‘The River Remembers It All’ was co-written with social anthropologist Steven Robins and reflects upon the role of private developers and the City of Cape Town in commodifying and thereby destroying natural resources, namely the Two River Urban Park where the ecological resilience of the wetland and the Liesbeek River are being ‘sold off’ to… Read more »
This song was co-written in the countryside outside of Stellenbosch in South Africa where social entrepreneur and environmentalist Peter Shrimpton is building ‘The Great Labyrinth of Africa’ made up of indigenous spekboom trees. We met at the site and talked about mutual interests and Mr. Shrimpton’s concerns with the environment and current state of affairs…. Read more »
In Sutherland in the Karoo, South Africa, a long lasting drought has battered communities for years on end In November 2019 I was invited to visit local farmer ‘Sieb’ and his daughter Janine on the farms ‘Vredehoek’ and ‘Rooikloof’ to see for myself the impact on the landscape and to hear their lived experiences of… Read more »
In this video I present ‘six songs in seven minutes’ – a sample from each of six new co-creations with young people from Vrygrond in Cape Town. The themes of these songs range from concerns with gangsterism, drive-by shootings, drugs, and xenoophobic attacks, to love of family, singing and hope for the future. Where my… Read more »
Had the pleasure of co-writing ‘Why Not Care While You’re Here’ with Verity Price recently. Verity is passionate about exploring the single use plastic crisis and the planetary inconvenience that our convenience-fuelled lifestyles is causing through her songs and talks: “The enemies of our past wielded guns and bombs, but the enemies of our future… Read more »
The song in the video below goes out to Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier and all our other youths and children having to fight a grown-up’s battle. I felt compelled to put this out there after having seen and heard all of the abuse that our teen climate warriors are getting on social media and elsewhere…. Read more »
// NEW video log: Sharing the background for a co-write with a young man (14) from Cape Town. The topic is crime and living with concerns for one’s own and everyone else’s safety and well-being. His vision for the future is clear: He wants ‘a happy community with people treating each other like one big… Read more »
A little update from here about a recent co-write. Here I share the background for the song and also play a pre-chorus and chorus for you. I will let it be up to my co-writer, a 15-y.o. girl from a poor community in Cape Town, to decide when the song will be ready to be… Read more »
I am now based here in Stellenbosch and drive in to Cape Town for meetings and writing with people. 10 days in and I am meeting so many interesting people here. In this video – log 2 – I briefly take you through recent developments… The context of the project is concerned with experiences of living… Read more »
Since 2018 I have been doing an arts-based PhD exploring personal and collaborative songwriting. The context of the project is concerned with experiences of living with environmental and social insecurity (often influenced by climate change or anthropogenic impact on the environment). I have a specific interest and focus on water, which I view as a… Read more »
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