Celebrating Reconciliation

Day of Reconciliation, also called Day of the Vow, Day of the Covenant, or Dingane’s Day, public holiday observed in South Africa on 16th December. The holiday originally commemorated the victory of the Voortrekkers (Southern Africans of Dutch, German, or Huguenot descent who made the Great Trek) over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838. The day gained additional significance in 1961, when the military wing of the African National Congress, Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), chose the date to begin an armed conflict against the ruling government’s policy of apartheid. After the first democratically elected government was established in South Africa in 1994, the holiday was officially renamed the Day of Reconciliation. The holiday is now meant to foster a sense of national unity and racial harmony.

What better way to further foster this sense of national unity and racial harmony, 17 years into our democracy, than a fun-filled day complemented by a mixture of music dishers ranging from house to kwaito and hip hop, for music lovers who convey expensive ears.

CKB Crazy Kids Business presents the “1st Annual Reconciliation Day Celebration” with an indefinite number of renound DJ’s and performers from different provinces in Mzansi.

The line-up includes LayDees, Diva Lash, 4tune, Master Kay, Soulnautic DJ, EmelBee, Flame & Afro Gee, Dex the Magician, Menthol Deep, Matimba & Finest DJ, Soul Teaser, Vinnie Lloyd, TeeKay, Lira T (Hip Hop) and Touch DJ with live performances by: NTK, CKS, Killa Gram & Bo Bo.

Text by: http://www.sa-venues.com/events/limpopo/annual-reconciliation-day-celebration/

(Source: freedompark.co.za)

Dramatic Need is recruiting - pass it on!

Regional Operations Manager – South Africa

Dramatic Need is a creative arts charity helping vulnerable children in Africa to build hope and self-belief in the face of conflict, trauma and hardship.  Dramatic Need is a UK-registered charity with a South African PBO branch that sends local and international arts professionals to host issue-based workshops in underprivileged and rural communities in South Africa and Rwanda. The charity promotes creative expression as a tool for conflict resolution, social development, gender empowerment and the assimilation of health messages in underprivileged communities.

The Dramatic Need board of Trustees seeks to appoint a dynamic, goal-oriented leader with experience in the arts as our Regional Programme Manager (RPM) for January 2013.  Our South African hub is based in the Free State where we need an energized organiser to help us run sustainable, ongoing programmes at our Piet Patsa Community Arts Centre (PPCAC), and to manage our volunteer and school outreach programmes.

The RPM will gain experience in building an organisation from a grass-roots level, working at a competitive global level, leading both professionals and youth from diverse backgrounds, and teaching.

This is an opportunity for a self-motivated creative arts professional to acquire invaluable in-field experience in the NGO sector at management level.

 The RPM must be capable of working independently and in remote areas.  This person must align with the vision of Dramatic Need to provide programming for disadvantaged children and youth that is sensitive, progressive and culturally appropriate.  Importantly, the RPM must have the skills and personal confidence to build bridges within the community and to retain student membership in order to grow our programmes.  While it is imperative that the RPM bring efficient and effective management strategies to increase the productivity of the organization, they must also be flexible and resilient to sustain the organisation in a rural and sometimes unreliable context.

Responsibilities:

·       Drive and organise all programming at the PPCAC:

o      Liaise with local schools to recruit student members.

o      Write course content for all classes held at PPCAC

o      Oversee training of 2-3 local teachers in their area of expertise

o      Teach weekly workshops based on skill set (either drama, music, visual arts, or dance)

o      Measure/critique the progress of all programmes

o      Maintain building, supplies and food collection in support of programmes

·       Build and grow community-outreach programmes:

o      Facilitate our pARTners art exchange programme between UK & ZA schools

o      Build community relations at partnering schools through ongoing programming

o      Outreach to farm and outlying schools for monthly workshops

·       Support foreign and local volunteer art professionals:

o      Maintain correspondence with incoming volunteers

o      Organise details for volunteer accommodation, transport, safety and scheduling with schools

o      Train volunteers in basic teaching strategies and assist with cultural acclimatization

o      Provide ongoing emotional and professional support to volunteers daily

·       Fundraising

o      Assist with UK-based fundraising campaigns.

o      Initiate and organise creative regional and local fundraising drives.

·       Recruitment and Marketing

o      Assist in maintaining our weekly blog, facebook and twitter accounts

o      Outreach to universities and institutions to involve their support/skills in PPCAC programmes

o      Advocate for new volunteers and local guest artists

o      Approach corporations and government entities in South Africa for financial support

·       Organisational Maintenance:

o      Create and maintain records for funding purposes on: volunteer histories and outcomes, school histories and outcomes, workshop offerings, budget allotment, community relationships and contacts

o      Contribute to Quarterly and Annual Reports

o      Work with Executive Director to develop annual and long-term plans towards strategic goals

Requirements:

·       Bachelor’s Degree with 2 years minimum of professional experience in the creative arts, working in complex and challenging contexts;

·       Experience demonstrating the skills required to fulfill and balance the mixed range of responsibilities outlined above for the Regional Programme Manager;

·       Proven track record of exceeding goals and evidence of the ability to consistently make good decisions through a combination of analysis, wisdom, experience and judgment;

·       Demonstrate minimum 1 year cumulative experience either teaching or working with children/youth in school or NGO contexts;

·       Demonstrate prior experience requiring community-level engagement;

·       Regional experience and expertise in South Africa and/or rural African and/or post-conflict contexts;

·       Completely fluent in written and oral English;

·       A valid drivers license and personal transport (motorbike or car).

·       Self initiative and self discipline.

The Following Would be Advantageous:

·       South African citizen and/or permanent resident;

·       Experience in trauma or children’s counseling;

·       Flexibility to teach other arts domains a plus;

·       Working knowledge of Sesotho or Xhosa

Salary: A regionally competitive ZAR 175,300 (approximately £15,500) PA based on prior experience and includes on-site, secure, accommodation in private house with vegetable garden, all utilities and a petrol stipend.

Contract: This is a full-time position offered on a 12-month renewable contract.  Completion of the contract terms will be rewarded.

To apply, submit a CV (two page maximum) and motivation letter addressing the experience requirements and why you would be the best person for the job to shannon@dramaticneed.org by GMT 17h00 on 1 December 2012.  Submit all of your documents in PDF format.  There should be a total of two documents, each in a separate file.  Each file must be labeled with your surname, first initial and document title. Ex: Roberts J_CV.pdf  Only short-listed candidates will be interviewed in early December. 

South Africa in the Creativity Index & the 3 Ts

If you haven’t yet read Creativity & Prosperity: The Global Creativity Index by the Martin Prosperity Institute (2011), you should take a look.  It is a digestible report for a Think Tank, complete with user-friendly maps and tables, and is really useful when looking at South Africa from a global perspective.  The introduction of the report states:

The GCI assesses the prospects for sustainable prosperity across 82 nations according to a combination of underlying economic, social, and cultural factors that we refer to as the 3 Ts of economic development—Technology, Talent, and Tolerance. It also compares the GCI to a series of other metrics of competitiveness and prosperity—from conventional measures of economic growth to alternative measures of economic equality, human development, and happiness and well-being.

South Africa ranks 45th in the Global Creativity Index (only 3 other African countries were surveyed: Uganda, Egypt, Madagascar), out of 82 nations.  This research suggests South Africa is on its way up, however it’s important to look at a few of the reports models where South Africa falls severely behind.  For instance, in a Human Capital ranking, South Africa slots in at 65.  The reports reads, “Economists agree that skilled, ambitious, and entrepreneurial people” are those qualities that refer to ‘human capital’.  South Africa sits even lower in the Talent Index at the 68th position.  It is in quite a few of these areas, that Dramatic Need aims for its arts education to have a lasting impact on the communities where it works:

1. Entrepreneurship through skill building
2. Income Inequality through resource building
3. Human Development by enabling creativity and empowering education
4. Human Capital by encouraging self-motivation and teaching skills

Compared with some of the more dire index reportings, South Africa was ranked 15 in the Global Tolerance Index, reviewing positions towards sexuality, as well as racial and ethnic class.  Read the full report here for the research of all 82 nations surveyed.

Changing the World one letter at a time….

Graham Milne in the Huffington Post: 

They call it the World’s Largest Art Project for Charity, and it’s a mission that would make Sesame Street’s “official sponsors” proud — Peace Love & Photography is Ashley Cooper, a Canadian artist and performer, and Filip Cederholm, a Swedish photographer, who are traveling the globe to capture images of thousands of the world’s children forming each letter of the alphabet, one country per letter.

Cape Town, South Africa’s Blouberg Beach was the site of the first venture, with over 500 local kids arranged to form the “A.” Next stop: Namibia’s Swakopmund Dunes, and the letter “B.” When completed, the twenty-six individual images will be made available for purchase, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to charities helping children in the countries where the photos were taken. Cooper and Cederholm, whose goal is to raise $10 million by December 2016, have even received an endorsement from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who calls their work “a very important project.”

In an age where many people equate activism with changing their Facebook profile picture, what makes a couple of first-worlders want to give everything up to live out of their backpacks for four years straight?

In a word, hope.

“We wanted to join the millions of men and women out there trying to affect positive change in the world,” says Cooper. “Peace Love & Photography is really about branding a helping and caring lifestyle as being fun and appealing for our youth. We want you to feel positive, inspired and empowered.”

The images on their website radiate that sense of inspiration: Dozens of smiling faces, presided over by Cederholm’s stunning “A”, with Cape Town’s famous Tabletop Mountain in the background beneath a dramatic sky. It suggests a world of possibility and positivity. That positivity helps keep the pair going: entirely self-funded and absent the resources of say, Bono, they have to strike a balance as they travel between working on the project and feeding themselves. As Cooper points out though, they are encouraged by the connections they form with the people they meet along the way. “One thing that really resonated with Filip and I when we started out was how many people really want to do good, and how fun it is to work together for a greater purpose. It feels as though no matter what door closes there is always someone there to open another.”

Archbishop Tutu helped open one of those doors, by signing several portraits for the duo to assist in their fundraising. Cooper calls meeting the human rights leader a “personal and career milestone” and a validation of what they are trying to accomplish. “To be able to sit and speak with someone of his experience about peace and the meaning of life, you could sense the power of someone who really practices what he preaches. The smile on his face when he saw the “A” meant more than words can say.” And yet it was their time with the children from the townships of South Africa who formed that “A” that seems to have had the most lasting impact on the pair. “With so little of their own they gave what is important — love — and that’s a good life lesson.”

There is an unfortunate tendency of late to become cynical about charitable endeavors for Africa — to think that they are focusing on the wrong issues, creating a culture of dependency, or are increasingly the domain of celebrities looking to assuage guilt or secure a tax write-off. But Ashley Cooper and Filip Cederholm are a reminder of what charity is supposed to mean — giving of oneself without thought of reward, and spreading that ideal to others. Asked what they hope to gain from this experience for themselves, Cooper’s answer is refreshingly altruistic:

We always say ‘have fun, do good, live life’ — those are words we hope we can continue living by. We hope that we can help others achieve that philosophy as well. We also hope that we can gain a greater understanding of the world and its people and to continue to give and help as much as we can. We would love for Peace Love & Photography to become a platform where other artists can create socially conscious work and share their experiences.

It would seem that the path to a better world does indeed begin with A, B, C.

For more information on Peace Love & Photography and the ABCharity, please check out their website:www.peaceloveandphotography.tv

(Source: The Huffington Post)

At Last: Graceland In South Africa

We have heard about the hype the film “Graceland” stirred at Sundance Film Festival and are SO excited that it’s finally going to hit South African soil (where the people deserve to see it!).  Tonight this popular selection opens one of Africa’s largest film festivals in Johannesburg & Cape town. Screen Africa tells us more: 

Under African Skies will open the 14th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, which runs from 7 to 24 June 2012 in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The festival will also feature a retrospective of Jon Blair - SA’s first Oscar winner.

Directed by Emmy and Peabody winner Joe Berlinger, Under African Skies tells the inside story of Paul Simon’s trip to South Africa to record Graceland and his return last year to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The bestselling, Grammy-winning album introduced South African music to the world and has been included in numerous Best Album of All Time lists by the likes of Rolling Stone and Time, but the trip was heavily criticised at the time, as it undermined the cultural embargo against Apartheid.

Under African Skies was a favourite at Sundance earlier this year, where The Hollywood Reporter called it “pure bliss.”

South Africa’s first Oscar winner, Jon Blair, is this year’s first confirmed guest. Encounters will host Africa’s first retrospective of Jon’s work, including his Oscar-winning Anne Frank Remembered; his Emmy-winning Dying To Tell a Story – Reporters at War; and Dancing with the Devil, which explores Rio de Janeiro’s drug wars through the eyes of a drug lord, a cop and an evangelical preacher. Blair will also host a master class alongside the festival. 

Read the full article HERE.