An A&P experience
- Tersia Mukwevho
- Jan 22, 2023
- 5 min read
but first, happy 5-year anniversary to the best event in town. As a gift from SLG to the A&P team together with its collaborators and other stakeholders, here is an exclusive. This is not edited or structured to suit any reader, its consensual and raw, straight from the attendees and artists who were at the insert hosted on the 22nd of December 2022.
Hermit - an artist at the event, well-rounded, soothing writer and producer and a pivotal element of the A&P experience who we got lucky to speak to.
Q: Can you please take us through your music selection process for today’s performance.
A: It’s an ear thing. I listen to my whole discography and try to figure out which songs are going to be well suited for whatever setting I’m going to be performing at on that day. Listening to my music, visualising my performance and seeing what songs would go together is what I pay attention to. Everything should be in sync.
Q: How do you prepare for your performance?
A: It depends. If I’ll be having a live band on the day, we of course have to rehearse before the actual performance.
I also have to figure out what kind of instruments I want at that specific time which are suitable for certain songs.
I have a lot of versatile songs; some are singing, and some are rapping songs.
If I was going to perform a live set today, it would not have drums. It would be chilled, but I opted for the plug inset instead.
Q: How was the audience?
A: It was a great audience, very beautiful. If anything, it was all love. You can feel it resonating in you through the people, through everyone interacting and everyone not interacting.
Q: “Tshikalo, Good Vibes and Munwe Ngae” were a highlight of your performance sequence, please unpack it for us.
A: That is how they are packed on the project so I just felt like that order was perfect to me when I dropped the project, and it still felt perfect to perform the songs in that order- you cannot perform them any other way. They are a trio of songs that should be performed as such.
Q: From the A&P experience, what touches your heart about it?
A: For the most part, this is home. I remember how when we started it was, I think just 17 of us. We were just sitting, huddled up and reciting poems and playing songs on guitars. Seeing how far it has come and where it is now blesses my heart, and to still be a part of such a great movement in this place, I think it is very culturally impactful and I just love it. I love this place. I usually don’t perform, but this is the one place I perform.
Q: When should we expect a one man show from H&Them?
A: I was working on that; just doing a one man show. I can do it next year. I was actually supposed to do it this year, but I believe this year has been a hard year for everyone financially.
I am very sensitive about my craft, my things. When I visualise them a certain way, I want to execute them that specific way. I just felt like this year we didn’t have enough resources to make that execution possible. I am, however, still gathering up enough intel and resources to make sure we have a young H&Them session.
Well, from SLG and the A&P team, we say we appreciate you and we see what you are doing for the culture. We have so much love and appreciation for you.
A GREAT TASTE - a conversation with our favourite (well, second favourite) stall owner and showcase partner at the A&P installation of 2022, Ori - DeepO.
Q: Please take us through your stall.
A: So, what we have here is what we call 'A Great Taste', we’re basically giving you a taste of what is from us. We are trying to have a wine tasting concept in Venda as there aren’t many things for people to do here. We are trying to have wine tasting so that people can come and have a good time with us. We are also trying to push a wine “starter base?” here in South Africa. Our wines are from the Capet Town, Western Cape.
Q: So, I see you have a few selections of wines, please take us through them.
A: We are trying to keep our options open by having a sweet wine that is 70% bitter and 30% sweet. We also chose to go with the Chenin Blanc by Serengeti. We also have Cape Pearl, which is not Sweet Rose, it’s actually just Rose.
Q: What are the three things someone should know about wine?
A: The three rules I can give about wine:
1.Don’t drink red wine with ice,
2.Have your white wine with ice.
3.Hold your wine glass by the neck.
Q: So how is the vibe so far? How are people receiving the wine?
A: So far, we cannot complain, it has been good. I actually love the turn out, the vibe is perfect. It’s not too crowded, and it’s not too “little” people-it’s perfectly balanced.
Q: Thank you so much for your time. Do you have any social media accounts we can follow?
A: You can follow us on @a_great__taste on Instagram as well as Facebook. This year we’ve also partnered up with The Tastebud, you can follow them on @the_tastebud.
Extras:
Q: Do you know of any Venda wine makers?
A: I doubt hey, I’d be lying if I said I know one.
Q: Would you mind being the first one?
A: Only God knows
And to Ori and his team, we want to say that we start from the bottom hey, thank you so much for your time and we wish you all the best with your future endeavours.
MASANA - an attendee we appreciate for coming to A&P 2022.
Q: How is the vibe going today?
A: I love it, it’s amazing.
Q: Who did you come with today?
A: I came with my sister
Q: Shout out to your sister. So, what inspired your look for the day?
A: I won’t say I had any inspiration; I just woke up and decided to wear what I’m wearing.
Q: I am loving the hair; African Inferno is really inspired. You look dope.
A: Thank you
Q: Which music have you been listening to recently?
A: I have been listening to Frank Ocean
Q: I hope you are enjoying yourself. Which artist or performance or “what” stood out for you today?
A: I like “Black Labone”, they are really nice
Great, well, thank you for coming, enjoy the rest of your day and see you next year.
And that folks covers our sessions with some of the people who were at Acoustics and Poetry 2022. From this one can get a feel of the atmosphere, the crowd and all-round culture that A&P brings to Thohoyandou. The market feel, stalls in place, different artist foe every ear, and a safe and non-conforming but inclusive and vibrant space. For that we comment the team and wish them nothing less of more success, many more years of growth and geta experiences. Special shout out to Gin, Sharon, Gusba Banana, Hermit, Black Labone, Thohoyandou Botanical gardens and every attendee either as a business or for leisure, see you next time.
Special thank you to Moren for manning the interviews and Tersia for making all this text possible.
SLG Team
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