'When We Travel, Where Do We Settle' by Wezile Harmans. Photo: Lehlohonolo Ndlovu. (This article first appeared as a Johannesburg newsletter. Subscribe here.)
Atlas of Uncertainty
Date: Public Launch - 18 April 10:00 - 15:00, Exhibition ends 3 July
- Monday to Friday: 09:00 - 17:00
- Saturday and Public Holidays: - 09:00 - 16:00
Address: Origin Centre, Wits University, Yale Road &, 1 Enoch Sontonga Ave, Braamfontein
Tickets: Entrance free
Atlas of Uncertainty: Transforming African Cityscapes is a collaborative project bringing together more than 40 writers, cartographers, and visual artists engaging with African migration and urban transformation. Through art, music, essays, data, poetry and maps, it explores how people in fragmented and mobile urban environments – particularly in Accra, Nairobi, and Johannesburg – are shaping space and possibility. Spanning a book, exhibition and digital platform, the project challenges dominant narratives of African cities and instead foregrounds complexity, creativity, and relational agency in city making.
CURATOR'S CHOICE | Textile as Medium
Date: Monday to Friday 09:00 - 17:00, Saturday 09:00 - 13:00
Address: Everard Read, Rosebank, 6 Jellicoe Avenue
Tickets: Free
The latest edition of Curator’s Choice is an exhibition exploring textiles as both physical materials and conceptual frameworks within contemporary art. Historically relegated to the realms of craft or utility, textile-based practices have increasingly been reclaimed as a sophisticated vehicle for social, political, and personal narrative. Liza Grober, Blessing Ngobeni, Norman Catherine and Khanyisa Agnes Brancon move beyond the decorative, utilising fabric, weaving, and soft forms to challenge the boundaries of traditional medium-specific categories.
Manana – Mending Broken Hearts Tour
Date: 17 & 18 April 19:30, 19 April 15:00
Address: The Market Theatre, 138 Lillian Ngoyi St, Newtown
Tickets: R350 - R650 on Webtickets
Newly crowned Standard Bank Young Artist For Music, Manana presents his first-ever nationwide theatre tour! Spanning his entire career, from debut EP In the Beginning Was the End to 2025's OBHM: Full Stop. Tracing a powerful arc of love, loss and healing, the show features rare and intimate performances, some for the final time
Celestial Bodies
Date: 18 April 14:00, 19 April 15:30
Address: UJ Arts Centre, Cnr Kingsway Avenue and University Road, Auckland Park
Tickets: R200 on Quicket
Audiences will be captivated by the return of Mario Gaglione, Joburg Ballet’s associate choreographer, with this ground-breaking ballet created in partnership with the Universe on Stage. This production is an evocative and visually stunning exploration of cosmic themes, energy and movement. Set to an original score by Yasheen Modi, performing live on piano, narrated by astrophysicist, Dr Luca Pontiggia.
Siya Makuzeni
Date: 18 April, 18:30
Address: Jozi Gold Brewing Company, 81 De Korte St, Braamfontein
Tickets: R350 0n Quicket
Siya Makuzeni is an award-winning South African trombonist, vocalist, composer and producer, and the 2016 recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz. Known for her powerful stage presence and genre-defying sound, she seamlessly blends jazz, rock, and African musical traditions.
Sumthing Sumthing
Date: Wednesday and Thursday ~ 15:00 - 00:00; Friday and Saturday ~ noon - 02:00; Sunday ~ 11:00 - 22:00
Address: 32 7th Ave, , Parktown North
Tickets: Free
Offering music for the vinyl connoisseurs by top DJs, this listening bar in Parktown North is also open for a cool cosy vibe, wine and pizza throughout the week.
Nunu’s The Artist
Date: Open from 07:30-17:00 (kitchen closes at 16:00) - Monday to Sunday
Address: 167 Jan Smuts Road, Parktown North
Tickets: 082 926 8253.
Nunu's The Artist is a warm, family-run restaurant and creative space where art and dining meet. Set in a tranquil garden centre in Parktown North alongside the Nine Yards precinct, they serve uncomplicated, honest, flavourful Halaal meals alongside hands-on artistic experiences, inviting guests to relax, create and connect. For the cost of art experiences, ranging from pot to canvas painting, call 082 926 8253.
From pizza-making to painting, each visit is filled with connection, creativity, and memorable shared moments.
The Rocking Roses
Dates: 18 April 18:00 to midnight
Address: Pink Mamas Speak Easy, 49 Eastwood Road, Dunkeld
Tickets: R100 on Quicket
Another amazing, all talented, all woman line-up takes over the Speak Easy at Pink Mama’s! Featuring Lady Lea, Indigo, Tinkz, Plain Jane and Justine.
The Vault, Zoë Modiga Album Launch
Date: 23 April, 19:30
Address: The Market Theatre, 138 Lillian Ngoyi St
Tickets: R300 – R450 on Webtickets
The Vault is multi award winning Zoë Modiga's self-written and produced fourth album, characterised by an experimental, alternative-soul sonic landscape. It is a love-themed time machine with 20 years worth of unreleased music dating from 2007 to 2025, composed alongside some of the career-defining songs in her discography.
SA Fashion Week Spring/Summer
Date: 22 April, 23 - 25 April
Address: The Cirk, Cresta Shopping Centre, Cnr Beyers Naude Drive & Weltevreden Road,
VRtuosus - 5 Summit Road, Hyde Park,
Tickets: R375 on Quicket
After a year-long break, SA Fashion Week returns with shows from your favourite designers like Gert Johan Coetzee, Ephymol, Black Coffee, Naked Ape, House Of Ole, Helon Melon and Fundudzi among others.
Check the show schedules on www.safashionweek.co.za
Groove Biennale
Dates: 22 April – 29 April, 17:00 to midnight**
Address: Carfax , Newtown and Luxee Lounge, Maboneng, 39 Gwi Gwi Mrwebi St, Building 14 Staib St
Tickets: Free on Quicket
Presented by DORMANTYOUTH in collaboration with Pro Helvetia, the third edition of this music and architecture festival’s programming continues to celebrate alternative nightlife creative scenes that originate, find home, or grow in Johannesburg.
The festival promotes inclusivity in both identity and music genre, employing experimental inter-disciplinary design to engage the city's youth culture and nightlife.
FRIYAY GUEST ESSAY — Laurice Taitz-Buntman
Laurice Taitz-Buntman is publisher of the fabulous Johannesburg in Your Pocket city guide and she is an urbanist. In this essay, she goes deeper than anything I’ve read in getting under the skin of both Joburg and Cape Town. Her view that we must stop comparing and understanding both cities are intrinsic to South Africa is really persuasive and resonates with me. I’d love to hear your thoughts once you’ve read it. Here are some choice quotes.
“Cape Town is the dream; Johannesburg is the pulse.”
“One offers beauty that soothes; the other, a restlessness that makes things happen.”
“Between the mountain and mine dump, the country finds its truest self.”
Joburg ‘Person of the day’
/file/attachments/2991/nomshadotwala_649223.jpg "(Photo and text: Bridget Hilton-Barber)")
Nomshado Twala is a national treasure. Professionally known by her stage name Shado Twala, she’s a trailblazing figure in South African media, celebrated for a career spanning broadcasting, journalism, and arts advocacy. As a pioneering female voice in the 1980s, she built a massive following at stations like Bop Radio, Radio Metro and 702 Talk Radio. Twala also became a household name as a long-standing judge on SA’s Got Talent. Twala is also the chairperson of the Craft and Design Institute (CDI), a non-profit company with a mission to build a thriving creative economy. The CDI unlocks creativity, design and innovation to grow the South African economy - specifically by supporting creative entrepreneurs to do business better.
(This article first appeared as a Johannesburg newsletter. Subscribe here.)