i dette forskningsprosjektet fordi du er norsk statsborger (eller du har permanent oppholdstillatelse i Norge), samtidig som du selv-identifiserer med det å ha immigrantbakgrunn/innvandrerbakgrunn. Denne studien opererer med en bred definisjon av det å ha immigrantbakgrunn, da jeg er klar over at ordene immigrantbakgrunn og innvandrerbakgrunn kan bety mye forskjellig for hver enkelt av oss, og at disse begrepene også bærer ulik mening for den enkelte. Jeg er blant annet interessert i å intervjue nordmenn som har begge foreldre fra et annet land, eller som har én forelder fra Norge og én forelder fra utlandet. Eller at besteforeldrene dine er fra et annet land og innvandret til Norge. Eller at du selv kom til Norge som arbeidsinnvandrer, flyktning, asylsøker eller lignende. Jeg er også i å intervjue utenlandsadopterte. Det spiller ingen rolle hvordan (eller hvorfor) du eller familien din kom til Norge.

Er dette deg – eller noen du kjenner? Da er dette kunstprosjektet interessert i historien din! Du kan ta kontakt med meg på e-post eller telefon (se kontaktdetaljer nedenfor).

Deltakelse i dette prosjektet er frivillig. 

Forskerens kontaktinformasjon

Navn: Eliot Moleba

Forskningsinstitusjon tilknyttet: Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo 

Avdeling på Kunsthøgskolen tilknyttet: Teaterhøgskolen

E-post: eliomole @ khio.no 

https://khio.no/en/about/staff/eliot-moleba

Eliot Moleba at the Schauburg Theater, Munich.

READING IN GERMAN AND ENGLISH

The South African playwright Eliot Moleba is invited for two months at the Künstlerhaus Villa Waldberta in the state capital of Munich. During this time he will work closely with the Schauburg. Our actors joyfully present resche texts from his pen. Eliot Moleba and his German publisher Bernd Steets report from the writing room in dialogue with dramaturge Anne Richter.

 

Date: Sunday, December 16, 2018 | Venue: Schauburg Theater

For more info, visit this link: https://www.schauburg.net/de/node/1482

55th Theatertreffen Berlin 2018

This May I was invited to Berlin by The Federal Republic of Germany’s Visitors Programme, which enables foreign opinion leaders to see Germany with their own eyes and thus gain an authentic, up-to-date and nuanced insight into the country.

Introduction to the promotion of theatre in Germany (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, German Federal Cultural Foundation) and insight into Berlin’s theatre scene (e.g. HAU, Maxim Gorki Theater, Deutsches Theater). Visit to the Theatertreffen and to selected productions in German theatres. Opportunities to network, also through workshops, with figures from the German theatre scene.

PARTICIPANTS

Ms. Anzhela KRASHEUSKAYA| Belarus
Direktorin ART CORPORATION Visual and Performing Arts Centre Minsk

Ms. Beatriz JUNQUEIRA| Brasil
Director, Culture Manager, Curator, Director, Multidisciplinary Artist, Lecturer Tempo Theatre Festival Rio de Janeiro

Ms. Fangling HUANG| China
Actress, Theatre Director, Freelance Artist, Founder of a.f. art theatre Fangli Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre Shanghai

Ms. Indira RODRÍGUEZ RUIZ| Cuba
Theatre Critic, Publisher Tablas-alarcos Theatre Publishing House Havana

Ms. Edisa Fabiola PAZMIÑO GUERRERO| Ecuador
Production Manager Fundación Teatro Nacional Sucre Quito

Ms. Rebecca JASMINE| India
Executive Producer, Head of Programme, Education and Training Jagriti Theatre Bangalore Bangalore

Mr. Yair ASHKENAZI| Israel
Theatre critic for the culture supplement “Gallery” Haaretz Daily newspaper Givatayim

Ms. Salome Mshai MWANGOLA| Kenya
Theatre Scholar and Artist African Leadership Centre

Ms. Dana BJORKA| Latvia
Director Latvian Ministry of Culture Russian Theatre Riga

Ms. Marcela DIEZ MARTINEZ DE ALBOUZE| Mexico
Director Festival Internacional Cervantino (FIC) Mexico City

Professor Petar PEJAKOVIĆ| Montenegro
Director, Festival Director, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje Kotor Festival of Theatre for Children (KotorArt) Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje (Department for Direction) Podgorica

Mr. Aleksei BADAEV| Russia
General Director and Artistic Manager, Member of the Board of the Russian Theatre Association Yekaterinburg Theatre Yekaterinburg

Ms. Urška BRODAR| Slovenia
Dramaturge Slovensko Mladinsko Gledališče Slovenian Youth Theatre Ljubljana

Mr. Eliot MOLEBA| South Africa
Director, Writer, Dramaturg The South African State Theatre

Mr. José Luis GÓMES GARCÍA| Spain
Founding Director, Actor, Member of the Real Academia Espanola Teatro de la Abadía Madrid

Ms. Gülden ÖKTEM| Turkey
Correspondent and Editor Milliyet Daily Culture and Arts Section Istanbul

Mr. Volodymyr HOLOSNIAK| Ukraine
Artistic Director, Actor, Director Ivan Kozlovsky Art and Concert Centre Kiev National Academic Theatre of Operetta Kiev

Mr. Carl Michael| DOVE USA
Director, Artistic Director Forum Theatre Washington Silver Spring, MD

Mr. Jorge José ROIG GRATEROL| Venezuela
Actor, Director, TV Host Caracas

Next Generation Program 2018 – ASSITEJ Pakistan

ASSITEJ Pakistan
Next Generation participants after the final showcase.

Young and emerging performing artists from 11 different countries, with 10 theatre makers from Pakistan, collaborated in the cross-cultural workshop between February 27 and March 4.

Performance showcase was on March 4 at Peeru’s Cafe in collaboration with Raafipper Theatre Workshop.

Brief Profile of Selected International Participants

 

To read a report of the collaboration, click here.

To read more about ASSITEJ Pakistan, click here.

Writer-in-Residence in Austria

Pakistan
Photo: © Moiz Alvi

Eliot Moleba is invited to develop a new play for a young audience by The Federal Chancellery of Austria, in cooperation with KulturKontakt Austria. The thematic focus of the piece will be on (im)migration, illegal settlements and occupation. The work will explore how such a dense for-ever-contemporary political topic can be made accessible to a younger audience that is living in a world that is increasingly building walls to separate “them” from the “others”, rather than bridges – interlocutors – to help us overcome these differences.

As part of his stay in Austria, Moleba will also conduct workshops with schools, teaching and training teachers.

To read more about the residency program, click here.

To read more about the school project, click here.

 

COLABNOWNOW

British Council Connect ZA is excited to announce the 15 creatives who will be taking part in ColabNowNow during the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival 2017!

The selected creatives are:

East Africa

John Magati (KY), Darlyne Komukama (UG), Kampire Bahana(UG).

West Africa

Prince Kojo-Hilton (GH), Mamadou “Papi” Wane (SN), Mukhtara Yussuf (NG).

United Kingdom

Christopher Lutterodt-Quarcoo (UK), Olivia Mathurin (UK), Nikky Norton Shafau (UK).

Southern Africa

Janus Fouché (ZA), Nyasha Mada Madamombe (ZW), Hugo Mendes (MZ), Candida Merwe (ZA), Eliot Moleba (ZA), Lindokuhle Nkosi (ZA).

Read more about all of the creatives here: https://connectza.tumblr.com/ColabNowNow

Jepchumba (Jepchumba II), the ColabNowNow curator, will be exploring the following themes with the creatives: “ColabNowNow unleashes the best skilled, dangerous minds from Africa to re-imagine future forms of African storytelling by creating an interactive and immersive experience. 10 artists and 5 storytellers from West, East, Southern Africa and UK with multi-disciplinary talents will explore the creation of narratives in a post-screen, post digital world where non-linear is replaced by multi-linear, multi-modal, multi-layered and multi-access; content is scalable both fixed and mobile, across surfaces, across environments, across technologies for Africa!”

This article first appeared here.

Play Making and Script Development master classes

SA State Theatre

02/07/2017 10:10:35

SAST is calling arts practitioners who would like to refine their writing skills to be part of the Play Making and Script Development master classes. These are run by The South African State Theatre’s (SAST) Education Youth and Children Theatre (EYCT) Department.

Interested candidates are required to have a foundation of knowledge in play writing. Please submit CV’s and biographies to nompumelelo@statetheatre.co.za with the subject line “Play Making Master Class”. Applications closes 25 February 2017.

Classes will be conducted as follows:
– Dates: 03 – 05 March 2017
– Times: 09:00 – 17:00 daily

Successful applicants will have the opportunity to be mastered by Mr Eliot Moleba. This is a great opportunity for aspiring arts practitioners to acquire skills and broaden knowledge that will enable them to open doors of the industry.

The EYCT continues to develop artists and provide them with opportunities to become independent and create work for themselves.

For more information please contact Nompumelelo Skhosana on 012 392 4062 or e-mail her on nompumelelo@statetheatre.co.za. Please also visit our website www.statetheatre.co.za

Artslink.co.za Account:
Thakgatso Setseta
thakgatso@statetheatre.co.za
012 392 4045
www.statetheatre.co.za

Related Venue:

SA State Theatre Complex, Pretoria Gauteng South Africa

Theatre For Change