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Hopeful moment: HHP performing at Back To The City in 2016. ‘What we saw on stage was a man seemingly winning the war; making progress in pulling himself out of the depressive abyss,’ writes Sabelo Mkhabela. (Sabelo Mkhabela)

The Portfolio: HHP’s silver lining at Back To The City

Jabba’s Back To The City performance in 2016 was a late-career triumph for the visionary MC, but its promise would prove elusive

​​Limitless vision: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry in the mid-70s at the Black Ark studio, which he built in his backyard. It was subsequently destroyed in a fire. Photo: Ted Bafaloukos

The Portfolio: How Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry gave Bob Marley his chops

An extract from the biography ‘People Funny Boy’: how the maverick producer transformed the sound of reggae and its number-one group

Conversations: Thabang Monoa (left), Khwezi Gule (right) and Njabulo Zwane (not in photo), set up a winter and summer school. Photo: Andy Mkosi

The Portfolio: The Johannesburg Art Gallery Summer and Winter School

By facilitating a community for thought, the Sekoto School hopes to ground various discourses to do with black life

Communication with ancestors: Simphiwe Majozi says that his exhibition, Inhlambululo, incorporates familial elements and objects as a way of maintaining strong ties with the departed. (Photo: Simphiwe Majozi)

The Portfolio: Simphiwe Majozi

The photographer uses the medium to connect with aspects of Zulu spiritual practices

Strong in his faith: The Importance of Art in Times of Crisis, 2021, Senzo Shabangu

The Portfolio: Senzo Shabangu on not being scared of colour

The artist is associated with printmaking, but he wants us to remember that it all starts with a drawing

Black radical tradition: Koketso Potsane runs a mobile bookstore called Black Ark. Photo: Andy Mkosi

The Portfolio: The Black Ark keeps moving

Popping up everywhere that radical pan-African content is on offer, the Black Ark comes equipped with a library of material, ranging from books to vinyls and posters

The contentious work The Three Elephants have been vandalised more than once, under the supposed watchful eye of the eThekwini Municipality. (Photo Niamh Walsh-Vorster)

The Portfolio: Niamh Walsh-Vorster

Thought to be politically symbolic, Andires Botha’s sculptures continue to be a contentious piece of pubic art

Spitting fire (2010) is a synthesis of the cornerstones of Khaya Ngwenya’s style, which include studying light, colour and facial features.

The Portfolio: Khaya Ngwenya

Photojournalist Khaya Ngwenya’s style focus on exploiting natural light while staying in motion

Sbongile Ngcobo and Khalesakhe Nzama photographed eMlazi, 2015. Photo: Lizzie ZiqubuM

The Portfolio: Lizzie ZiqubuM

Photographer Lizzie ZiqubuM’s Senior Citizens exhibition, on show at the KZNSA Gallery is a celebration and appreciation of the role of grandmothers

Nanna Venter’s covers are inspired by punk and flowerbomb typeset detail she encountered in the US edition of Afterland.

The Portfolio: Nanna Venter

‘Artsronaut’ Nanna Venter lets us in on her process for designing book covers, including for Lauren Beukes’s ‘Afterland’

‘Playing house in your head’: A work from Lebogang Tlhako’s Sibadala Sibancane collage series

The Portfolio: Lebogang Tlhako

Photographer Lebogang Tlhako uses collage to explore making up something that isn’t there

Holding the space: Manyaku Mashilo is an artist liaison. Her work includes both professional and personal aspects. (Manyaku Mashilo)

The Portfolio: Manyaku Mashilo

“Black womxn professionals are at the bottom of this food chain. For me, my position has really helped me to take myself seriously in a world in which few people do.”

A way to life: Sibusile Xaba regards himself as a conduit for messages, which he conveys through his music. (Delwyn Verasamy)

The Portfolio: Sibusile Xaba

“To build my ability to convey, I kept on living this life [of being a vessel] and trying to submit to it so that the messages would become clearer and I could get a deeper…

Pastoralist: A Hausa-Fulani boy watching his cattle graze in Sokoto state, Nigeria. (Luis Tato/AFP)

Reading List: Dionne Searcey

The author and journalist shares a reading list from her time as The New York Times bureau chief for West Africa

(Paul Botes)
Audio

The Portfolio: Rob Machiri

Machiri is a designer, artist, DJ and cultural producer. Here he reflects on the memory work that is just one facet of pungwes

Going ahead: Slondile Jali’s artwork of her daughter and herself started with a doodle and changed its name from Siyaphi? to Siyaphambili

The Portfolio: Slondile Jali

Visual artist Slondile Jali talks about how she came to terms with a new chapter in her relationship with her daughter through an illustration

Funny girl: Gilli Apter has many skills, in particular stand-up comedy. (Paul Botes)
Video

The Portfolio: Gilli Apter

South African comedian, writer and director Gilli Apter speaks about how hilarious content requires constant writing and feedback from the comedy community

A new lens: Re-Imagining Sharpeville explores contemporary themes and subjects overshadowed by the historical Sharpeville. (Tsepo Gumbi)

The Portfolio: Tsepo Gumbi

With the Sharpeville massacre in mind, Kwanele Sosibo takes a look at how Tsepo Gumbi’s collection of photographs are a necessary intervention

2kay9teen, 2019. (Bale Legoabe)

The Portfolio: Bale Legoabe

“Working on Occupying the Fatuous State of Severity, for me, goes back to how art creates dialogue, especially among several artworks in communication with each other.”

Reprobate: Stefan Naudé is editor at large and art director at The Lake magazine. (Jacqui van Staden)

The Portfolio: Stefan Naudé

Print is not dead. It is just collectable now. Publications have become desirable to archive: collectable omnibuses documenting subgenres and their integrational patterns. Most…