Robert Machiri and Brother Mbango close first edition of artHARARE with Pungwe Live from Swakopmond in Namibia

Live performance for artHARARE on IGTV and Facebook Live. Ananya is a 20 year old musician who was born and raised in Zimbabwe. After attending high school in Zimbabwe and Europe, she moved to New York City to study Fashion Design and follow her musical passion playing piano and guitar.

“There is no greater reward than being able to educate the minds of our future generations”. - Farai Simoyi Farai Simoyi. From fashion designer to fashion executive, this global leader exemplifies the business of international fashion and development. Honored on the pages of FORBES and featured by the likes of Vogue, Fast Company, Newsweek, ABC News, New York Magazine, and Essence Magazine for her contributions to the fashion industry, Simoyi's purpose: "creating global brands and developing emerging brands and creatives." Behind her, Simoyi has 15 years of experience designing and consulting for some of the most globally recognized celebrities with fashion brands and industry staples such as Beyonce, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Justin Timberlake, Rachel Roy, Anne Klein, and Robert Rodriguez to name a few. Simoyi has also accumulated esteemed awards and toured the world speaking on topics such as Global Fashion Development, Sustainability, Manufacturing in Africa, and Diversity & Inclusion at renowned institutions such as Tapestry Inc., Fashion Institute of Technology, West Virginia University, Yale University, U.S. Dept of State Educational & Cultural Affairs, US. Embassy of Zimbabwe, & Standard Bank Incubator of South Africa. Following her impressive competitive delivery in the first season of the ‘Netflix’ fashion design competition series, ‘Next in Fashion,’ Simoyi continues her mission to promote her design work while elevating global artisans and designers through her company, The Narativ, in collaboration with NY NOW and Start by WGSN. In 2020, Simoyi joined Thomas Jefferson University as the Program Director and Professor of Fashion Design Programs.

Ethel Irene Kabwato was born in Mutare, Zimbabwe into a creative family and has won prizes for her poetry and prose. Although Ms Kabwato’s childhood ambition was to be a journalist, she became an English teacher. Her dream was only fulfilled in 2008 when she attained a degree in Media Studies with the Zimbabwe Open University. She writes for various publications and still pursues her career as an English teacher. Her work appears in various anthologies, namely, Sunflowers in Your Eyes, Writing Free, Writing Now, Between Two Rocks (through a Writer’s Exchange Programme with the University of Michigan’s ZCCD), Light a Candle, Ghetto Diary (an advanced-level literature set book) and an educational textbook by Scholastic (USA). She is the editor of a poetry anthology, Traps, a collection of poems by Zimbabwean women writers. Most recently Ms Kabwato’s poetry was featured in New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby (UK). In 2004, she participated in the British Council Crossing Borders Project. Ms Kabwato has been invited to read her work at institutions such as Rhodes University and University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She has worked extensively with school children as a mentor, teacher and creative writing adjudicator. In 2008, she was a guest at Amnesty International Festival in Amsterdam which culminated in Slum Cinema, a voluntary initiative which seeks to empower disadvantaged communities through multi-media work. Ms Kabwato, along with another poet, was a guest writer at the Guardian Hay Festival (Wales, UK) while on a reading tour of Sunflowers in Your Eyes.

In this conversation three artists discuss their contributions to the Handei Kunotamba program. Together with Art Meets, we created this series called, ‘Handei Kunotamba/Asambeni Siyodlala/Let’s go dance/play.’ Artists were given a text, which they used as a prompt to create a 1min video or sound piece. The text provided took its cue from Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel, ‘Nervous Conditions,’ and particularly drew from the theme of how family dynamics alter when children are raised outside of Zimbabwe. Diaspora has come to define what it means to be Zimbabwean in our contemporary times and through this program we wanted to create a space to reflect on this. Check out the artists' videos in our Handei Kunotamba playlist.

Mae Sithole and her band believe music has the power to bring people of all cultures together. Their vision is to take their fusion of contemporary jazz, soul, funk/reggae with African music to the world. In May 2018, the Mae Sithole Band performed at the Harare International Festival of the Arts. Mae Sithole was named among Cape Town’s Top 5 Innovative Female Musicians by Of Africa Magazine and has been featured by BBC Radio 4 and CNN Africa.The Mae Sithole Band was also awarded the Concerts SA Mobility Fund in 2018. Mae is a passionate advocate for women's rights and leadership, youth inclusivity, and communicating powerful messages of hope through music, poetry, and other art forms. She incorporates her songwriting and performance in African leadership development programmes; policy meetings; and has performed in the presence of inspirational women including Prof Thuli Madonsela, Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng, and the African Union Commissioner for Political Affairs, Mrs Minata Samate Cessouma. She is passionate about using music to trigger change and unite people of different cultures, languages, and political persuasions under the banners of love and humanity. Her first two albums, First Glance and Visions are available on most on line music platforms.