THEATRE FASHIONMUSIC POETRY

Kwantuthu ArtsFEBRUARY / MARCH 2015

DANCE FILM VISUAL ARTS LITERARY ARTS

MAGAZINE

ARTDEPARTMENT

FRANCOPHONEFESTIVAL 2015

A rap group of three emceeson a lyrical quest.

SHADE OGREYA urban street

wear brand

TSUNGI CHIWARA

A 2014 NAMA nominee (Outstand-ing First Creative Published Work)

KUENDA PRODUCTIONS

INTROOur February / March 2015 issue is about Passion, how hard work, dedication, focus and determination are keys to success. As this is the season of love performing an act of love is a great thing, passion is a key driver in persuing ones dream and also one of the factors that determine one sucess. We celebrate some of the individuals who persued their passion and have turned them into a source of living, lets be Passionate.

Africa has great potential and more than 65% of Africas people are young

- Andrew, South Africa

Our February / March 2015 issue is about Pas-sion, how hard work, dedication, focus and determination are keys to success. This issue features Art Department a hip-hop act from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe which had just dropped a new single. We also feature a NAMA(Na-tional Arts Merit Awards) literary arts nominee Tsungi Chiwara.

Kwantuthu Arts also offers some email guide-lines to send better emails, we also feature the upcoming Francophone Festival 2015 a worldwide festival show casing french crea-tive industries do attend.

Enjoy our February / March 2015 issue.

Littchel Mathuthu

PUBLISHER & EDITOR

Editors Note

Littchel

PASSION

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22

WHATS INSIDECONTENTS

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15

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ART DEPARTMENT 6Art Department is a rap group of three emcees Edwin Makuyana aka Tone Lakeside, Robinson Muripa aka Robbie Illsicker, and Masimba Sigauke aka Navy Seal.

SHADE O GREY

21

A urban street wear brand inspired in the graphic and visual ideology of the world of fashion, music, design and avant-garde.

YOUR LIFE IS 13A date.... Show Up. Take time to make an make a change.

LITERARY ART

17

contemporary Christian motivational

writer

FRANCOPHONE 8Festival, each year in March, the main French-speaking Embassies and institu-tions in Zimbabwe partner with the Alli-ance Franaise in Harare and Bulawayo

FEATURE

DepartmentART

Art Department is a rap group of three emcees Edwin Makuyana aka Tone Lake-side, Robinson Muripa aka Robbie Illsicker, and Masimba Sigauke aka Navy Seal.

The trio is popular in the streets of Bul-awayo for their 2009 song Pop One at a time they were part of a local record label Mic-a-Blaze Records. They featured in a number of local hip hop songs and created a little and short lived buzz for themselves around the city, and went dark since then.

However they have since re-structured themselves and decided to get back in the fast growing local hip hop industry, and make a significant name for themselves as a force to be reckoned with.HIPHOP

Their album is titled While You Were Sleeping which speaks of how the industry, and the pub-lic has been sleeping on the Art Department for a while now, and while they were sleeping, the Art Department were in the studio working on their significant return. M

MUSIC

Their album is titled While You Were Sleeping which speaks of how the industry, and the public has been sleeping on the Art Department for a while now, and while they were sleeping, the Art Department were in the studio working on their sig-nificant return. Their album is due for release early 2015. The album does not feature any popular guest appearances, but has productions from talented local producers namely Itayi Mupawaenda aka PHD (Harare), Michael Mhonda and Michael Chik-wanda aka First Class (Bulawayo), Veiltorn (Bulawayo), and Thabang Ratshee aka T.R-Hitz (Botswana).

Navy Seal on the other hand is a Zim hip hop artist popular for the 2013 song Elevated, which created a buzz for the upcoming emcee. Raised in the City of Kings also known as Kingsville, Navy Seal has an early career dating back to 2008 at a time he was under the wing of a then popular local music producer and record owner of Nyce Beats Records

Tu Nyce. In 2010, Navy Seal joined the Mic-a-Blaze army which was quite popular amongst the hip hop heads in the city, under the wing of its founder and owner Tawanda Mauchaza aka T-Krued. In the sum-mer of 2011, Navy Seal joined Terry Banks Banks Beats Records, where he recorded and released his first mix-tape titled Across The Borders. The sequel to the mixtape was recorded in the late summer of 2012 but was never released.

However on the 12th of June 2013, Navy Seal had a minor breakthrough in the local hip hop industry when he released his single Elevated which was produced by renowned producer Jae Mac Beats. The single made it to the number one spot on a local radio chart show for four weeks. He also received a number of live guest appearances on local radio stations, the press, as well as a numerous live performances at events such as the Zim hip hop awards nominees party that was held in the capital city in 2013.

You can download the two singles Ride With Us featuring Alaina, and Bang off their forthcoming album on www.reverbnation.com/artdepartment2/songs and more music by Navy Seal on soundcloud.com/navy-seal-elevated or follow Navy Seal on twitter @navyseal487, facebook.com/masimbanavyseal, or whatsapp on +263 773 930 128. Follow Robbie on twitter @Robbie-Illsicker, facebook.com/robinson-muripa, or whatsapp on +263 778 367 242. Follow Tone Lakeside on twitter @tonelakeside, facebook.com/edwinmakuyana, or whatsapp on +263 773 205 445.

HIPH

OP

EVENTS

The goal of this 2-week celebration is to bring free cultural activities that entertain, educate and improve cross-culturalunderstanding, to both the Zimbabwean and international community.

In 2015, the Festival de la Francophonie will be held from the 13th to 27th of March at various places in Harare, Bulawayo and partly, in Gweru.

One of the major highlights is the Sing Your Way to Paris competition. This event is proudly sponsored by Bon March. The competition is open to any amateur musi-cian of Zimbabwean nationality or legal resident, between 16 and 26 years old. The

first prize is a two week allexpensespaid trip to Paris courtesy of Bon March and the French Embassy. Registration for the competition is open until February 28.

Auditions will be held on March 13th and 14th. A vocal and language trainer are available free of charge. Come and register at the Alliance Francaise and see if your singing can take you to the beautiful city of Paris!

Each year in March, the main French-speaking Embassies and institutions in Zimbabwe partner with the Alliance Franaise in Harare and Bulawayo to present a series of films, concerts, shows and activities that reflect the diver-

sity of the francophone world.

Film enthusiasts will be treated to a Film Festival featuring the latest Francophone movies. With English subtitles, the films can be enjoyed by all. The screenings at Alliance Francaise de Harare and de Bulawayo will enable the public to experience different aspects of the Francophone world through cinema. Entrance is absolutely free.

The Festival de la Francophonie also pro-motes and celebrates French language learning in Zimbabwe. In collaboration with a number of schools in Harare, the Ecole Franaise de Harare, a bilingual French School, has set up a program for pupils and teachers that encourage young and old to be more determined in learning French, thus opening themselves to a whole new world. A Dictation and French Poetry com-petition, Quiz, Talent Show will entertain pupils, teachers and parents and bring together local, public and private schools that offer French. Similar events will be organized in Bulawayo.

To round off the festival, a live evening concert featuring three bands will be featured on Saturday the 27th of March in the gardens of Alliance Franaise de Harare: Eve Kawadza interpreting Edith Piaf, French singer and guitarist Patrick Lupi and Sowe Band from Burkina Faso presenting a fusion of energetic Zimbabwean and Burkinabe music. A show not to be missed!

The Embassy of France, courtesy of the Insti-tut Franais and Lions Club International will be sponsoring 4 participants aged 18 to 25 to take part in a two or four week Inter-national Youth Exchange Program in France. For more information, contact the Alliances Franaises.

Join us and the rest of the world as we cele-brate international frenchship and franco-phone culture in Zimbabwe.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE FRANCO-PHONE WORLD

The International Organisation of La Francophonie was created in 1970. Its mission is to embody the active

solidarity between its 80 Member States, respecting cultural and lin-guistic diversity and promoting the French language, peace and sustaina-ble development.

BENCHMARK

900 MILLION people use French to varying degrees on the 5 CONTINENTS

220 MILLION French speakers worldwide

120 MILLION French speakers in Africa.

Africa is the continent with the larg-est number of French speakers (55% of the total number) and where the growth of French is the highest.

French is an official language in 32 OIF member states and, with English, is the other

working language of United Nations Secretariat.

Kuenda Productions

TWENTY.FIFTEEN

Tours Germany for the second time

The play Twenty.Fifteen was developed from a story written by a Sierra Leone born author Olufemi Terry. It talks about a young generation,

about young people in, from and in-between Zimbabwe and Germany.

2015 TOUR DATES AND CITIES

KUENDA Productions an inter-continental pro-duction house is set to embark on a second tour of Germany following the success of their debut tour last year in November at Festival Afructions which received an overwhelming response from the German audience. The musical Twenty.Fifteen premiered Harare and Bulawayo in Sep-tember 2014 before touring.

The Production house, a brainchild of Cindy Jae-nicke a German theatre maker, Antonio Bukhar a Ugandan dance choreographer and Plot Mhako a Zimbabwean arts manager from Jibi-lika Dance Trust puts together 17 versatile artists drawn from five different countries of Switzer-land, Uganda, Germany, France and Zimbabwe.

The idea is, to follow the vision of sustainable artistic, trans-global collaboration. The team wants to create an artistic network on eye level with artists from different continents, background, styles and share visions of a forward-looking use and understanding of arts, developing new ideas of what art can be through mutual learning.

The cast comprises Zimbabweans, Mbira song-bird Hope Masike, NAMA award winning May-lene Chenjerayi, prominent beatboxer Probeatz, dancers Tanaka Lionel Roki, Yeukai Zinyoro, Kel-vin Campbell and another NAMA winning actor Tafadzwa Hananda join choreographer and c-founder Antonio Bukhar and Ronald Kibirige from Uganda, the project director Cindy Jae-nicke, the artistic director Atif Hussein, Tobias Schulze, Xaver Xylophon, , Kilian Unger all from Germany, Pascale Firholz from France, Olivia Marinoni from Switzerland.

The play Twenty.Fifteen was developed from a story written by a Sierra Leone born author Olufemi Terry. It talks about a young generation, about young people in, from and in-between Zimbabwe and Germany. Who its that young generation, the generation twenty.fifteen, what do they want? It does not matter whether they come from elite schools, middle class fam-ilies, townships or difficult suburb areas around major towns in Europe or Africa virtually they travel around the whole globe. How is it in the concrete? How is it as an immigrant or emigrant, as a child of bi-national parents, as a wanderer between worlds or a person that never lived in another place? What is connecting, what is dividing? Was happens emotionally and what with the own identity?

The Harare shows took place at the Beit Hall of the University of Zimbabwe, Shingirayi Youth Center in Mbare, and the Harare International School and in Bulawayo at Amakhosi Theatre

and the Bulawayo Theatre. The production saw the involvement of University of Zimba-bwe theatre students on stage and in various areas of the production as part of a mentorship program and five weeks of rehearsals in Harare with the entire cast. The platform exposed the artists to a lot of interesting artistic net-works, collaborations and career development opportunities.

The play was made possible with support from the Schauburg Mnchen, Zimbabwe-Ger-man-Society / Goethe-Zentrum Harare, Alliance Francaise Harare, Theater im Pfalzbau, Lud-wigshafen and with kind support from Jibilika Dance Trust, Landeshauptstadt Mnchen Kulturreferat, steptext dance project Bre-men, FONDS FRANCO ALLEMAND, Deutsche Botschaft Harare, French Embassy Harare.

This second tour of Germany will see per-formances, workshops and concerts in six cities

21, 24, 25. February- Munich01 March -Heidelberg4 March - Frankfurt11/12 March - Stuttgart19/20 March - Ludwigsburg24/25 March - Munich28/29 March Konstanz

ARTICLE

Your life is a

hot date.Show upShow upW hen you fall in love with someone, the architecture of your life is re-arranged. Theres a particular kind of fervor that

sets in.Old priorities? Burned away. Nothing matters except what matters. New world order. Instantly.Thats how I felt when I met Brandon especially during our very first couple of dates.Sandwiches in the park. Cupcakes and coffee downtown. Prowling through the book stacks at Powells.

Making out in the car. And other activities.It didnt matter WHAT I was doing that day drowning in a mael-strom of work, crunching to hit dead-lines, juggling family commitments, packing moving boxes, exhausted, sleep deprived, coming down with a cold if Brandon and I had a hot date on the calendar?

I would move heaven and earth and infinite galaxies to show up for that date. On time. Looking mighty fine. No resist-ance. No excuses. No complaints. Noth-ing could stop me from being with him.

Imagine how monumentally successful

all of us could become if we approached all of our commitments with hot date ferocity.Training session at the gym? HOT DATE. Get it.Working on your novel, blog or business plan? SO HOT. Jump on it.Trying to find the time for the projects that really matter? HOT DATE FEROCITY. That time just got FOUND.

My friend Susan calls this shoe sale energy. My friend Melissa calls it obses-sion. My friend Nicole calls it being 100% responsible for yourself and your life.Whatever you want to call it, theres no doubt about it:

Your life is a hot date. Show up.

ARTICLE BY Adrian Granzella Larssen, Editor-in-Chief, The Muse

Bridge Lights Zambezi

FEATURE

Lesanne Dunlop is a professional pho-tographer, with a degree in photojour-nalism from Rhodes University, 6 years practical experience and her own suc-cessful photographic company Lesanne Photography.

The bush is where myheart lies..

I am very diverse in what I shoot. My photography focuses on capturing the soul with in the subject, from a tree to a baby to a building, everything has char-acter and something special about it.

Lesanne was contracted by a large tourism company Africa Albida Tourism to do a six month stint taking photos for them in Victoria Falls, but a year later she is firmly settled and has no intention of ever leaving! I have travelled to many places around the world, but I have never felt more at home anywhere else. The energy in the Falls is so positive with an abundance of beauty everywhere you look. I do love my life in this little town!

Although Lesanne specialises in mar-keting and wedding photography, she has also launched a photographic safari company called Photografica which focuses on learning how to use your camera in the bush. The safaris are run-ning in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique!

The bush is where my heart lies so this year I plan to spend a lot more time focusing on my landscapes and wildlife photography.Along side this I find teach-ing people how to use their camera to capture their memories, very rewarding.

Lesanne also plans to release a cof-fee table book entitled Landscapes of Africa at the end this year. In 2013 she backpacked from Kenya through Tan-zania, Botswana and Zambia to Zim-babwe to capture different landscapes within these countries. Africas sunsets, sunrises, thunderstorms, starry nights, gushing waterfalls, lush greenery, des-olate deserts and dramatic mountain ranges, are infinite and the diversity is simply sublime. My dream is to be able

to share this with the world through my photographs.

In closing Lesanne describes what drives and motivates her to be in this industry,

What I love about taking pictures is that you are forced to be creative in the most mundane of settings, to see beauty within the depths of despair, light amidst the darkness, and to capture a moment, that without you, would have gone unnoticed.

This is why I am a photographer.

Lesanne Dunlop, Professional Photographer

FEATURE

SHADE OGREY is an independent-ly-owned urban street wear brand inspired in the graphic and visual ideology of the world of fashion, music, design and avant-garde, with a modern and ground-break-ing approach.

SHADEOGREY, apparel and accessories are created to be comfortable, trendy and stylish, traits demanded by our customers. The companys unflagging commitment to tracking the latest trends is putting it in an excellent position to become one of Afri-cas leading urban street wear brands

created to be comforta-ble, trendy and stylish...

SHADEOGREY brand was founded by Bez Ndlovu on September 2013 but wasofficially registered as a company in 2014. The company initially kicked off by first launching its official online store, but currently the merchandise is not only available online, but also at selected retail stores.

We aim to produce authentic, comfortable and premium street wear that appeals to trend-lov-ing and boundary-pushing young Africans. The objectiveis not only to produce attractive fashion, but to build SHADEOGREY as a life-style brand that competes directly with global brands.

ProductsSHADEOGREY clothing line is currently made up of t-shirts, and in 2015 we looking to intro-duce tank tops, crop tops, hoodies, crew-neck sweat shirts, sweat pants etc.

Tsungi Chiwara is a contemporary Chris-tian motivational writer who has experi-enced success in her short writing career. She is a 2014 NAMA nominee (Outstand-ing First Creative Published Work) for her novel Reflections of the Heart a Story of Hope, published in 2013. In the same year her book was selected by the Department of Curriculum Studies & Education (Univer-sity of Zimbabwe) as one of the set books for students who are studying for a Mas-ters of Education in English. She is also the only Zimbabwean contributing writer for the Closer to God annual publication of Scripture Union South Africa.

Having had to take on different respon-sibilities and being involved in a variety of activities at the same time, she is a role model for the young and old, but espe-cially for todays woman: She is happily married with four children and is a former Zimbabwe Supermodel Finalist (1994). She is a pharmacist, has qualifications in French, church leadership and HIV & AIDS management. She is currently studying for a PhD in Health Studies and works full time for an international NGO as the Male Circumcision Logistics Advisor. She sits on the board of Zimbabwes largest retail pharmacy chain.

Through her book and future books, inspi-rational messages and more recently poetry on social media, she aims to cre-atively encourage, inspire and give hope to people. Her own life is inspired by her Christian faith.

CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MOTIVATIONAL WRITER

Tsungi Chiwara is a 2014 NAMA nominee (Outstanding First Creative Published Work) for her novel Reflections of the

Heart a Story of Hope, pub-lished in 2013. In the

ARTICLE

The average human lifespan is 39,420,000 min-utes. When you send an email to someone, you are choosing to occupy a certain percentage of another human beings precious minutes. Min-utes they will never get back. The same is true in reverse when people choose to write toyou. With most professionals and business owners receiving one hundred to two hundred emails a day those minutes add up. What this means is that every email is an opportunity to be extraor-dinarily respectful. If you are going to use up a portion of someones minutes, use those minutes wisely, thoughtfully, and with purpose.

Here are the guidelines that I personally try to follow when emailing others. Feel free to join me. Adapt these guidelines to suit your style, your flow, your intentions. A better world starts with the next word you write. Email guidelines for the world:

With every email, try to practice Asteya . This is the yogic practice that means non-stealing of time. Do not steal peoples time with unnecessary questions or careless language. Be clear. Be brief. Brevity is sexy.

Do not email someone a question that Google can answer for you.

Do not email someone a question that your own brain / heart / gut / intuition can answer for you.

Be patient with people. The world will continue to turn even if you do not receive an instantane-ous response.

Be compassionate and humane. You have no idea what your email recipient is going through today or what they have heaped onto their plate. Every-one is fighting a hard battle.

Be organized. Collect your thoughts. Refine your ideas. Dont dump a torrent of words into an email and leave it up to your recipient to pick out the key points and decipher what you are trying to say. That is the opposite of Asteya. Be clear. If you cant be clear yet, then you are not ready to send off that email.

Be a daymaker . With every email you write, no matter how brief, you have an opportunity to leave your reader in better condition than you

found them. Be as energizing and uplifting as you can. As Leo Buscaglia once said: Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. You can turn someones day, week, or entire life around with one email if you write it with care, with respect, and with love.

Be human. Write the way that you naturally speak. No need for corporate jargon or unnecessary for-malities. Were all grown-ups here.

Be unattached. When writing a thank you note or a fan letter, in particular, try not to expect a response. Tell yourself, I am writing to express mygratitude and to lift this persons spirits. Thats my goal. If I get a personal response on top of that? Thats a bonus. But not necessary.

Do not write emails when you are upset or frus-trated. Wait. Cool down. Punch something. Sleep on it. Then channel your inner Dalai Lama and go for it.

Whenever possible, conclude your emails with the three most gracious, loving words in the Eng-lish language: No response required.

Model the kind of communication that you want to see in the world. Lead by example. You teach people how to treat you . You also teach people how to communicate with you.

Include photos of baby ducks whenever possible.That is all.

Happy emailing.Be good to yourself & to others.No response required.

ARTICLE BY Adrian Granzella Larssen, Editor-in-Chief, The Muse

EMAIL GUIDELINES FOR THE WORLD.

Be

PassionateAs this is the season of love performing an act of love is a great thing, passion is a key driver in persuing ones dream and also one of the factors that determine one sucess. We celebrate some of the individuals who persued their passion and have turned them into a source of living,

lets be

Passionate.