AKA KELZZ
AKA KELZZ born and raised in the UK but now resides in Berlin provides a nurturing and caressing vibe that is smooth and confronting and that lets people feel what I feel with my creation. Basslines and Drums which give you a hug, dominating voice from the words, it makes you listen. When you look at me and when you hear, you don’t assume it will match I’m very simple but words do the work.
SIMBA CI
Simba CI is a versatile musician who is a singer song writer plays a variety of instruments including the guitar, a bit of keys, Marimba and djembe drum , which results in an African influenced soul blend of music. Simba CI strives to change the face of African music by taking its audience on a journey to a music era of soul, art, live instruments, passion and love.he aims to capture the hearts of his audiences and music industry with a soul blend of live contemporary and indigenous African instruments which he dubbed “African Street-Motown”.
TIARA MATONDA
Tiara Matonda is a Zimbwabean artist passionate about creating soothing and aesthetically pleasing content. Growing up as a neurodivergent with ADHD and dyslexia, Tiara found a way to create art in ways that stimulated the brain and used it as an expression of emotion. She channelled her art as a tool to aid with her mental health. She now shares this art through 'paint with me' live stream videos with the goal of giving comfort and relieve stress for her audience. Outside of graphic art and poetry, Tiara professionally works as a Copywriter, Brand Strategist and Concept Developer.
TANATSEI GAMBURA
Tanatsei Gambura (she/they) is a poet, new-genres artist, and cultural practitioner engaged in translocal research and fieldwork-based activities. She draws from lived experience, contemplating land, indigeneity, and contemporary culture on colonised sites. Through an autoethnographic approach, Tanatsei considers the dichotomy of forgetting and remembering as a productive space in which violence and trauma can be understood. In the studio, she is intrigued by the collusion between different ideas, materials and forms. She works across installation, digital media, moving image, sound, text, and social practice.
TAONA NYANDORO
A Zimbabwean sound-artist with a current focus on music productions that lean towards a playful yet intentionally cadenced structure for experimental musical projects as well as for sound design.As a result, there is an active effort by Taona to communicate soundscapes as ideas via learning programming environments for more multi-discipline experimentation into sound and visual art e.g using the values from a horizontal tilting of a phone to control which parts of a musical composition come into focus for the subject. This is in order to be able to create more potential installations in a collaborative effort with curious people in different industries also trying to connect ANYTHING interesting with sound and tangible spaces. An Oreo fanatic as well.
NONTSIKELELO MUTITI
Nontsikelelo Mutiti (she/her) is a Zimbabwean born visual artist and educator. She is invested in elevating the work and practices of Black peoples past, present and future through a conceptual approach to design, experimental publishing and archiving practices and peer to peer collaborations. Mutiti holds a diploma in multimedia art from the Zimbabwe Institute of Digital Arts, and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, with a concentration in graphic design. Mutiti is currently Assistant Professor in Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is also artistic director for Black Chalk & Co. a platform for archiving and publishing practices that curates cultural events and fosters collaborative projects with peers located in Harare, Johannesburg, New York, Richmond and other international centers.
WACERA KAMONJI
Wacera Kamonji (she/her) is an Edinburgh-based theatre and film graduate and creative cultural practitioner. She has worked in various roles within festivals and grassroots organisations from sales and marketing to curating programmes for film exhibitions. She hopes to develop her work in film and art curation as well as performance-based work. Through collaborations with organisations and artists, she creates space for BIPOC and economically disadvantaged people to apply for roles, and receive training and education. Wacera’s mission is to encourage diversity within the creative industry.
TANAKA CHIDORA
Tanaka Chidora is a literary scholar with a PhD in Literature from the University of the Free State in South Africa (2018). He taught at the University of Zimbabwe in the Department of English from 2014 to May, 2021 before joining Goethe University as a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow researching on violence, memory and literature in Zimbabwe. Additionally, Chidora is a published poet and short story writer whose first poetry collection, Because Sadness is Beautiful? (2019) was published in Zimbabwe by Mwanaka Media and Publishing. He has also finished working on his first novel.
WANDY
Wandy is an Angolan photographer and architectural designer whose work engages with issues of agency, autonomy, and place. As a photographer, Wandy creates images that honor the art of emotional processing. Through portraiture, she creates conceptual photographs often set in natural landscapes to help tell the stories of what it means to be human. Wandy is currently based in Boston, USA, and in her spare time can be found searching for the nearest body of water that reminds her of home.
T R V Λ N I Λ
T R V Λ N I Λ is a multilingual Haitian poet, performer and social worker, currently based in Berlin. Her connection to writing helps her give a voice to her inner-chaos as well as reflect on the societies she finds herself in while navigating ideas of identity and vulnerability. She is also a co-founder of Poet & Prophetess, a collective seeking to promote and create a platform for writers/artists of color.
SIMBA MAFUNDIKWA
I was born in New York City to a Guadeloupean mother and Zimbabwean father, the latter country being where I grew up. It is in Zimbabwe that my love for architecture, design and photography was conceived and incubated. Upon my return to New York, I was exposed to an abundance of inspiration and began expressing my creativity everyday.
My identity and multi cultures inspire me on a daily basis. I am curious about the world around me and love capturing what I see from a unique perspective.
With photography I enjoy documenting the built environment and look for the essence of my subjects. When photographing people, my eye naturally blends them with their environment and in some cases, the environment is a character in their story.
ZEN JEFFERSON
Zen Jefferson (he/they) is a Black & Queer multinational dancer / performer, DJ & NY Bessie nominated sound collage artist based in Berlin. Zen's collaborations and practice examine the intersections of cultural and spiritual expansion within performance and ritual - exploring themes of intimacy, race, community & sound as a transformative vessel for connection and healing.
FTL COLLECTIVE
“We are always experimenting and searching for that 'perfect' set that will take not only us but our audience on a journey while narrating the experience through the music.In addition, we are an open collective for other black/brown DJs to learn and play. Check out our alternative City Walks series as we share a different perspective on each city with music that reflects our voice as BIPOC DJs.”
You can reach out to FTL Collective on weareftlcollective@gmail.com
WONAI HARUPERI
“I am a 27 year old, female documentary and portrait photographer living and working in Harare, Zimbabwe. Growing up in a society rich in color and culture I developed a love for storytelling and doing so visually. My photography focuses on individual and collective narratives and that they bring to light about society. In 2020, I founded @Unpublished_ZW, a collaborative space for photographers that acts as a window into local Zimbabwe showcasing both the stories and storytellers through social media and group exhibitions. In August 2021 I had the honor of receiving the Mpalume Mentorship Award from the Zimbabwe Association of Female Photographers (ZAFP) in collaboration with Pro Helvetia Johannesburg. The mentorship culminated in a photo story aimed at raising awareness for hearing loss in Zimbabwe titled Something Gained.”
TICHAONA KUFAMAZUVA
Tichaona Kufamazuva grew up immersed in the Shona traditions. He learned about mbira music and he would like to keep this knowledge alive. He wants to part the history of mbira and how one can learn to play this ancient instrument in our times.
MÉDINE TIDOU
Médine Tidou is a French-Ivorian photographer and Marketing Manager based in Berlin. Specialized in Documentary and Conceptual photography, the subject matter of Médine’s photographs oscillates between questions of non-binary or gender identity, sexual, cultural and social inequities reshaped as figures of empowerment. The photographer recently opened a space for photographers with a photo studio and a gallery in Berlin Neukölln @studio_galerie_kong . KONG’s goal is to support photographers at each step of their creative process, from shooting, editing to exhibition of their works, through regular group exhibitions. . After a series of successful exhibitions in France and Germany, in places such as @calliesberlin with @isusu_ffena and @galerie_im_saalbau in Berlin, Médine won in 2022 the 3rd Award of the Berlin Neuköllner Art Prize 2022. Since July 2022, Médine is exhibiting her documentary photography works with the series “Funfairs are not for kids” at the European Parliament in London @euinuk, represented by @12_star_gallery as part of the group exhibition “No one is left behind”. Simultaneously her series “Fallen Figures'' is been shown in a solo show at the former Werkstatt der Kulturen in Berlin, renamed as @oyounberlin .