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@letthemwait

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🇿🇦 Multipassionate: Theatre. Film. Performance. Art. Writing. Research. Discourse.
🇩🇪 PhD @dramaturgies_afterlife

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It’s been 29 days since my father died. I’ve been counting life in Saturdays ever since. Then came a Sunday. Our first Father’s Day without him. The first time I’ll call to wish him and he won’t be there to say “Yes, Princess?”

I suppose there’ll now be a lifetime of Father’s Days like this. There will be a lifetime of conversations I wish we got to have. A lifetime of bones I still had to pick with him. A lifetime of jazz we won’t get to dance to and books left unread. Of red wine and oxtail dinners not savoured, of nonsensical inside jokes we’ll never get to laugh at. A lifetime of notes in his wallet with things about me I never knew he remembered. There will now be a lifetime of things I wish I could share with him. And it will hurt every time I remember that I can’t. The whole world he placed at my feet suddenly feels desperately empty.

But there will also be a lifetime of gratitude. I hope, as the Saturdays go, that the gratitude will ease the grief. Going through our memories makes me grateful that in our life together, I got to give him his flowers. And he smelled them. And he was happy. Fleeting though happiness is in this life, being our father made him happy. I’m grateful I got to be 1/4 of the family that he created. Grateful to have been a source of his joy. And, through all his life’s work, I’m grateful for the foundation of a lifetime. Okunye sobuye sikuxoxe. by @letthemwait

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3 months ago

zange ndaphinde ndafana. 🤍 taken in Cologne, Germany by @letthemwait

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5 months ago

In Nairobi. At Home. At @silasmiami’s table, I’ve been nourished. Renewed. Seen. Understood. Loved. ❤️🇰🇪

What a gift to get to spend time with, eat with, and deep belly laugh, cackle even, with my incredible, beautiful friends. Family.

(@misskihoro @ryanjales are not in the slides but in my heart ❤️❤️) taken in Nairobi, Kenya by @letthemwait

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6 months ago

A week in Perpetua’s London.

(And by Perpetua I mean Cynthia Erivo, the rightful owner of the city). taken in London, United Kingdom by @letthemwait

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7 months ago

I write myself two letters every year on my birthday. One about the year that was and one about the year that will be. This, too, is a form of time travel. taken in Crowne Plaza Dusseldorf - Neuss by @letthemwait

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8 months ago

Requiem for warmer days. by @letthemwait

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a year ago

48hrs in Berlin. taken in Berlin, Germany by @letthemwait

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a year ago

“Hamba, ngiyakbona.” taken in London, United Kingdom by @letthemwait

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a year ago

‘I opened the camera and let all the pictures out.’

I made this work slowly, subconsciously, over the summer, and then in a burst of inspiration (and panic) in the days before London. Lots of failure, little sleep and a world of new discoveries. I was still editing on the train, at the airport, on the flight, at the hotel. But I trusted the process and it trusted me back. An evolving artistic practice. taken in Studio by @letthemwait

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a year ago

So I made a performance film and showed it in the UK this month. It’s a long story and I don’t have the words yet, just waves of feelings. Someone kind told me they could see my work in a gallery like the Tate so I went to visit. And honestly I see it.

London, my Shayla, you owe me nothing 🫰🏾(except the Cullinan Diamond). See you next time. taken in London, United Kingdom by @letthemwait

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a year ago

Openings. by @letthemwait

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a year ago

My new plant made me think of ‘Nomalizo’ by Lulama Wolf. Which made me think of ‘Nomalizo’ by Letta Mbulu. Which made me think of home. 🪴 by @letthemwait

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a year ago