Business Acumen Mentorship

The following represents the morphing of the Catherine Missive series. It is the last in the series i will post at this site. The series has been going to some people on my email list, with proper introductions and all… i will stop posting here. If anyone is interested in the rest of the series, which has three or four more entries or if some resourced business person wishes to be part of the CapeCodes initiative, i can be contacted via email: anthonyj.sloan@gmail.com

It has been a pleasure; May one and all have a prosperous New Year. The following is a young man i have had the good fortune of mentoring for the past two years. I have not alter his writing. If you wish to here his voice, his and others who have experienced the third annual “Stay-Awake” Conclave in Live Modern Audio Drama can be heard by the end of January at www.capecodes.co.za

…And now the Master Audio Drama Revolutionary: Doza – the Source of Life

The Survivors of Performing Arts formed on the 18 /March 2008/ with a mission of uplifting our community and also improving the Arts as much as Educating our peers using this art form but then as time goes we started doing other art forms such as Hip Hop, Poetry, Dance, drama, Opera, craft art, also play writing, Comic Illustration. The idea is to share with many people as we can. All this year we decided on working with Schools and our community, in partners with youth network from Phillippi Organised youth in Partners under an umbrella of Sizakuyenza VCT centre – a women and child abuse Shelter.

This helped us in so many ways as we always want to reach many homes and hearts. We under gone many workshops and trainings on that as much as we needed them. There are times that each and every day we do a “going-around” – we visit every household that has our members then we sit down with the parents or Guardian and find out from them what sort of impact do we do to their kids, Positive or negative, but mostly we get the positive side of things, as for that we keep on improving all the negative things as much as the positive side, but most parent  gives  us their  impression such as ‘I’m so grateful that my child is a one of the group because I have noticed a lot that has changed even from the School work and the Attitude towards the family’ – the motivation we get from parents and the community are the most things that keeps us going on and on but then we need people to imbrues in this Art form, people with influence that can help us build this job creation for young Youths of Cape Town, we need mostly equipment to do this things  like Recorders, Computers, Sound system, etc that is why to us it is very important to get influential people to support in order for as to get sponsorships and partnerships with as many  people as we can.

Daily we fight to survive hoping that people in power will embrace in this wonderful art called Live Modern Audio Drama, the 24-hour Conclave was one of our events that we hoped all business people will support come to and support us, Young people from the townships of Cape Town. This gives us power to work with other townships like Du noon. This gives us time to work and communicate with people.

We started this organization with hopes we would grow our community and also find ways of encouraging people on life and other problems we face in our community.

We have work-shopped schools and the results were so good that we ended up taking people to form our junior unit, the principal was so overwhelmed by this art form and demanded that we do annual workshops, and in whatever we do we always include communities and this last stay awake conclave we had a challenge of working with deaf people, but as for Audio Drama we call them the Sign Interpreters of which this was not that much of a challenge more than it was a learning opportunity for all people whom attended the “Stay-Awake” Conclave. The most interesting part about Audio Drama is that it is an art form that can collaborate with all arts.

I, Mthobeli Duna, wishes that whatever we are doing to be recognised and be respected, so our efforts in modern Audio drama can be upped. We do need appreciation of our work, but most importantly support, because without it whatever we are doing is going nowhere. We like what we are doing, for us it feels like telling our lives instead of telling stories; hence a support system would do us great.

We have such amazing young people, who are doing tremendous work in building a better society through art such people need to be appreciated, especially in this time of life with so many challenges young people face one guy from my crew  Black Ink Art Movement by the name Khanyiso Mabodla who is so good in sound effects.

Black Ink Art Movement does Drama, Hip Hop, Poetry, Comic illustration and has embraced live modern audio drama, we are a group of young people who are diligent in what we are doing, with the support from CapeCodes we are growing each day, because we even attend trainings and get information from brother Sloan from all the trainings he under goes and shares it with us. We are very appreciative of the people who supports every little thing we do, because without them we are nothing and to those who just won’t support us they are giving us the strength to go beyond our limits. In a very short period of time we are going to go places no one ever imagined before.

I now just feel like expressing my thoughts/feelings, I so wish this coming year be the prosperous one for us as we have been hustling a lot this year and that this live modern audio drama we are doing be in high heights. I personally wish that people can understand what we are doing, because we really want to make a living out of this. If for any reason be there a person so interested in investing in us would create a good motion status and help fulfil many peoples dreams and wishes so would that person get a guaranteed satisfaction. In the townships we living in we face so many challenges, such as crime, HIV/Aids, Poverty and experiencing real hard ship not to mention domestic abuse, if one would look at things beyond what an ordinary eye sees would really see the life we are living day in day out.

I was once told by a friend of mine something that really stayed in me, I don’t know whether that will ever go away,  he said to me if you could know the pain, suffering and strain most of the young kids around here are feeling or experiencing you would cry, knowing a 16 year old has to deal with HIV on her own and cant tell any-one even their parents, because of fearing to be labelled, see people when they have problems they feel like talking to some one about it, but how one expects a teenage girl or boy to be normal when they carry such luggage and still be labelled as a lost generation, by the way this friend of mine is a counsellor by profession.

But for us to dwell so much in all the negative things that keeps on bringing us down and want to change wont do us any good, rather let’s just use our creativity and create good stories out of this, because at the end of the day this is our real and authentic stories, we need to embrace them. Can you look at this, it’s so funny being a young person in this era who is a role model to the community not forgetting the fact that he or she also face the same challenges that every young person faces, yet when they make mistakes as a young person people seem not to understand it and instead criticise them, well I’m not trying to justify anything here but appealing to people that they should look at real reason why people do what they do, because sometimes we might think that alcohol usage in the young ones is because of peer pressure or a wanting to experiment kind of thing whereas it’s actually not rather the circumstances.

One thing that reminds that is hearing your community leaders, your councillors saying youth must be active in the community and “we will support each and every thing they do, but guess what I invited the high school principal in my township, the local councillor and some community leaders none of them pitched and tomorrow we will told that young people are busy drinking alcohol instead of taking the advantage of being young and do constructive things, tell me how would you be motivated in doing anything that your parents want you to do when they don’t even care how you do it, but rather concern about what you do wrong?

The Survivors of Performing Arts formed on the 18 /March 2008/ with a mission of uplifting our community and also improving the Arts as much as Educating our peers using this art form but then as time goes we started doing other art forms such as Hip Hop, Poetry , Dance, drama, Opera, craft art and also play writing, Comic Illustration. We had this arts but the idea was to share them with many people as we can and  that when we decided on working with Schools and our community, in partners with youth network from Phillippi Organised youth of Phillipi in Partners under an umbrella of Sizakuyenza VCT centre and women and child abuse home.

This helped us in so many ways as we always wanted to reach many homes and hearts. We under gone many workshops and trainings on that as much as we needed them. There are times that each and every day we do a going around we visit every house hold that has our member then we sit down with the parents or Guardian and find out from them what sort of impact do we do to their kids Positive or negative but mostly we get the positive side of things, as for that we keep on improve all the negative things as much as the positive side, but most parents ask ways gives as the best impassion such as ‘I’m so grateful that my child is a one of the group because I have noticed a lot that has changed even from the School work and the Attitude towards the family’ the motivation we get from parents and the community are the most things that keeps us going on and on but then we need people to imbrues in this Art form people with influence that can help us build this job creation for young Youths of Cape Town, we need mostly equipment to do this things  like Recorders, Computers, Sound system, etc that is why to us it is very important to get influential people to support in order for as to get sponsorships and partnerships with many  people as we can.

Dear Catherine, i don’t want to sound bitter, really i truly do not, however if i have to be in an audience one more time to hear some well-meaning speaker muse how they do not know how to attract more Blacks or women to their cause, i might just jump up and choke them…and i am not a violent man…i am a product of the aforementioned Pacifica Foundation radio network, which was founded by pacifist.

Anyway, you and yours did come and support.

And, if you were to ask me (which you haven’t) what kind of further support would we want… I first would say, ask this years participants what they want.

I would say they would need a central location in Cape Town to workshop each Saturday for their work on Three Ayhe!, the next instalment of the series, which will be based on the stories you saw at the presentation.

I am certain Lieve, who directs he Comic Arts Engine of our three engine concept for CapeCodes and your husband will be hard at work to make that aspect of the initiative work to a maximum of capacity with the little funds we have left over from the Lottery Fund money given us last year.

I would say, let us find ways to open doors for them to speak directly to those in the corridors of power in the educational sector; they give school presentations and workshops – wouldn’t it be grand if in the last week of the school year, instead of students slacking around the school environs, they could create Audio Drama presentations using the Voice acting, Miming, Sound Effects, music, set decoration, costuming, sign interpretation, and all the rest you saw, to occupy their end of semester time, with the telling of their own stories about the year they just experienced?

Open doors for them for the ideas they have around tourism. Ideas they have about an efficient way to make successful films. No, they do not need another situation where some big time filmmaker comes down to impart wisdom from on high using high tech and costly methods of production.

(Personally, i would really like someone from the Lars von Trier camp, his Dogme 95 movement as expressed in his Manderlay vehicle is perfect for the Township level of production. Plus it works so very well with Audio Drama. I mean all one needs is a bare sound stage, great acting, wonderful lighting and an uncompromising script. Okay proficient cinema photography has to be in the mix, and yeah, editing as is always the case.)

But I digress…

To get me back on track let us hear from the young Township boys themselves.

As a way of introduction, I just need to say, I had to honor, along with your husband and Mark McCree of Truear Audio, to bestow the very first certificate to an Audio Drama Revolutionary – the brilliant, young, live sound effects master-in-self-training: Khanyiso Mabodla. He is not here right now as he is earning a living working 8am to 5pm at a Fruit and Veg market chain close to his shack in Dunoon.

But, we do have the other two recipients: Bongani “Doza” Dyasi and Mthobeli Duna here; I am now asking them for their views and strategies regarding the Art of Modern Audio Drama.

(Anthony note: So the third “Stay-Awake” Conclave has happened and now we use it as a source for “Three Ayhe!” The third book in the township created / inspired series dedicated to the true telling of right now realities of the Cape Town area townships. I was disappointed with the audience turnout, which lead me to begin musing about the South African circumstance i find myself in. This led me to writing Catherine Collingwood, wife of the great and brilliant Andy Mason, who heads the Comic Art Unit at the Centre for Comic, Illustrative and Book Arts (CCIBA) at Stellenbosch University. If anyone is interested, he as just edited with, the equally brilliant, John Curtis -

“Don’t Joke!” – The year in cartoons–featuring South Africa’s best political cartoonists. Just out from Jacana press, and available in local bookstores.

It is a rather long diatribe, so i will break it up and post it periodically. We begin:)

Dearest Catherine,

Thank you so very much for witnessing our Conclave presentations in Modern Audio Drama. Though it is admittedly a bit of a cliché, however, it meant /and means/ so much to me and the work we are doing with the beleaguered youth within this area of the world that you attended.

With permission, i am going to write some thoughts directly to you in relation to this past few weeks leading up to and including this, the third “Stay-Awake” Conclave.

This technique of writing you, while at the same time speaking to a larger circle of people, is an old radio technique articulated by radio pioneer Arthur Godfrey. Legend has it, radio elder Godfrey would draw a face on his broadcast microphone and speak to the image as if it was the only audience listening to the transmission.

I have been doing radio since 1973, when i heard of that technique early on with my time with Pacifica radio in the 90’s it became my conscience method in broadcast radio.

But i digress…

There is a real reason i wanted you and your husband to, as i say, witness what those young people of various Townships are doing to combat the so many negatives they are surrounded by constantly. Simply put, you saw their true stories.

You saw a love not manufactured by interpretation from folks who have moved on from their original circumstances to “make it” in a system that glorifies the reported circumstances of past situations.

And i respect you and your husband, and my friend Jayne, and Linda Daniels and her man; and Dr. Ralph Shepherd and Anelise, who run the Novalis Ubuntu Institute, where we staged this year’s Conclave, for taking the time to indeed witness something truly extraordinary.

This is no small thing i am saying; recently i took a thirteen week business course out of the University Of Cape Town Graduate School Of Business. Every Tuesday morning after the Monday evening class the two Interns for CapeCodes would come to my place in Woodstock so i could impart what i digested from the course. One of the things said during the course was that in these days and times, it is not money that is so important; but a person’s time and attention. You gave us your attention; and i am much, much appreciative to you and those others mentioned.

I can’t tell you how many people i and the young people beseeched to attend; Council people, teachers, principles, employers, co-workers, friends, business people, Facebook addicts and strangers.

People i have helped and worked with, most who always ask what exactly it is i do here in South Africa. People i have gave advice, volunteered my services to, witnessed their progress, bought their journals… and books…

None pitched up to this free event. None even bought the Ayhe! series of comic books to support this Township effort.

You did, and now you know.

Don’t get me wrong, i am well aware of the stress and strain of “making ends meet” in this modern city of Cape Town… But we had a 24-hour event in a safe area of the greater Cape Town metropolis. Some of these same people i saw hours later at the Iziko National Museum event.

They were there seeing and being seen.

Not to take anything away from the Dada event, a great accomplishment, if for no other reason it brought a younger crowd into the bowels of that venerable institution; however, i must say,  much of the exhibit dealt with the same themes i saw at last Thursday night’s opening at the Robben Island exhibition. Those constant South African images and themes of past victimization, past brutalities…

I’ve coined a phrase since coming here in 2003: South Africans, one and all, are suffering from post-Apartheid Stress Syndrome.

One of the young people, you saw on stage at the Novalis, related to me just the other day, an incident that happened this past youth day (June 16th) at one of the Township functions. They did not want to see yet another production of Sarafina!, because they got angry at white people after the production, and they had white friends they had no reason to be angry at. And they told organizers that: No more Sarafina! They want to tell the (their) stories of today.

(Anthony note: to be continued, unless they shut down this site.)

So there i was taking this class in photography last Saturday upstairs from the Cameraland store…

I walk into the room and right there on the wall is a painting by our very own Paul. Actually, several painting…So a blurted out “I know him!” It felt really good to see Paul’s work. Sort of a connection and all…

Prince Albert Art Gallery will be exhibiting recent works by Diane
Johnson Ackerman from the 16th December 2009 to the 1st of January
2010.

‘The look of a wall or a window is a look into time and space.  The
wall carries its history, what we see is not of the moment alone.”
Robert Henri (The Art Spirit)

Address:
Seven Arches
57 Church Street
Prince Albert
023 5411057
082 7492128
karoogallery@intekom.co.za

So it took me until this morning, just a few minutes ago, to realize the gift we were given Monday was not to transport joints…but for business cards.

What i do is take the business cards of my colleagues and use my COLOP Printer50 stamp to stamp the back of their cards with my information.        Works out well, as i save paper resources and seem to be much more humble than i really am.

Thanks for the gift, i will put it to use anytime i want to impress… And now i know it wasn’t really intended for my vacation trip to Swaziland on the 17th of December. Hope to see everyone at the “Stay-Awake” Conclave event on the 12th at The Novalis Ubuntu Institute in Wynberg.

http://www.capecodes.co.za/event.htm

Hi there. We will be providing pizzas and drinks after the pitches tomorrow night. I want to hold it in the courtyard at Abbotsford House at the GSB. Hope you will all be able to make it. Think you deserve a spoilt after all the hard work!

Scale                             Poor                         OK                          Good                           Excellent

• Ability to describe product or service
• Ability to get your attention
• Ability to describe benefit
• Pitch was delivered within time limit
• Financial Viability clear
• Value proposition clearly stated
• Ability to persuade you to buy or invest

Strengths of Elevator Pitch

Areas for Improvement in Elevator Pitch

We have collaborated to take care of my nerves…….. Business Change in Bits and Bytes is about to take you by a storm (in a teacup) – Thanks Rob and Robyn (and Armand and Ayhan)

Good luck everyone I hope preparations are going well. I can’t wait to see all the fantastic ideas