Artists

In a lifetime before this one, I wrote about 100 Facebook notes.

Artless, awkward, strange stabs at writing which nobody read, paid me for or cared about in the least.

I wrote anyway.

In a notebook before I had a laptop of my own. During hasty half hours when my older brother would grant me the gift of 30 minutes on his computer. At the national library on those ancient, wheezing, half dead PCs you’;d have to queue up for, anxiously asking someone to save your spot if your phone rang, your bladder groaned or your legs cramped.

We are what we do.

Writers write. Singers sing. Artists create.

And eventually they introduce themselves.

They write a Facebook note. They get up on a stage. They start an online gallery of their work and they just keep on doing it. When nobody knows who they are right on through and eventually beyond the point when everyone does.

When we look at visible, acclaimed, employed artists, we tend to forget we’;re only seeing the current chapter of their story and not much of it at that.

Not the amount of work it takes to present 20 paintings in an exhibition or how hard it is to fund and rehearse for a show, a festival or an event and smile all the while in a mire of risk, investment and wild hope.

Artists are incredible.

They wake up, they walk through the world and they use their talent to reflect, interrogate or reimagine it, seeking and gifting truth, escape, revolution or release simply because writers write, singers sing, painters paint, comedians joke, musicians play.

It isn’;t an easy road but it makes the world more beautiful.

It makes it more tolerable, more understandable, pliable and some of the best art makes you think about who we are as humans, where we’;ve been and how that continues to shape the present, perception and the future.

As I glance over my schedule for the month and see all the arts events Windhoekers can attend, my pride is tangible and profound.

Our artists are awake.

They are deep within the arts struggle that begins with taking that first step, introducing yourself to the world, working at getting better and in many ways, they are the same.

They are Jandjie, a comedian trying to make a success of ComiCon.

They are Dixa, the taxi driver who loves to play you his kwaito songs because passengers are just unknowing fans.

They are Morris, ever-smiling and making magic of wire in the shade of the Old Breweries.

They are Cstar, looking for a venue where her dream of an intimate, offbeat acapella performance can come true.

They are Lize, ceaseless, incendiary and incredible in her hustle, leaving no singer behind.

They are Rodelio, an actor promoting his new TV show on social media.

They are Ashwyn, a multitalent getting ready to present his diverse identities.

They are Lioness, rapping her heart out, serving visuals and oozing passion.

They are Kooliograffi, a graphic designer and illustrator making a gallery of his Instagram.

‘;Broke & Famous.’;