Mwenya B. Kabwe

Mwenya B. Kabwe is a Zambian-born, South African-based theatre maker, performer, educator, creative facilitator and mother of two. Her original work includes: Please Do Not Leave Your Baggage Unattended (the Drill Hall, Johannesburg 2007); for nomads who have considered settling when the travel is enuf (Out the Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance, Cape Town 2007); 27 Windows, 4 Doors, 2 Taps (Out the Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance, 2010); Migritude’s Echo (Out the Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance, 2011); Afrocartography: Traces of Places and all points in between (The Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts, Afrovibes Festival, Wits Main Theatre 2008, 2009, 2013, 2014); 21 Wandah!  (The Market Lab, Johannesburg 2017); A Zambian Space Odyssey and Jacaranda Time with Tegan Bristow and Cameron Harris (The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg 2017). Kabwe is also one of the seven 2007 Spier Contemporary winners for a collaborative performance work titled Unyawo Alunampumlo – The Foot Has no Nose (with Chuma Sopotela and Kemang Wa Lehulere). Kabwe’s publications include Transgressing Boundaries: Making Theatre from an Afropolitan Perspective (South African Theatre Journal, 2007); Untethered in a Performance of Afrohybrid (Studio Museum, Harlem New York, 2008); Afrophobia Exposed (Rootz Africa Magazine, 2008); A Tea Party for Unholy Ghosts (Art South Africa, 2011); Performing Africa Differently: A re-imagining of Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of Negro (Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre 2: Diaspora Representations & the Interweaving of Cultures, 2013) and Mobility, Migration and ‘Migritude’ in Afrocartography: Traces of Places and all points in between (Performing Migrancy and Mobility in Africa: Cape of Flows, 2015). She currently teaches at Wits University School of Arts in the Department of Theatre and Performance.
Submissions

performance score built with undated performance notes

sharing rhythm creates a political question about who determines rhythm and when trio in unison, with the possibility of becoming either backup dancers or soloists open-ended and absurdist and nonsensical shame as part of gaze

The Flowers of Manshiyat Naser

Under El Sisi, where every inch of the city is controlled by the army, censorship spreads like a plague, and the possibility of any form of creative expression in the public space – especially graffiti, which was an extremely important medium during the revolution – is close to nil. And so the appearance of a work of street art on such a gigantic scale is phenomenal.

ingat (to take care)

that moment before something is about to happen where anything is still possible in between this is where you are stuck

500 Icons : Gloss

"These People Have Contributed Materially in Many Ways to Make Our Music What it is. Please Do Not Hold it Against them."

Parking Lot Theatre : Gloss

The driver with whom I was partnered was unable to lower his window, which required him to communicate with nonverbal indicators that I could not understand.

A Meniscus Around My Fingers : Gloss

Prompts for Future Africa

A host of speculative playlets, skirting genres from fantasy to sci-fi, utopia to dystopia, alternative history to the end of history.

Prompts for Future Africa : Gloss

As a place to encounter the unimaginable and the unknown, the speculation is fundamental to theatre making.