SUNDAY IN GUGS FOR SKAFTIEN /// WHAT IS SKAFTIEN?

I lived in jozi back in 1997-1999, on Yeo street in Yeoville. It was okay in those days. I moved to Cape Town in 1999. After eight years in CT I moved back to Jozi in 2007 for a number of reasons, one of the less important reasons for moving there was that i was tired of that village vibe around cape town city dwellers, wherever you go you always see the same people, maybe Cape Town is as clique-y as they say, maybe i was just part of a clique. Anyway, fast forward 4 years and now i love our village, familiar faces are have become one of my favorite things about Cape town, maybe i'm getting older and i'm feeling a deeper connection to the familiar, fuck knows. but it's kinda nice knowing that whenever i go to events i find interesting i am guaranteed to see some familiar friendly faces. So when Evan (one of the Skaftien organizers) told us that the first Cape Town Skaftien would be held in Gugulethu, I understood the excitement when a friend with a very politically incorrect sense of humor jumped up and yelled "Yeah, i haven't been on a group safari in a while", and then i judged him for exoticising Gugs. Since we all see the same faces all the time anyway, it's kind of nice to see each other outside the usual bars and galleries. Okay I'm rambling pointlessly as usual, back to Skaftien: The website describes Skaftien as "a recurring community-based meal that generates and democratically awards micro-grants for creative and innovative projects in Johannesburg and Cape Town". Basically skat, you by a ticket for R60, the ticket guarantees you a meal and entertainment (musicians, dancers, etc.) and it also doubles as a ballot . You also get to listen five proposals and at the end use your ticket to vote for one or two of the proposals. All the money collected then goes to the winning proposal. It is in my view a brilliant initiative, where the creative community is given the opportunity to use its own resources to help build itself. so please do visit their website to check out what they're about and to find out when the next one is happening.