The 2018
Women’s Humanity Arts Festival It is with pride and heartfelt thanks to women from all walks of life that Artscape hosts yet another Artscape Women’s Humanity Arts Festival this August to celebrate them and their relentless work encapsulated in the theme ‘A Spotlight on Cultural Diversity: Transformation and Healing Through the Arts’. The festival, which is celebrating its twelfth year, will run from 27 July to 18 August.
O
ver 60 years ago, more than 20 000 women of all
dedicated to both iconic women who led the struggle as
races marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria
well as modern-day sheroes. This includes celebrating,
to protest the pass laws and inhumane apartheid
through the arts, the centenary of Albertina Sisulu and
legislation. Discriminated against based on the
the dynamic Ruth First as well as modern day activists,
colour of their skin, the pass laws directly affected their
Lee-Ann van Rooi, Siphokazi Jonas and the late disabled
personal lives as well as their economic emancipation. Then
activist, Patience Lunika, who had her first fashion show
democracy dawned, and we identified iconic events that led
just last year at this very festival and whose contribution
to our emancipation from the shackles of apartheid. August
to women’s challenges we want to remember.
9, the historic day those women marched, was earmarked and
More than 24 years into our democracy, as South
declared a public holiday to be henceforth commemorated in
Africans we presumed that, given our civil liberties and Bill
honour of women’s struggle towards freedom. The day was to
of Rights, we would be completely and entirely free to live
be known as National Women’s Day.
our lives guided by our founding document, the Constitution
Thus, as part of Artscape Theatre Centre’s
of the Republic of South Africa. But we must stay abreast
commemoration of this struggle and in celebration of
of the new set of challenges that we, as the citizens of this
the strides we have made as a democratic society, the
fledgling democracy, face. Sexism remains rife. Women are
Artscape Women and Arts Humanity Festival will be
judged based on what they wear; lambasted for defying
56 / Creative Feel / July 2018
