Captain Smug - guitarist and singer

Captain Smug is a wanderer, a lovable scamp who tells broken stories from forgotten armchairs and vacant shoes.

Andre and Nathan Trantraal - comic book artists

We’ve always felt that it’s important to tell everyday stories. We tell stories about people whose stories are deemed unimportant the under class, the poor and the disaffected. The great majority of people in the world are poor. This is a recorded fact. How can their stories be deemed unimportant? Two painters whom we’ve always admired has been Georges Seurat and Johannes Vermeer in the way they portrayed every day scenes with such magnificence and splendor.

“Only in the arts is coming from a background of adversity a plus. Nothing makes a better yarn than adversity overcome,” – Nathan.

"Art levels the playing field. In art like in football, or any sports I suppose you will be judged on hard work and performance. Where you are from is irrelevant. It’s whether you can deliver or not that’s what matters. That’s why I love sports and that’s why I love art,”-Andre.

Ntombi Wonci - theatre performer

When the flowers bloom in spring that is when my mother’s womb decided to open wide on the September 19, 1989. Birth pangs strengthened her as I was sure of tapping my toes onto the stages of world. Waves moved silently at dawn in a capitalist world known as Plettenberg Bay as I danced to the green forests strengthening my young frail bones. They sent me to a dark forest with tall men in black suits and blue ties to lock my mind into mathematics as if that was not enough, to an alien language which twisted my tongue. Yes the little dark forest was Phakamisani Primary School and the bigger one Murray High school. I grew tall in those forests eating the fruits which they claimed will liberate me - it may have but still I believe it is the system that oppresses the beautiful craft of the masses. I then came to the land of fish’s madness and potato taste - referred to as chips to a wider forest. They call it UWC. Embarking and climbing the gigantic trees in it only to get a paper written in black and white - BA degree. Breathing into a pen and paper I found myself in a beautiful space called Reclaiming the P… Word which has not only opened my mouth but liberated my heart as theatre of the so called oppressed.
I thank my mother’s birth pangs, the waves, forests of a capitalist world, the madness city of fish and chips, the voices of the silenced women in Reclaiming the P…Word for in all these components I have grown to be more like a river, flowing endlessly and effortlessly, un-encumbered by the little impediments which come along the way.
What keeps me standing is the bleeding womb of mother earth for in it I have found liberation through spoken and unspoken words.

Olivia Coetzee - poet

29-year-old poet, artist and activist, Olivia Coetzee born in Mariental, Namibia, grew up in Northern Suburbs of Cape Town. The eldest daughter of August and Margriet Coetzee with three siblings finished, high school in 1999, where she entered the corporate world. Olivia turned her focus from school to work, with her writing taking the back seat but was introduced to Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way that took her into exploring her writing on a new level. Starting her poet’s journey in 2009, she has been published in Sparkling Women 1 and 2, Water-Cycles and Cyphers (anthology formed out of a workshop held by Winslow Schalkwyk) and Ugandan Sexuality reader (still to be released). Taking her work to stage has seen her perform in Johannesburg Constitutional Hill and having the opportunity to be a part of Badilisha Poetry Xchange Master classes, she performed at the Central Library on Africa Day 2010. She recently was asked to be a part of the cast of Reclaiming the P…Word a production by Mary Hames, which was at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival this year. This talented poet / performer will be using her gift to give back to her community. Read more of her work on her blog slamversusflow.blogspot.com

Kent Lingeveldt - photographer

Kent Lingeveldt is a photographer who's been snapping away casually for the past decade, but seriously considered the viewfinder as a means to tell his story a couple of months ago. He understands the importance of his surroundings on his general well-being as a person. He therefore captures them to remind himself that it's the simplest daily details in our lives that form the foundation of a happy existence. His photography philosophy has made his family, friends, city and home his favourite and much-preferred subjects.

Expression Session 3 - Thursday July 29

After a one-month break, Expression Session is back. Join us at Ragazzi, 33 Long Street, on Thursday July 29, at 7pm. This month we feature Ntombi Wonci, a young theatre performer who most recently took part in Reclaiming the P... Word at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, comic book artists Andre and Nathan Trantraal, musician and singer Pete O'Donoghue, poet Olivia Coetzee, who also starred in Reclaiming the P... Word and photographer Kent Lingeveldt. Our resident DJ, DJ Juice will be on the decks. Entry is R20 at the door. See you there!!