WOMAN ZONE STORIES

Zimbabwean born writer-filmmaker Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu weaves magic in her books. The latest is The History of Man, the first was the award-winning The Theory of Flight. Nancy Richards spoke to her about them both.

twyg is an online platform designed to inspire and support a modern, eco-conscious and forward-thinking lifestyle – focusing on fashion, food and places that don’t harm the planet. Founder Jackie May talks about its origins, its ethos and its awards.

Trudy Rushin’s is the beautiful voice and gently haunting song that opens every episode of this FINDING HERSELF series. Find out here how despite a number of challenges, she came to be doing what she loves best, singing.

In her book Death and the After Parties - a memoir (Karavan Press) JOANNE HICHENS shares the full range of emotions she felt following first the death of her mother, then in quick succession her husband, her father and her mother-in-law. Recovery after the death of loved ones is a life-long affair – but what she deals with here is coping with the raw early stages and the agonising aftermath. It is a book to which every one can relate, on many different levels.

Our December online Woman Zone Book Club marked this year's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence. Our speakers, NECHAMA BRODIE author of Femicide in South Africa (Kwela) and TRACY GOING author of Brutal Legacy - a memoir (MFBooks) shared some invaluable insight and information on the scourge of violence that affects so any women in our country. 

At roughly half way through her life – Jessica Hewson is, broadly speaking, a journalist. But media in all its in many forms, past and present is her passion. Despite a disability she has taken her future very much into her own hands on a journey that has been sometimes seriously bumpy, but never dull.

Each year the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence renews the fight against this national scourge. But GBV is not new. XOLISWA NDUNENI-NGEMA’s shocking history of mental and physical abuse goes back 30 years to the days of Sarafina! the musical. In Heart of a Strong Woman she shares her own side of this high-profile story. NB: Our apologies for the poor quality of the sound in this episode.

Just turned fifteen, Lea Lukoji has her whole life ahead of her - with so much more to discover about the world, and to find out about herself. But she’s a thoughtful young woman – with her very own brand of wisdom, and care. This episode has been kindly sponsored by Emma Numanoglu, childbirth educator, midwife and lactation specialist at breastfeedingmatters.co.za 

Kagiso Msimango is the sort of woman many of us would just love to be. She’s bright, beautiful, funny with a multi-layered media career, a caring partner and two lovely daughters. But her third book 'Unf*ck Yourself Unf*ck the World' describes how it all very nearly came crashing down around her. She doesn’t profess to have all the answers, but in it she shares much hard-earned wisdom.

Following an impressive career in Human Resources, Professor SHIRLEY ZINN now has her own Consultancy specialising in HR, Transformation, Leadership and Education. But getting there is a longer story as she explains in a memoir called Swimming Upstream. Beryl Eichenberger of Woman asked her first, what she orginally hoped to be. This episode was kindly sponsored by Charlene Yared West, Doula Hypnotherapist and Hypnobirthing practitioner at RelaxIntoBirth.com

Multi-disciplinary arts coordinator, curator, writer, FAYE KABALI-KAGWA talks about #DearUs Matric 2020 – her WhatsApp exhibition featuring six learners. It is in included in the Fak’ugesi African Digital Creativity Festival.

Jo’burg based Financial Planner KIM POTGIETER talks about her new free e-book called 30 MONEY MISTAKES WOMEN MAKE & WAYS TO GET BACK ON TRACK. She also shares her own money journey. 

‘The Karen Book of Rules’ takes a good hard look at what it means to be ‘a karen’ – the rather unflattering, relatively new name, or meme, associated with women of a certain type and attitude. Sub-titled ‘Harness your INNER KAREN and use your power for good’, it’s been put together, ever so slightly, but only just, tongue-in-cheek, by writers Karin Schimke and Karen Jeynes – both of whose name certainly qualifies them to comment.

JEN THORPE is a feminist. She describes it as a being and a doing word. But for her its also a thinking word – and to help share the concept she has focused on capturing it as a written word. Most recently this has been through the two anthologies she has edited called Feminism Is and Living Whilst Feminist, Our Bodies Our Truths. I’m NR and I asked Jen when she first came across the word…..

DESIREE-ANNE MARTINS book We Don’t Talk About It. Ever talks so honestly and openly about her utterly dysfunctional life of addiction, abuse and agony as a child and young woman, that you just want to hug her – then give her a medal for surviving it. She has come out the other side, 16 years clean, a counsellor and award winning writer. Her life, her story is complex, compelling – and for many will be so very, very familiar.

The forced removals of the apartheid era in Cape Town saw communities ripped apart, families damaged and the hearts of many individuals irreparably broken. Decades later, as a journalist BRONWYN DAVIDS covered many forced removal stories but was always reluctant to tell her own. Until one day the floodgate opened. Writing first on facebook, then on a retreat, with the input of a number of people and several drafts later, she finally put together Lansdowne Dearest: My family’s story of forced removals a book that’s filled with rich memory and colourful narrative. It begins in 1920 with the house that great-grandpa Joe McBain built and tracks the family members that follow with passion, honesty and humour. Bronwyn has written for the community and for her family’s legacy – but more than anything, to free herself.

HEDI LAMPERT'S novel The Trouble with My Aunt – deals primarily with the issue of Fragile X Syndrome. A condition as common as Down’s Syndrome, but less well-known, and often linked to autism. In real life it affected her own Aunt, Aunty Vi – as well as her whole family one way or another. Hedi’s novel, while based on the experiences of her own family, offers both an entertaining love story, uncovering long held family secrets as well as a well-researched and informed approach to the condition itself. She's in conversation here with Beryl Eichenberger, Woman Zone’s chief librarian at The Women’s Library at Artscape.

On Women's Day, August 9 2020, as happene every year as part of Artscape Theatre Centre #WomensFest2020, Theresa Smith hosted our Women's Day Radio Show on Fine Music Radio Inc.  She interviewed some of the artists involved in this years virtual Festival including: Siphokazi Jonas poet, Nadine McKenzie of Unmute Dance Company, Vuvu Nompetshini of Jazzart, Bianca Flanders actress and songwriter and of course Artscape's very own CEO Marlene le Roux. Good news, you can listen to it right here, right now. Enjoy......

If you’ve been listening to earlier episodes in this WZ podcast series, you may have wondered about the siren call at the beginning and at the end. Well that lovely voice belongs to PHILIPPA KABALI-KAGWA – singer, storyteller – facilitator and long-term member of Woman Zone who has shared many a story with us at the Women’s Library at Artscape. I’m NR and when I asked Philippa for a title for this her very own episode, she suggested ‘What Story Gives Me’…. So I suggested, she tell us a story….which she does, but first she gives us the story behind the story….

Kelly-Eve Koopman is a multidisciplinary artist – and author of Because I couldn’t Kill you described as a memoir on her Feminist Struggle, Missing Father and Myths of Memory and published by Melinda Ferguson.  Kelly-Eve herself also describes it as a ‘queer manifesto.’ Here in conversation with Desiree-Anne Martin, she explains more of its origins and process. These two have much to share because Desiree-Anne Martin is also an author - a poet, a counsellor and integral member of the Woman Zone Book Club which meets once a month at The Women’s Library at Artscape inviting a guest author to come and share her story. Desiree also recently won the Arts24/Kwela Corona fiction award for her story Delirium. But here, she asked Kelly-Eve first, to describe herself…

Welcome to WOMAN ZONE – connecting women through their stories At Woman Zone, an organisation designed to bring together women of different backgrounds, we find that one woman’s story often resonates way beyond her, her community, town or country. Through these podcasts we hope to spread such stories wider. In this episode we talk to COLLEEN HIGGS, founder of Modjaji women’s publishers and author of MY MOTHER, MY MADNESS in which she reveals the very personal story of her complex mother, and mother complex. Maybe you have a story you’d like to share? We’d love to hear it. Find us on www.womanzonect.com or facebook Woman Zone CT.

Welcome to WOMAN ZONE – connecting women through their stories. Woman Zone is an organisation designed to bring together women of different backgrounds – to get to know and understand one another through their stories. Based in Cape Town we meet sometimes in our Women’s Library, sometimes in one another’s homes or communities. But women’s stories often resonate beyond one woman, one town or community and in this podcast we’re taking the opportunity to spread them wider. In this episode we talk to mother and daughter team, PORTIA MBAU and LUMAI MIRA DE SMIDT who put together THE AFRICA COOKBOOK, a delicious collection of Portia recipes from Cape Town's famous Africa Cafe. They talk us through the journey of this visual feast. Maybe you have a story you’d like to share? We’d love to hear it. Find us on www.womanzonect.com or facebook Woman Zone CT.