ntsoana

I did an interview with my homie Sabelo from Okayafrica about the jazz stuff I’ve been documenting over the past few years. I said some things that will likely get me blacklisted from opportunities — like how the white industry which all black people worldwide have to bend in order to please, continues to oppress us, and how it’s important to strive for community in the places we occupy. I think it’s a trip. I think every interview I’ve ever given, is.

Where’s that book deal again?

Do you think the work you do is taken for what it actually is. I mean, I don’t see you on panels, I don’t see you at Abantu Festival. Do you feel it’s because you are writing about the arts that people don’t take it as seriously as they would if you were writing about black pain, for instance?

I don’t know, but what I will say is it’s always important to pay attention to the people who are paying attention to you. So if you bring up an Abantu for an instance, we did a panel at the Keleketla thing. That to me is worth talking about. So being included in panels, it’s also like what am I valuing? I don’t value getting famous, that’s not me, b. I just wanna be rich and help out my friends. All that other shit, that’s Joburg shit, that’s big city life shit. I’m from the hood, G, and that’s my frame of reference. All this bling shit, I’m like… I’m still very much for community, and I feel like what happens in these spaces, it’s very much against the spirit of community. And I’m not talking about community on some hotep shit. I’m talking about community like ‘do you have 10 bucks for me to load some airtime and send these important emails?’ That, to me, is community. I don’t sense that in those spaces, so I don’t crave them. But I also have access to those spaces, and I know the people who organize these things, so it’s like ‘cool you ignore me, but I will be there because someone assigned me to go shoot or interview someone there.’ So it’s like, ‘okay, have fun ignoring me, I’ll be there.’

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