Born in Illinois to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda, African and Jazz legacies are always crucial to Somi’s sound. A two-time recipient of The Doris Duke Foundation’s French-American Jazz Exchange Composers’ Grant, she is often referred to as a modern-day Miriam Makeba, with very good reason.

Over the past few months, South Africa’s LGBTIQ+ community has been rocked by a series of brutal hate crimes against its members – from KwaZulu-Natal to Gauteng, from the Eastern Cape to the Western Cape. At least six lives – that we know of – have been snuffed out in cold blood.

He didn’t say a thing on the day of his execution by lethal injection on 20 April 2017. Ledell Lee (51), a Black American from Arkansas, only requested to be given holy communion. No dying words but only symbolism.

The first song I ever heard by Siya Makuzeni was “Out of this world”, the more I immersed myself into her work, the more I rejoiced at how apt the song title was in describing her artistry in general. At two clicks of a button I was lifted off to an auditory Oz world of dexterously looped vocals, adorned with Xhosa nuances, hinting at an eclectic lineage influenced by genres that reach as far as Iceland while perfectly visible through my Jazz tinted spectacles. What else could I expect from a seasoned recipient of the 2016 Standard bank young artist award who was magically chosen by a Trombone in high school?

Joel Mpah Dooh’s show, ‘Stories To Tell’, is a record of lockdown. His residency at Gallery Momo extended, unable to return to Cameroon, Dooh hunkered down and produced ‘stories’ which are psychological. We enter the artist’s mind and heart, observe the world as he sees and experiences it. The observations are tender, in keeping with a temperament which refuses despair. Instead, we become kindred spirits on a human path, because what Dooh reminds us of is the need to remain human when all liberty is stripped away, fraternal and familial comfort denied us, our movements monitored, our sovereignty revoked.

There are few things more futile than the attempt to accurately define The Brother Moves On (TBMO). One is left only with somewhat vague and open-ended concepts like "collective" and "ensemble", which do a better descriptive service to the cause, than the word "band" ever could.

Slaapstad was never ready for what’s about to hit them! Daai Deng – a moving experience is hosting their fourth installation at Greatmore Studios in Woodstock on 29 May, with legendary headliners Makhafula Vilakazi and Niko10long.