The Dissident Poet

By Sarah Rose de Villiers

To the Dissident Poet, on his 86th birthday.

he said

that to be fearful

is to be fear filled

and the fear filled poet

will censor himself

and mute the cries

of pain and rage

Photo Diary: Concert in the City

By Sarah Rose de Villiers

The roads are ribbons of red lights and revving engines. There is the frenzied hurry of thousands of fans as they descend on the city. Clusters of families, friends and faithful groupies filter into the stadium. The air is electric and the stage comes to life. Drums, screams and songs fill the arena. This is somebody’s dream-come-true, and a photo opportunity for everyone else. The music fills the night sky and the stars compete with the crowds. With a final flash of cameras and fireworks, it is suddenly over. The magic turns to mayhem as the stadium empties and thousands of fans stumble out. They search for family members and friends and faces in the crowd; calling out names and following figures.

01.04.2015: Cape Town, One Direction at Newlands Stadium

Animals in the Gallery

By Sarah Rose de Villiers

Rats on pedestals. A fish in a sheep’s mouth. A wall dressed in wire. A polished pig mounting another polished pig. It’s not absurdity. It’s art and animals and Slow Violence.

Top Five Photos at FotoFence

FotoFence Grahamstown                                                                                     

By Ryal Newfeldt

FotoFence is the brainchild of Brent Meistre, a senior lecturer and photographer at Rhodes University. It is an initiative that aims to give young photographers in and around Grahamstown a platform to show off their skills, a panel of judges selected collections of photographs, each depicting a scene from the following four categories: City/ Landscapes, Afro- Futurists and Selfies, Life up- close, and Live Action City.

Old Books and the Seven Artists

By Sarah Rose de Villiers

“A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.” – Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Words on white pages transport us to worlds of wonder and wisdom, and we lead lives entirely unlike our own. With each turn of the page, our imaginations take to the skies and black ink paints characters and colours in our minds. As we celebrate National Library Week, we realise books can be bewitching and beautiful, without having to be read. Instead, they can be cut up, sliced through, stained, torn and sculpted. They are not destroyed, they are art.

Art, or accidental architecture?

By Sarah Rose de Villiers

Ten million graphite soldiers line up on the page. Grey scaffolding is erected across empty space. The clutch pencil traces a tightrope, meticulous and measured, and the tamed imagination balances on the line.

And for her next act, the artist steps out of the arena and watches Chance breathe yellow pools and black puddles onto the page. The grey soldiers are washed over by a flood of bitter yellow and dark spots float through the scene. This is Vertigo.

Responding to The Class of ’79

By Sarah Rose de Villiers

Janice Warman’s new book, The Class of 79, tells the story of three Rhodes students who challenged the apartheid system and risked their lives in pursuit of a better South Africa. But what was the result? How much has this country changed, or not changed, since the days of segregation, violence and censorship? Artbeat posed these questions to some of the attendees of Warman’s book launch at the Eastern Star Gallery on Tuesday, 3 March.

Saints Craft Beerfest 2015: Know your craft.

By Nadim Nyker & Jordan Stier

The craft beer bandwagon has been speeding through South Africa over the last few years, and even industry giants South African Breweries (SAB) have decided to jump on board. Finally we can have quality beer that won’t give you the morning headache, beer that tastes like the barrel it was brewed in. But in the midst of the hype, it’s easy to get your beers wrong, and to drink something badly brewed and over-priced. At the 2015 Craft Beer Festival at Saints Bistro in Grahamstown, some of the best beers from around the world were on display. Artbeat reporters Jordan Stier and Nadim Nyker spoke to the crowd, the brewers and their trusty taste buds and came up with a gallery of their own. It’s time to enjoy our beer and know what we’re drinking.

Merging theatre and politics in a divided city

By Dave Mann

Alexandra Sutherland’s interest in community engagement began around the same time she started studying drama. In fact, it was sparked when people started killing each other just minutes away from the first year classes she sat in.

Sutherland is well known in both the Rhodes University Drama Department as the Head of the Applied Theatre course and in Grahamstown as a committed and dedicated contributor to the underprivileged community through the platform of theatre.

Psych rock’s hypnotic duo

By Dave Mann

The South African music scene can be relatively insular and slow moving at times. When the psych rock scene started, with its laid back folk and psychedelic rock fusion shows, it was a change of pace from the hard and fast, high energy sound that most other local genres assume. Cape Town-based psych duo ‘Medicine Boy’ are proving that the genre is quickly making a name for itself all over the country, and they’ve certainly started a psych following in Grahamstown if their show here was anything to go by.