Arts and Culture (Category) - 324 posts

My oldest, dearest friend Claire got married yesterday. (You might remember Claire from my tattoo post.) Happily for Claire, but unhappily for me, the wedding …

This post was supposed to be about a photowalk. Most of you know that I’m part of the Joburg Photowalkers; last Saturday we did a walk around St. …

When I was eight years old, my dad took me to see the movie Gandhi. I suppose Dad thought it would be an educational experience. Unfortunately I don’t …

Part 2 of a 3-part series about the Cederberg Heritage Route. Read Part 1 here and Part 3 here. When I left off at the end of my previous post, my two friends …

I’ve just returned from a glorious week of traveling around the Western Cape. I was completely off the grid for much of the trip, with no cell phone …

Day camp in Kagiso – a township surrounded by factories and mine dumps on Johannesburg’s far western edge – is much like day camp at the …

Africa is not an easy place to be gay. Homosexuality is illegal in more than half of African countries. South Africa is the most progressive African country …

I grew up watching baseball, as I described in a recent post. I also grew up playing softball, which is baseball’s alternative for girls in the United …

I don’t write often about South African government and politics. Politics here are complicated and contentious – even more so than other countries I …

I first visited Africa four years ago, through my work as a writer for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF for short). Many of my assignments …

UPDATE (March 2017): I wrote this post six years ago, at a time when I was pretty clueless about life in South Africa and how to write about it. I regret the …

When I moved to South Africa last year, I had a vague understanding of the role Nelson Mandela played in ending apartheid and reinventing this country. (Nelson …