Joburg Heritage: Churches of Coronationville and Bosmont
Apologies to everyone who received this post in their inbox last week and has now received (and opened) it again. My site experienced a problem this week and the original version of the post was deleted, so I had to reload it. The text and images in the post are the...
The Spectacular Brixton Light Festival, Revisited
Last weekend I attended the Brixton Light Festival (hereafter referred to as the BLF) for the second consecutive year. I wrote a comprehensive post about the BLF last year, so in the days leading up to this year's event I thought maybe I wouldn't need to write another...
Vredefort Dome: The Ultimate Weekend Getaway Guide
People of Joburg: Pay attention because I'm about to let you in on a seriously good travel secret. Most of you have probably heard of the Vredefort Dome. But if you're anything like me (up until a few days ago), you have only a vague idea of what it is. Even this sign...
A Quick Tour of Brixton Monuments
Regular readers of this blog know that my boyfriend, Thorsten, is an architect. You might not know that he is also an artist, and he recently created a beautiful series of prints portraying historic monuments in our home suburb of Brixton. The first of Thorsten's...
Joburg Thrifting: Winter 2023
I'm obsessed with Joburg thrifting (see here, here, and here) and the more I shop second-hand, the more I realize it's almost never necessary to buy new things. There are so many great places in Joburg to shop for used clothing, furniture, jewelry, shoes, housewares...
Yola’s: The Place for Koesisters (and Koeksisters?) in Joburg
I'm struggling to figure out how to start writing this post because I'm struggling to figure out how to explain koesisters. A koesister from Yola's kitchen. The koesister ranks among South Africa's most iconic foods, right up there with biltong, boerewors, chakalaka,...
Joburg Map Books Come to Life Through John Phalane
About a year ago, as I wandered the halls of the Turbine Art Fair, an annual fair featuring the works of emerging South African artists, I stopped short in front of some poster-sized pictures by John Phalane. The pictures portrayed maps -- mostly Joburg maps -- drawn...
Art Blooms Inside Johannesburg’s Drill Hall
A few days ago I walked into the Drill Hall, in the frenetic center of downtown Joburg, and went through a wormhole into an alternate universe. Outside the Drill Hall -- a hint of what's to come. Inside the Hall, where every found object -- a chunk of carpet padding,...
What ChatGPT Says About 2Summers
Yesterday I listened to an episode of The Daily, my favorite news podcast, titled "The Writers' Revolt Against AI Companies". The episode focused on a current news story about comedian Sarah Silverman, who is suing OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) for copyright...
Jozi Fashion Designer for a Day
Last Saturday, to celebrate 49 years on earth, I gave myself a gift: I booked an Airbnb experience with Caraci Clothing and pretended to be a fashion designer for the day. Okay, "fashion designer for the day" is a slight exaggeration -- other than choosing our styles...
A Staycation in Kensington
I've always been intrigued by Kensington, a suburb just east of downtown Joburg. Kensington is similar in many ways to Melville, where I used to live, and Brixton, where I live now: An older neighborhood, filled with big trees and houses with pressed-steel ceilings,...
The National Arts Festival: It Changed Me.
I recently returned from a weekend at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), where I was invited to participate in the Standard Bank Art "Be Part of the Arts" social media campaign. The National Arts Festival (NAF) has been running since 1974...
Youth Day Warmup for the Brixton Light Festival
After last year's Brixton Light Festival, lots of people read my blog post and were sad they missed the festival and asked how they could be sure not to miss the next one. So consider yourselves warned: The next Brixton Light Festival takes place on Saturday,...
A Winter Explosion of Aloes at the Aloe Farm
Joburg winters are harsh. Temperatures often drop below freezing at night but our houses aren't insulated, windows don't close, and central heating doesn't exist. The air is punishingly dry. Our weather is close to perfect for ten months a year, but the other two...
Heather Mason
I’m an American writer/blogger/photographer living a quirky life in Johannesburg. Follow along as I explore Johannesburg, South Africa, and the rest of the world.