Wand Karen Smit
The Artscape Women’s Humanity Arts Festival is heading for its 12th celebration this year with Humanity as the central theme, runs from 1 – 18 August at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town. The festival focuses on humanity, women and disability.
The objective of the festival is to provide a space and a platform for grassroots communities, women from all walks of life and persons with disabilities the opportunity to be celebrated.
On stage, take a trip down memory lane with the colorful Divalicious Dames with drag mime artists Ramsay Davids and Martin Neethling.
Bollywood Enchanted will showcase Taare dancers alongside other guest artists, as they bring to life the fabled themes of hope, love and resilience while staying true to all that Bollywood rhythm, colour and vibrancy.
The Absolutely Fabulous Drag Show, back by popular demand with Odidiva Mfenyana as the MC, drag divas Vida Fantabisher, SA’s Got Talent 2016 runner-up Manila von Teez, Kat Gilardi, Jayde Kay Johnson and Angel Lalamore of gay cabaret 3D trio fame, music maestro Camillo Lomard and Basil Appollis holding the whip.
After a sensational sell-out debut at the National Arts Festival in 2016, Ruth First: 117 Days dramatizes her harrowing, 1963 arrest and detention under the notorious 90-day clause. First became the first white woman to be arrested under this act.
Around the Fire is a unique fusion of theatre, poetry and live music, a uniquely South African story unfolds. Four women with very different backgrounds, Mbali, Faiza, Amber, and Angel find themselves sharing a makeshift fire on a rainy Cape Town evening. Brought together by unexpected circumstances, they form a bond as fierce and temporary as the fire.
Mbali, the homeless guardian of the fire, an Eastern Cape ‘refugee’, unravels the stories that brought them there while trying to make sense of her own place in a city that renders her invisible. Liefde is Rooi, an Afrikaans play written by 22-year-old Enrico Hartzenberg, it’s a story of victory in a ghetto community of Cape Town where there is no time for love. No time for regret, just time to survive. Directed by Lee-Ann van Rooi.
Artscape will host a variety of outstanding theatre productions, entrepreneurial workshops, health screenings, legal workshops, talks, exhibitions, a humanity walk and more. Tickets for the festival’s productions are available from Computicket or Artscape Dial-ASeat on 021 421 7695. Discounts are available for students, seniors and block bookings. Visit www.artscape.co.za for more information.
WAND Workshop
4th Celebration & Empowerment Workshop with teenage disabled girls from Special Schools hosted by WAND (Women’s Achievement Network for Disability)
Date: 2 August 2018
Time: 09h00-13h00
Venue: Opera Bar
WAND (Women’s Achievement Network for Disability) is an initiative whereby disabled women give back to teenage girls with disabilities. The initiative started in 2014 to focus on and promote the human rights of women and girls with disabilities. On 2 August 2018, the WAND team will host the 4th Annual Celebration & Empowerment Workshop for seventy disabled teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 18 years from various Special Needs Schools in the Cape Town area. We use this platform to demonstrate to disabled girls that they too can be successful and strive to live full lives, despite experiencing double barriers of gender and disability.
The aim of the workshop is to enable the girls to celebrate self-acceptance and to unlock their voices – for them to internalize that “as a girl with a disability, I have beauty and strength; I furthermore have the potential to develop and become a competent and confi dent learner, student, entrepreneur, friend, mother and career woman”.
The workshop is facilitated by two business women with disabilities, namely Karen Smit and Dr Marlene le Roux. The girls are given the opportunity to share their challenges, stories of hope, desires and dreams. By doing this they feel encouraged and motivated as they realize that celebrating themselves is the first step to a journey of achieving greatness. In doing this, the girls discover and start using their strengths which leads to increased confidence and motivation. This empowerment experience encourages these young girls to create purpose for their lives; motivating them to turn dreams into goals which will give them hope for the future to become the best they can be. #disABLEDgirlsarebeautifulandcapable
About WAND (Women’s Achievement Network for Disability)
Business women with disabilities started the WAND (initiative in 2014 to focus on and promote the human rights of women and girls with disabilities in South Africa. We use this platform to demonstrate to disabled girls that they too can be successful and live full lives, despite experiencing double barrier challenges. During 2016 WAND won two Gender Mainstreaming Awards in recognition of the work being done with teenage disabled girls. We treasure our partnership with Artscape and we are honored that the WAND workshops forms part of their Annual Women’s Humanity Arts Festival.
Website: www.wand.org.za
