Sat 11 July 2009, 2-5pm

This Saturday 11 July, SISTAZ OPEN MIC at The Book Café will be ‘chilling-out and hotting-up’ with sizzling acts from women singers, poets, dancers and emcees of Harare, who gather monthly in the safety of daytime at the afternoon event, to ‘do their thang’.

This fast-growing open mic session has become a popular space for young women who come out to perform, often for the first time.  It’s a no-pressure zone where they find encouragement, direction and a solid support system from established (pictured Edene Timbe)   women artists of Zimbabwe, who fully support the programme.

Sistaz Open Mic is a unique event, a special platform for women artists which has been running at The Book Café since 2007 under Pamberi Trust’s gender project ‘FLAME’ (Female Literary, Arts and Music Enterprise).  The FLAME project includes events and a series of workshops for women artists, in a programme which is self-determined and appropriately entitled “For Women Artists By Women Artists”.

Established women artists who lend their support and assistance to the programme are Dudu Manhenga, Bernie Bismark, Rute Mbangwa, among others.  They facilitate the workshops which address core issues affecting women in the performing arts, and help to develop the programme generally.

Since 2007 Sistaz Open Mic has celebrated a number of success stories by emerging women artists, including the 2008 debut album of mbira songstress Vimbai Zimuto ‘Vimbainashe’; the publication in June 2009 of Primrose Dzenga’s first book ‘The Unsung Heroin, Auxillia Chimsoro’; the current overseas tour of Hope Masike and  Thanda Richardson (presently in Europe), and the promotion of Pamberi Trust’s graphic designer Rudo Chakanyuka to media development officer for the Arts Factory project, where she is now undergoing intensive training for film editing.  In June, Sistaz Open Mic celebrated the life and work of the late Zimbabwean sculptor Colleen Madamombe, with a small exhibition of her work.
 

The Sistaz Open Mic event is well known as a hub for poetry, where new material is tried and tested on an appreciative audience, and where some outstanding women poets have emerged in the last two years.  These include ‘ERS’ Muchemwa, Batsirai Chigama, ‘Poetic Angel’ Linda Gabriel, ‘Xapa’ Mathazia, Khadijah Mteka-teka, ‘Shonitae’, hiphop lyricist ‘Misfit’, Cynthia Marangwanda and dub poet ‘Sista Fyah’.
 

This July, the show features a number of newcomers - Sistaz from St. Giles: Kudzaishe Chamunorwa (vocalist), Deborah Wallah (mbira & recorder) and Trish Nhatarikwa (mbira); Aura Kawanzaruwa (poet, actress, dancer, recently ex-SA); and outstanding young violinist Alisha Ashburner.
 

Penny Yon, who is the project officer responsible for the programme, said: “This is a unique and special space for Zimbabwean women to rise up and be counted; it’s a hotbed of creativity, and there have been some amazing results.  Mostly, we’ve seen an increased share of performance opportunities for women in the city generally, and in the weekly events at The Book Café and Mannenberg Jazz Club in particular.  Valuable collaborations and networks are growing between women artists, together with their male counterparts, and we want to see more of the same!”
 

For those who are not performing, there is a friendly cover charge of US$0.50, and a warm invitation to relax and ‘chill out’ for the enjoyment of a great lineup.  Performers should register at The Book Café before the show starts at 2pm.

 

ENDS

 

 

By Penny Yon

For Pamberi Trust