A Protest at the Johannesburg City Library
The Johannesburg City Library, a beautiful, historic, and essential building in downtown Joburg, has been mysteriously closed for the past three years. The entrance to the Johannesburg City Library in November 2016, the last time I went inside and blogged about it. I...
St. Mary’s Cathedral: A Secret Church in Downtown Joburg
Every time I think I’ve visited all the historic churches in downtown Joburg, another one pops out of the woodwork. My latest “discovery” is the spectacular Cathedral of St. Mary the Virgin, or St. Mary’s Cathedral, on Wanderers Street in the...
My Joburg Jumpsuit: A Love Story
This jumpsuit love story began eight months ago, when I booked a Caraci experience on Airbnb to celebrate my birthday. Thorsten and I spent a glorious day in the Joburg CBD, shopping for African print fabric, learning how to sew, hanging out in the city, and having...
Walking Downtown Jozi: A Photo Story
There are many tales of woe in Joburg right now: building fires, exploding streets, absent mayors, water outages, an ever-widening wealth gap, and a general spiral of doom. And these stories aren’t exaggerated. The struggle is real, people…The city is in a...
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...
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.