The holidays are over. We arrived back home today after a fantastic few weeks in Eden. There is a reason the area has that name; being there is like walking through a garden all the time, it simply is Paradise.  Beautiful beaches, Big Tree, the Map of Africa, need I say more?

Next week the boys go back to school and I start on a week of workshops run by the Dept of Cultural Affairs and Sport. Looking forward to what that brings.  

Fantastic! We took the Garden Route and arrived in George yesterday. Bliss. 

As the end of 2011 draws near I also come to the end of another phase in my life. Last year I worked as a volunteer for South Africa's biggest street festival the Obs Fest. It exposed me to the behind the scenes work of organising a festival and the bug bit. So when I got the chance to work for the organisors this year, I jumped at the opportunity. What an amazing experience that turned out to be. I learned about event organising from all angles; legal, artistic and organisational. I met the most amazing people and got help from the most unexpected places. In the end we hosted a very well organised festival, perhaps a bit too well organised and not edgy enough. For many reasons the festival did not turn out the way it was envisioned, but this I see as an opportunity to grow and do better. Sadly, for me this is the end of that road though. Lack of funds has forced the organisation to put all projects on hold and that includes renewal of my contract.
Where I'll be going next I don't know, but as one of those Obs icons said, it will come. For now, I am looking forward to going away with my family for a few weeks and when the next Obs Fest happens I be there, dancing in the street!

My heart no longer breaks
It did so long ago 
It shattered like glass
When your heart stopped racing 
Shards rose to my throat 
cut my vocal cords 
and pushed a river through my eyes

 A piece found its way 
through my scream to the sky 
The other appeared 11 months later 
in your brother's first cry 
Born wise beyond his years
he pieced together the cracks
But breaking like that 
my heart can never again do 
and forever is missing the piece in the sky

 

Organising the Observatory Festival of Arts is keeping me pretty busy. It's all happening soon, check us out here.

In support of art as a medium to effect social change I promote

The Amani Arts Festival

When towards the end of the 2010 Fifa World Cup xenophobia threatened to rear its ugly head again in South Africa, performance poet and arts columnist Suzy Bell took action. She called on fellow artists to use their work to raise awareness of this complex socio-political issue. As a result the African Artists Unite as One, a voluntary community of African artists based in Cape Town was formed. After three months of stimulating cross-cultural collaborations and projects to explore a wider, fresh cultural perspective, they are presenting the first Amani Arts Festival.
The festival  promises never-before seen interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaborations with original African music, poetry, hip hop, film, video, performance and a visual art.

The Amani Arts Festival 2010 takes place at Look Out Hill in Khayelitsha on Saturday 30 October from 11h00 to 17h00 and entrance is free.

At times I can be a real fire-breathing dragon. I also like butterflies. I like their colours and how they symbolize the ability to change.  So I decided that dragon+butterfly=dragonfly and jokingly I made it my symbol. 
Recently,  I discovered that the dragonfly stands for transcending the self-imposed restrictions that prevent us from changing and growing. People who identify with dragonflies strive to achieve balance with mental clarity and control. 
Like the dragonfly I am drawn to water, and I hope that like the dragonfly I can stand for expressing mental and emotional balance in everything I create.

MISSY 

Missy takes the steps
And walks to centre stage
For a moment she looks down
Then takes a breath
And starts to sing in praise 

Missy’s voice brings forth
A tune soft and pure
Pain-filled words from her lips
Choke up the place
Leave not one eye dry 

Missy sings and says farewell
To her mama
By disease turned into someone else
But still her mama
And gone too soon 

Missy sings biting back the tears
To greet a future on her own
Through the months the years
Missy sings
Sings her blues and makes it sound like rock 

© Ann-Elize Petersen, 2010

It had been on my mind for months and last night it finally came. The poem about a young girl whose talent and strength I admire. I wrote it and then before courage would fail me I entered it into O, The Oprah Magazine's Phenomenal Woman Poetry Competition. This morning when I read it again I found that I had not written a poem at all, but a song. 

Today I celebrate all that I am
And all who made me who I am
I celebrate not fitting a label
A bloodline as colourful as our flag
I thank
My African ancestors for giving me skin that won't crack
My seafaring forebears for a spirit of adventure
The line from the East for infusing us spice
and creating a brand new language
A language that once made me uncomfortable
But now call my own
Over meals cooked on coals
I thank them all 
For passing on what makes me today
Proudly South African