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From all of us at Ulwazi, we wish you a pleasant and peaceful Heritage Day!   For those of you in Durban and looking for something to do, there is an interesting event on at the Green Hub.

The Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal) and Poetry Africa will present a special Heritage Day programme as part of the 100 000 Poets for Change project. This bold endeavour, initiated by Californian poets Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carriòn, will see worldwide poetic action on September 24th, in 500 cities in 93 countries across the planet. The project invites poets and poetry organisations everywhere to compile their own programmes around social, environmental, and political change.

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The eThekwini Living Legends awards ceremony took place last night at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre. Twenty-two residents of eThekwini were honored for the contribution they have made to their communities. Both locally and abroad, their sustained and extraordinary contributions have made an impact in various categories from music, sport, science, business, social work, education and more. They have, in their own way, helped to provide others with a sense of identity and continuity and have promoted respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. They have achieved greatness through their practices, knowledge and skills, and by their expressions have contributed to our city’s rich intangible heritage.

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 By: Themba Khumalo

The Bat centre is now sporting a new look thanks to nine volunteer artists from Durban along with the help of a renowned German artist. The eThekwini Municipality and the BAT Centre officially unveiled the new BAT Mural recently, which has been completed as a project between the Sister Cities of Bremen and Durban. City’s Head of International and Governance Relations Eric Apelgren said “Contact between these cities is particularly strong with co-operation ranging from sport, eco-tourism, climate change and arts and culture, amongst others. This year also marks the 17th anniversary of the existence of the BAT Centre so a project was developed to give the BAT a new and fresh face” he said.

He said arts and culture are tools that bring people together: “The idea of the mural was to allow people from different cultures to work together to develop common symbols representing what BAT stands for.”

Mural artist Edeltraut Rath from German’s city of Bremen spent a month in Durban working with 9 artists from the BAT centre. She said symbols, icons, patterns, emblems and letters to depict the activities of the BAT Centre were used to create the mural.

“The artists created and used stencils so that the artworks merged with no art style dominating another. The Zulu symbols merge with other signs in a modern artistic style. The artists worked with a limited palette: blue black, magenta, pink, sky blue, orange, and turquoise making the facade a bright, vibrant and informative new addition to the port of Durban’s skyline” said Edeltraut .

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