RAFIEKA WILLIAMS

Hi Aryan 

Thank you so much for sharing, it truly is a wonderful testament that you put together in this edition. 

I feel like I’ve heard of Lefifi Tladi as some kind of spectre that doesn’t really exist, a lot of people speak about Bra Vi, I have finally met him. In the arts we tend to speak of people as if they are already dead when in reality they could just be somewhere, hiding. 

More interestingly but because now I’ve been reading and dissecting is that he is in the process of something quite remarkable, your piece, the conversation you had with him about creating the annotations for the sounds we experience in our homes, the sounds our grandfathers and grandmothers make that was never written, the melodies that come from the insides that don’t necessarily have an origin, that was never written, just sung, just practiced – amazing, really.

I know nothing about classical music and just yesterday I did an inerview with jazz musician, Benjamin Jephta and I was saying how we can easily in this country posit jazz as a classical music but he – who had actually studied music – seemed very intent and stirred emotionally to say sternly “no, there is nothing western or classical about what I do”. 

I was going to send a nasty email about how angry I am that Tladi isn’t here, teaching us, then I saw the Perfect interview and I was like, okay, I see we’re all on the same page here. 

Thank you for introducing me to Tladi. 

Leratorato Kuzwayo’s piece is legendary.  

Your team has outdone themselves once again. 

Kind regards
Rafieka