A Great Day in Newtown: Historic Photoshoot for Kippie Moeketsi’s 100

A Great Day in Newtown: Historic Photoshoot for Kippie Moeketsi's 100

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but on Saturday, 20 September 2025, in the historic Market Theatre Precinct in Newtown, a picture will frame more than a thousand notes. Around a hundred of South Africa’s jazz players, veterans and youngsters, will gather for a photoshoot and jam session in memorial tribute to pioneering modern jazzman, Kippie “Morolong” Moeketsi.

The saxophonist was born in George Goch, Johannesburg 100 years ago, on 27 July 1925. He passed away on 27 April 1983. His career stretched from early kwela music, through historic bands like the Harlem Swingsters, participation in South Africa’s first LP by Black musicians, Jazz Epistles Verse One, the King Kong musical, work with Abdullah Ibrahim and, in total, more than 50 recordings. Kippie is hailed by generations of South African players as helping to shape the country’s modern jazz sound, and as a mentor and teacher.

Now, to honour this legacy in the year of Kippie’s centenary, internationally acclaimed, award-winning photographer, Siphiwe Mhlambi, is convening a gathering of players at the Market Precinct, around Kippie’s statue, for a historic photoshoot and jam session. Music director will be saxophonist and composer, Khaya Mahlangu. The team for the event also includes broadcaster Nothemba Madumo who hosts a jazz show on Radio702 and CapeTalk and whose company 4everJazz has been creating content and events that promote jazz music, culture and preserving its legacy.

The Market Theatre Foundation, which is the custodian of the building that once housed the famous Kippies Jazz Club in Newtown, has been generous to partner with the team to celebrate Kippie Moeketsi’s centenary and make the event possible.

Mhlambi says, “In 1958, American photographer Art Kane assembled more than 50 jazz musicians in Harlem for an iconic image, usually called ‘A Great Day in Harlem’, that captured the American jazz community of that era: everybody from Dizzy Gillespie to Thelonius Monk. I hope our photoshoot for Kippie won’t only be a fitting tribute to a towering musical presence, but will create a similarly iconic image of our jazz landscape today—the seasoned veterans and the youngsters, men and women, who are shaping the unique sounds of today’s South African jazz.”

To preserve the legacy of Kippie Moeketsi and the significance of the iconic photograph, the team intends to produce merchandise for sale, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Johnny Mekoa School of Music for the benefit of music students with instruments and tutors.

The photoshoot will take place from midday until mid-afternoon, followed by a jam session at The Market Theatre from 3pm until 5pm, focusing on Kippie’s compositions and repertoire.  Come and enjoy the free jam session; register for your free ticket at Webtickets.

WHEN: Saturday, 20 September 2025

WHERE: Market Theatre Precinct, Newtown, Johannesburg

TIME: Jam Session starts at 3pm

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:

Helga Klizanie

helga@khanyapr.co.za

0844003003

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iPhupho L’ka Biko Presents (Vuleka Mbobo, Mbobo Vuleka!)                                                      

iPhupho L’ka Biko Presents

Vuleka Mbombo, Mbombo Vuleka! [est 2015]

A Sonic Remembrance of the Fallist Movement – 10 Years On

iPhupho L’ka Biko presents ‘Vuleka Mbobo, Mbobo Vuleka! [est 2015]’, a one night only sonic remembrance of the Fallist Movement 10 years on. The show will take place on 27 September 2025 at The Market Theatre, starting from 7pm. The offering adds an interdisciplinary flair to The Market Theatre’s curatorial commemoration of the #FeesMustFall Movement, which started with theatre productions, ‘The Fall’ and ‘The Good White’. iPhupho L’ka Biko, itself a musical offspring of the historic student revolt, returns to mark a decade of its establishment, while honouring the bold bodies that stood between state violence and the dream inherited from Biko.

  1. A generation of young people rise across the country. The streets ignite with voices demanding what many deemed as the‘impossible’: a decolonised, decommodified, and truly liberatory education. But this call did not begin in 2015. For years before, students in historically Black universities had resisted financial exclusions, sounding alarms against a system designed to keep them out. Their protests laid the groundwork for the eruption to come.

 

When #FeesMustFall and #OutsourcingMustFall broke open, they did so in the searing light of #RhodesMustFall, an earlier uprising that tore down colonial statues and demanded a deeper reckoning with knowledge, power, and history. Together, these movements shook the foundations of South African universities and forced the nation to confront its unfinished struggle with freedom. Mental breakdowns. Criminal records. Permanent university expulsions. Lives lost.

Yet the story is layered. These uprisings, as fierce and necessary as they were, carried their own exclusions. They centred those who had gained access to higher learning, while leaving behind the vast majority of South Africa’s youth locked out of university gates. Their struggles, shaped by class, gender, sexuality, different abilities and geography, remained outside the corridors of academia. The Fallist moment, for all its radical clarity, bore within it the valid critiques of a revolution still wrestling with intersectionality and inclusivity.

Among those students were members of iPhupho L’ka Biko, then 6-piece band, and now 12-piece ensemble founded in the same year by the visionary Nhlanhla Ngqaqu. Immersed in the protests, the band carried the spirit of the struggle into their music, creating a sonic archive of memory, resistance, and hope.

  1. Ten years later. We return.

Not just a musical. Not just a show.
A gathering. A remembrance. A call.
An offering to the spirits of those who rose, who fought, who dreamed.
A reckoning with what was, what is, and what still must become.

“This work is a chant to the unfinished project of liberation,” says Ngqaqu, adding, “We gather to remember, to (re)think, to (re)imagine, to reflect, to love, to heal and to resist.”

A Rite of Memory in Many Tongues

This is not sound alone, it is a weaving of “disciplines”, a liturgy of art.

  • On stage, voices embodied: Actors, Abongile Maurice Matyutyu, Sinenhlanhla Mgeyi, Nandi Zulu, Sibusiso Mkhize and Pulane Mafatshe move between silence and cry, laughter and defiance, summoning the contradictions of youth in a world half-transformed.
  • Light as language: On lighting, Hlomohang ‘Spider’ Mothetho bends shadow and blaze into testimony, carrying memory in the flicker of lamps.
  • The prop as a signifier: Set designer Lindani Nxumalo sculpts the ground we walk, the space where spirits and the living embrace.
  • The stage and cloth as memory: Sinenhlanhla Zwane and Happy Gladness Simelane clothe bodies in the unfinished struggle, garments that whisper lineage and longing.
  • Word as blade, as balm: Poets Makhafula Vilakazi & Thapelo Tharaga, cutting through the air, chanting prophecy, spilling meditation, stoking remembrance.
  • The Black Body in motion: Moeketsi Kgotle bends, breaks, and remakes space through movement, channeling rhythm into remembrance, and silence into resistance.
  • Image as witness: Tshepo Bopape, Khotso Motsoeneng and Levy Pooe stitch ghosts into living canvases, mapping struggle and painting memory as future.
  • Sound reimagined: Simangaliso Dlamini (Livebug), recreates an ambience of revolution, defiance and joyful militancy, through engineering the ensemble’s sound.
  • Artwork: Slovo Mamphaga

And at the heart and driving the narrative, iPhupho L’ka Biko, a twelve-piece strong sound becomes archive, horn and drum become resistance, a remembrance that refuses forgetting, a sonic uprising toward the complete liberation of Africa.

Vuleka Mbobo, Mbobo Vuleka! directed by Nhlanhla Ngqaqu is a chant, a convocation, a dream retold. It is how we return. It is how we continue to identify and strive for the opening of iimbobo.

Event Details

Date: 27 September 2025
Time: 7:00PM
Venue: The Market Theatre, Johannesburg

Entrance: R200 early bird | R275 general

Tickets: ONE NIGHT ONLY. Seats are limited. Secure yours here: Webtickets

More on iPhupho L’ka Biko: https://linktr.ee/iphupholkabiko

 

Enquiries:
Nhlanhla Ngqaqu
iphupholkabiko@gmail.com

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Vuleka Mbobo, Mbobo Vuleka! (iPhupho L’ka Biko Presents ) 

Bold and Provocative Work Spotlights Queer Love

Unheard and often suppressed Queer voices are set for their moment of truth, as Vuyelwa Maluleke presents her bold, visceral poem-in-chorus – ‘The Blue Album’ – at The Market Theatre Kippies Fringe. Written and performed by Vuyelwa Maluleke, the show will run at Kippies for a total of five performances, from 21 – 24 August 2025.

 ‘The Blue Album’ fuses poetry, monologue, movement and choral voice to stage an intimate portrait of Queer life and love in the township of Makaleng. It traces the homecoming of Khumo, a young Lesbian woman, as she confronts the afterlife of a traumatic incident and the piercing silence of her community.

Maluleke navigates the complex terrain of public erasures and private reckonings, offering a story that is as lyrically tender as it is politically defiant, disrupting societal norms of love and who deserves it. The work further reimagines the meaning of love, reclaiming it from the often commercialised romance and relocating it in community.

 

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As this new piece dares to centre Black Queer love and survival in spaces where it is often unwelcome, it arrives at the key question: What is left behind when home becomes the mouth of a man? With profound urgency and agency, the piece navigates  the borders of love and danger, memory and survival. Weaving intimate monologues with the public silences of township life, Maluleke exposes with aching precision the slow violence’s Black Queer Women endure.

“This piece is an attempt to make visible the revolutionary remedies of Black Queer love. I wanted to write something that would not only testify to Khumo’s survival, but sing of its sweetness and cast back the light of all of us. This is a ritual. A return. A resistance,” explains Maluleke.

Maluleke is an actor, lecturer and writer with an MA in Creative Writing (with distinction) from Rhodes University, and a BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Witwatersrand. A runner-up for the 5th Gerald Kraak Prize, Maluleke was also shortlisted for the Kelsey Street Press QTBIPOC Prize for the manuscript ‘Falling Toward the Centre’ (2021) as well as The Sillerman First Book Prize for ‘The Blue Album’ manuscript (2021).

Again, she was a semi-finalist in the Boston Annual Poetry Contest (2020), and has worked with directors such as Sylvaine Strike, James Ngcobo and Jo Bonney. Her most notable performances are from the television production of ‘Shreds and Dreams 2’ and national touring theatre productions of ‘Tartuffe’ and ‘Emotional Creature: it’s a girl thing’.

ENDS.

Kippies Fringe is an initiative of The Market Theatre, curated by Art Cave.

The Market Theatre is a Division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

For media enquiries, please contact Bongiwe Potelwa (Publicist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za or (011) 832 1641.

For reduced price block bookings of 10 or more and school groups, contact Anthony Ezeoke (Audience Development Specialist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at anthonye@markettheatre.co.za or 083 246 4950.

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Theatre Think Tank

Theatre Think Tank

Speaking on the upcoming Theatre Think Tank, curator Mathabo Tlali says: “If art is a mirror, this conversation turns it toward the audience and asks: What do you see—and what do you wish we’d notice? This is an invitation to those who mould women through their craft to sit, assess and reflect on the sociological and psychological implications of our creative work.”

Mathabo is the founder of Zazi Creative, a production and creative strategy studio. Her work sits at the intersection of performance, audience, corporate and civil society, where she uses storytelling to advocate for a connected and thriving African creative industry. Whether through her travelling podcast You Need Art & Art Needs You, her stage performances, or creative campaigns, she brings people and purpose together through art.

According to Cherae Halley, Head of The Market Theatre Laboratory, the upcoming Theatre Think Tank promises to be a bold examination of whether theatre has succeeded in holding a mirror for women in ways that truly represent them. “It shifts the focus from the theatre practitioner towards the theatre consumer, specifically the female consumer. It asks: How do women see themselves reflected in theatre and popular culture? What is echoed back to them, what is celebrated, loved, erased and embraced?  And as artists, can we match our desire to reflect womanhood with a willingness to embrace the complex impact of our portrayals of it?” Halley explains.

“The Market Lab’s Theatre Think Tanks,” she continues, “serve as an invaluable exploration and reflection on the wealth of knowledge enacted, embodied and performed by practitioners in the arts, culture and heritage field. The specific aim is to gather, organise and ultimately draw on the knowledge of local communities, making this accessible to the greater community.”

If you are engaged in the arts, as a maker and consumer, or are just curious, don’t miss the Her Lens: Provocations from the Female Audience Theatre Think Tank. Join in on the discussion to commemorate Women’s Month within a cultural landscape that celebrates the power of voice and visibility, indulging in beauty, complexity, tension and truth, through Her Lens.

The event is free, but audiences must book their tickets on Webtickets as space is limited.

                                                                                                                                                         ENDS

The Market Theatre Laboratory is a Division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

 

For information on reservations and further enquiries, contact The Market Theatre Laboratory on 011 838 7498 or contact Thandeka Nheke on thandeka@marketlab.co.za.

 

For media enquiries, contact Bongiwe Potelwa (Publicist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za or (011) 832 1641.

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Gabo Legwala

Gabo Legwala

‘Gabo Legwala’: An Autobiographical Interrogation of Masculinities

The Market Theatre’s artistic focus on parental relationships continues as it eagerly welcomes freshly baked work, ‘Gabo Legwala’, which generally translates into a coward’s home. The exceptionally crafted poetic theatre piece with music will run on the Mannie Manim stage from 17  September – 12 October 2025, following its explosive debut at the National Arts Festival.

‘Gabo Legwala’ is written and performed by Modise Sekgothe, who is only the second artist to be honoured with the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Poetry, after Koleka Putuma. It is directed by TheatreDuo’s Mahlatsi Mokgonyana, himself a joint recipient of the 2022 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Theatre. Multi-instrumentalist, Yogin Sullaphen, is behind the live scoring alongside vocalist, Phumla Siyobi.

Through the memoirs of a boy anxiously journeying towards manhood unsupervised by the very man he needs, ‘Gabo Legwala’ takes us into the psychology of children growing up without present fathers. Set in the township of Soweto, the script further refutes the burden of performative heroism placed on boys, asserting that bullies invite sorrow to their loved ones, while peace reigns in the home of the coward—as peaceful as the chaos of township life allows.

A fusion of textual boldness and narrative vulnerability, ‘Gabo Legwala’ makes a compelling argument for restraint as an equally active response to provocation. “A little boy’s life is lived constantly on the brink of war. A persistent pushing, prodding and testing for weakness. Shoving, shocking and shaking for meekness…I was taught that conflict avoidance is virtue, that violence is vice,” the script reads.

With an exceptionally poetic delivery, Modise narrates different moments of his life and the figures that shaped the model man he’s perpetually in pursuit of, like his mother, sisters and the ever-present shadow of his late, absent father. As he wrestles his father’s lingering spectre, he offers an exploration of loss, grief and generational legacy.

“At its core, this is a meditation on what it means to be a man when manhood is inherited in fragments—from soccer fields, kung fu movies, playground fights, bullying and boyish bravado. As we watch the speaker wrestle with bullying, belonging, and the ghosts of the men who failed him, the play dares to ask: What wounds do men carry when they’re raised without their fathers? What does healing look like when you’ve never seen it modeled? When is walking away an act of mere cowardice? When is it wisdom?” Modise shares.

However, the work itself is not an indulgence in despair. Rather, it’s as much an admonition of dead-beat behaviour as it is a celebration of the women who are left to raise children on their own. As a result, Modise aims to present this work in honour of his mother and sisters, who created the memorable rituals that underpin the script.

‘Gabo Legwala’ is a call to hope: to have faith in men’s potential to avoid violent conflict in a nation with alarming abuse and intimate partner murder rates; to assure the boy-child that avoidance, too, is conflict resolution; to pray in the song of Simphiwe Dana that “sizophum’ elokishini”. Afterall, long and abundant life awaits all “magwala” – the fearful ones – who, like Modise, heeded their elders’ persistent calls when they said, “Ba tlogele, gabo legwala a golliwe!”

As The Market Theatre rolls out its artistic programme with a significant focus on issues relating to father figures, ‘Gabo Legwala’ will join Zwakala Festival-winning play, ‘Fatherhood’, as well as the beautifully crafted Naledi-nominated dance-theatre piece, ‘Father & I’. Later on, the internationally acclaimed play, ‘Barber Shop Chronicles’, which also leans into black masculinities and brotherhood, will have its debut on the African continent to carry the conversation forward.

According to Greg Homann, Artistic Director at The Market Theatre Foundation, it’s an honour to stage work by yet another recipient of the 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist, having already completed a critically successful run with Calvin Ratladi (2025 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre) and preparing to host Asanda Ruda (2025 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance) as part of the upcoming JOMBA @ The Market. This, adds Homann, reaffirms The Market Theatre as a space where bold young artists and culture-shifting voices find expression and support.

Don’t miss ‘Gabo Legwala’, an honest autobiographical depiction of South African masculinities at The Market Theatre between 17 September – 12 October 2025. Enjoy a perfect blend of music, spoken word and storytelling as the award-winning Modise Sekgothe unpacks the painful truths about contemporary South African households.

Originally produced by National Arts Festival Makhanda with support from Standard Bank South Africa, Gabo Legwala is presented by The Market Theatre in collaboration with Modise Sekgothe and Theatre Duo & Co.

Tickets are available on Webtickets from R140, with special discounts for the preview performances and all Wednesdays at half-price.

Affordable, safe and secure underground parking is available at the Newtown Junction.

                                                                                                                                                                ENDS.

The Market Theatre is a Division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

 For reduced price block bookings (of 10 or more) and school groups, contact Anthony Ezeoke (Audience Development) at AnthonyE@markettheatre.co.za or 083 246 4950.

For media enquiries, contact Bongiwe Potelwa (Publicist at the Market Theatre Foundation) at bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za or (011) 832 1641.

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The Market Theatre Foundation Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

The Market Theatre Foundation Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

The Market Theatre Foundation (MTF) is excited to announce the appointment of Devi Padayachee CA (SA) as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective from 11 August 2025.

Selected from a competitive pool of candidates, Devi’s appointment signals MTF’s ability to attract the best talent in the market—illustrating our status as an employer of choice.

Devi is a high-performing chartered accountant with vast experience across diverse industries, including the public sector. Among others, she was the CFO and Acting CEO at Ekurhuleni Housing Company, successfully leading the municipal entity’s turnaround strategy, achieving clean audits, designing innovative ways for increasing revenue and cutting costs, while significantly reducing audit findings. Her excellent record at Ekurhuleni Housing Company distinguished her as an exceptional public servant with strong competencies in public financial management and a deep love for serving communities.

As an iconic cultural institution,  MTF is committed not only to bold storytelling, but also good governance guided by strong internal controls, financial sustainability, creative models for revenue generation. Devi’s background in public service will ensure that the organisation maintains its healthy financial status and meets its targets, while her experience in international financial reporting will be of great value to its internationalisation efforts.

The Market Theatre Foundation’s CEO, Tshiamo Mokgadi, congratulated and wished the new CFO well in her new position, saying: “I wish Devi a great time at MTF, filled with all the joys and challenges that come with the work we do. We’re excited that throughout Devi’s illustrious career, MTF marks her first role working in the cultural industry. Her dynamic career record – especially in the public sector – is exactly what we need as we approach our 50th anniversary at the forefront of telling authentic South African stories.”

The Market Theatre Foundation is an agency of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

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UMNGQUNGQO ORCHESTRAL EXPERIENCE COMES TO JOHANNESBURG

UMNGQUNGQO ORCHESTRAL EXPERIENCE COMES TO JOHANNESBURG

UMNGQUNGQO ORCHESTRAL EXPERIENCE COMES TO JOHANNESBURG
A Majestic Fusion of African Storytelling, Jazz, and Orchestral Grandeur at The Market Theatre Johannesburg, South Africa

After two years of acclaimed performances across the Eastern Cape, the Umngqungqo Orchestral Experience arrives in Johannesburg for the very first time, bringing a symphonic celebration of African heritage to the iconic Market Theatre – a stage where South Africa’s music legends have performed, and where Dumza Maswana sang for the birthday celebration of President Thabo Mbeki and the Tribute to Victor Ntoni show exactly 10 years ago.

For Dumza, this performance is more than just a concert, it’s a homecoming. Having spent 16 years of his youth in Johannesburg before returning to the Eastern Cape, the city holds deep personal meaning. “Performing in Jozi is like coming home,” says Dumza. “It’s where my dreams grew, and where so many of my musical heroes inspired me.”

Umngqungqo, meaning “rhythmic dance” or “heartbeat” in isiXhosa, is a blend of isiXhosa indigenous music and jazz, drawn from Dumza’s two celebrated albums and his upcoming release. The Johannesburg performance will feature lush orchestral arrangements by conductor and trumpeter Sakhile Simani and musical director and pianist Mthokozisi Mabuza, transforming the music into a sweeping cinematic experience.

Following its 9th staging – a triumphant performance at this year’s National Arts Festival in Makhanda with a 60-piece ensemble including choir – the show now comes to The Market Theatre with a promise of grandeur, intimacy, and cultural pride.

Dumza shares:

“I believe my music transcends age boundaries. By blending indigenous sounds with jazz and other genres, I create a unique experience that is both amplified and timeless. As a musician, I’m not just selling music, I’m redefining cultural conversations, reliving memories both ancient and personal through storytelling, song, and literature. This resonates with people of all ages.”

Audiences attend Dumza Maswana’s shows not only for the music and storytelling but also to witness the beauty of how Africans dress up for cultural occasions. The Johannesburg staging will be no exception – a feast for the ears, eyes, and spirit.

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JOMBA!

JOMBA!

The Market Theatre in partnership with the Centre for Creative Arts presents the 3rd annual JOMBA! @ The Market, bringing together an evocative programme of contemporary dance works that speak to personal, political, and ancestral journeys across Africa and beyond.

Featuring four bold choreographic voices, this year’s festival created by Lliane Loots includes KANYAR epilogue, a haunting solo by Didier Boutiana (Reunion), which continues the introspective search for self and spirit in a shifting world. SboNdabaDance (Cape Town), under the direction of Legacy Artist Sbonakaliso Ndaba, presents In SEARCH OF OUR HUMANITY – a stirring work that interrogates South Africa’s historical and spiritual evolution through dance.

In a powerful double bill, Standard Bank Young Artist for 2025, Asanda Ruda, explores Afro-contemporary forms in KEMET – BLACK LANDS, a solo rooted in ancestral memory and self-emancipation, and ALKAMAL WALKAMAL ALMUTLAQ, a trio meditating on healing, spirit, and love. Rounding off the programme is Flatfoot Dance Company (Durban) with BODIES OF WATER, a lyrical reflection on climate justice and survival, drawing on the metaphor of water to explore personal and political embodiment.

 

Together, these works offer audiences an opportunity to experience movement, storytelling, and ritual at the intersection of identity, ecology, and resilience.

JOMBA! and the Market Theatre will also facilitate a series of free workshops with guest artists:

  1. Tuesday 9 September: 4 – 5.30pm with Didier Boutiana (Reunion)

Enjoy a workshop that draws on such disparate influences as hip-hop, yoga and contemporary dance as you find your own groove and self-expression in this workshop.

  1. Thursday 11 September: 4 – 5.30pm with Sbonakaliso Ndaba (Cape Town, South Africa)

This workshop offers participants a full body class experience in the technical dance training methods of Sbo Ndaba. It is a high impact class that pushes dancers to think with their bodies!

  1. Saturday 13 September: 10am – 11.30am with Asanda Ruda

This class is an open, free-flow contemporary dance session infused with elements of African cultural dance and hip hop. This unique blend creates a space for participants to explore grounded, expressive movement rooted in identity, rhythm, and improvisation. Dancers of all levels are encouraged to connect with their bodies and the collective energy of the space in a vibrant and liberating dance experience.

  1. Saturday 13 September: 4 – 5.30pm with Sifiso Khumalo and FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY

Enjoy a deeply grounding contemporary dance class in a growing exploration of what FLATFOOT calls its “African Release’. Sifiso Khumalo offers an embodied class that will challenge and delight. Look out for a special sharing of some of the repertoire of BODIES OF WATER, working with live musicians.

These workshops are offered free of charge to participants, but booking is essential as places are limited. The workshops are only open to dancers 16yrs and older.

E-mail 2024jomba@gmail.com to book a place – at least 1 days in advance of the workshop. No booking, no participation!

 

JOMBA! KANYAR Epilogue

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JOMBA! Asanda Ruda

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JOMBA! Bodies of Water

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JOMBA! In Search of Our Humanity

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Bold and Provocative Work Spotlights Queer Love

Bold and Provocative Work Spotlights Queer Love

Unheard and often suppressed Queer voices are set for their moment of truth, as Vuyelwa Maluleke presents her bold, visceral poem-in-chorus – ‘The Blue Album’ – at The Market Theatre Kippies Fringe. Written and performed by Vuyelwa Maluleke, the show will run at Kippies for a total of five performances, from 21 – 24 August 2025.

 ‘The Blue Album’ fuses poetry, monologue, movement and choral voice to stage an intimate portrait of Queer life and love in the township of Makaleng. It traces the homecoming of Khumo, a young Lesbian woman, as she confronts the afterlife of a traumatic incident and the piercing silence of her community.

Maluleke navigates the complex terrain of public erasures and private reckonings, offering a story that is as lyrically tender as it is politically defiant, disrupting societal norms of love and who deserves it. The work further reimagines the meaning of love, reclaiming it from the often commercialised romance and relocating it in community.

 

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As this new piece dares to centre Black Queer love and survival in spaces where it is often unwelcome, it arrives at the key question: What is left behind when home becomes the mouth of a man? With profound urgency and agency, the piece navigates  the borders of love and danger, memory and survival. Weaving intimate monologues with the public silences of township life, Maluleke exposes with aching precision the slow violence’s Black Queer Women endure.

“This piece is an attempt to make visible the revolutionary remedies of Black Queer love. I wanted to write something that would not only testify to Khumo’s survival, but sing of its sweetness and cast back the light of all of us. This is a ritual. A return. A resistance,” explains Maluleke.

Maluleke is an actor, lecturer and writer with an MA in Creative Writing (with distinction) from Rhodes University, and a BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Witwatersrand. A runner-up for the 5th Gerald Kraak Prize, Maluleke was also shortlisted for the Kelsey Street Press QTBIPOC Prize for the manuscript ‘Falling Toward the Centre’ (2021) as well as The Sillerman First Book Prize for ‘The Blue Album’ manuscript (2021).

Again, she was a semi-finalist in the Boston Annual Poetry Contest (2020), and has worked with directors such as Sylvaine Strike, James Ngcobo and Jo Bonney. Her most notable performances are from the television production of ‘Shreds and Dreams 2’ and national touring theatre productions of ‘Tartuffe’ and ‘Emotional Creature: it’s a girl thing’.

ENDS.

Kippies Fringe is an initiative of The Market Theatre, curated by Art Cave.

The Market Theatre is a Division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

For media enquiries, please contact Bongiwe Potelwa (Publicist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za or (011) 832 1641.

For reduced price block bookings of 10 or more and school groups, contact Anthony Ezeoke (Audience Development Specialist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at anthonye@markettheatre.co.za or 083 246 4950.

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Diary With My Friends

Music Meets Meaning at Sibah Musiq’s One Night Only Concert

Ekhaya Classic Records and The Art Cave, in association with The Market Theatre Kippies Fringe, present ‘Diary with My Friends’ by Afropop singer, Sibah Musiq. Happening on 30 August 2025 from 19:30, the show is a fresh, soulful live interpretation of Sibah Musiq’s debut album, ‘My Diary’.

This powerful, one-night-only musical and storytelling experience promises audiences intimate access to the rising artist, including personal stories that have shaped his creativity.

Sibah will be accompanied by special musical guests, delivering a moving musical experience that will leave audiences asking for more. More than a concert, this is an emotional journey; an invitation to feel, reflect and connect. With rich vocals, lyrical honesty and a soulful sound, Sibah brings his personal diary to life in a setting where music meets meaning.

The evening will be curated by The Art Cave, made up of Tebogo Malapane and Philangezwi Nxumalo. Their mission is to explore bold, experimental storytelling in live spaces. The duo say the night will be a celebration of love through sound, giving music lovers a special treat. This show, they add, speaks to their unconventional outlook towards theatre as a space for all forms of live entertainment.

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“We’re all about experimentation—we’ve always pushed boundaries. This is a beautiful challenge-an opportunity to explore what happens when music and theatre collide. With the Kippies Fringe platform, we believe this is just the beginning of something greater. This project reflects our passion for storytelling that doesn’t follow the norm. Exploring what happens when live music enters a theatre space is something we’re deeply interested in. We’re theatre kids who love music.”

 ENDS.

The Market Theatre is a Division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

 For media enquiries, please contact Bongiwe Potelwa (Publicist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at bongiwep@markettheatre.co.za or (011) 832 1641.

For reduced price block bookings of 10 or more and school groups, contact Anthony Ezeoke (Audience Development Specialist at The Market Theatre Foundation) at anthonye@markettheatre.co.za or 083 246 4950.

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