Thanks to these incredible young people, our concert was a roaring success! What an incredibly magical bunch of people. We are all massively thankful for the entire community coming together to make this day possible.
Human Rights Day was celebrated at Generations, Imhoff School and showcased some incredible local artistic talent, from local musicians, Comedian and Journalist: Marianne Thamm, visual artists from the Kunye Art Foundation The Peter Clarke Art Centre and Masi Creative hub, TEARS Animal Rescue Centre and the One Kennel at a Time animal feeding scheme. The collaboration was able to bring an incredible day to life through song, dance, colour and love. The Ocean View Library even hosted a clay workshop for the children.
It truly was a beautiful day of community love, sharing and celebration.
Cape Flats Wellness Centre Facebook Page
It was incredible to see what the Cape Flats Wellness Centre, along with Kathy Eggers and David Greenwood have been able to accomplish with these beautiful children, who have at such a tender age, already experienced real hardship and adversity.
Their voices truly shone through and warmed the hearts of everyone at the fair.
I posted about the rehearsal last week (I joined the party a bit late so I only got to have one but the children and volunteers were great at helping me along when I got stuck).
One little girl really stood out to me though. I was guiding the children through Pink and Willow Sage Heart's: Cover Me in Sunshine, and the little girls in the front of the choir were supposed to help me sing lead and then take over for the final verse. Most of the girls were super enthusiastic and got really excited when we made up some moves together to help us remember the words. This little girl wasn't singing though and when I asked the girls their names, she tenderly touched her necklace and just stared at me. I decided not to push her and gently moved on to the other children, but while we were rehearsing, I made sure to keep making eye contact with her and giving her encouraging smiles. I went home with a full heart, but I kept thinking about her all week. I took a little special keyring that my own kids had given me for Christmas, a smiling flower that looked like sunshine, and attached it to my necklace to give to her at the show. I was really hoping I hadn't scared her away and that she'd actually come. When I showed up in the music room, I was talking to one of the volunteers when I was blinded by an enormous hug from a tiny person. And there she was. BEAMING with smiles. Her Mom told me she'd been talking about me all week and playing Cover Me In Sunshine on repeat so she could be really good at it on the day. Of course, I cried a little but quickly gathered myself to say thank you and I asked her if she was ready to tell me her name and she did! And I got another hug. At the end of the show, I gave her my little keyring as a reminder that even on the stormiest days, eventually, the sun will come shining through.
I would like to say special thanks, on behalf of the organisers as well as personally, to the following people for making this precious day possible:
- Aslam and his Wife Nishaat Richards who run The Cape Flats Wellness Centre in partnership with Generations School, Imhoff
- Musicians: David Greenwood, Andre Tiltman (guitar), Derek Craig (drums), Claire Mobey (vocals)
- Volunteers: Charles and company
- Assistants: ZoΓ« Martins (violin assistant teacher) and David Greenwood
- Generation School Imhoff (Brett Garner - principal) for facilities
Platform to perform: event director - Susan Proctor Humes - vision 24
Sponsors: - Generation School Imhoff
- Kevin Cook for the violin donations
- Kathleen Eggers Music Studio for violin donations and mic set up with electric violin and guitar
- Mike Irwin from sky sun music for violins and accessories
- Andre du Toit for violin repairs
- Latest donation; a violin from Fabian Hartzenberg from the Peter Clarke Art Centre
- Jens Eggers for the power bank and parrot board and some stationary items
- Flipside design updates to website
- Maxine Bekker owner of Bring the Morning Clothing Line for the financial support for food on the day for the kids
- Sound on the day: David and AndrΓ©
- Ricardo from Generation school for assisting with set up
and of course, My precious family, @zakludick @aimeludick @merenludick and @matthew-williams who opened their hearts and voices and joined in! Thanks as always for filming, Zak!
Here are the four songs that we performed!
The South African National Anthem, Nkosi Sikelel Iafrika opened the performance! It was so lovely to see how many kids actually knew the words! It's a tough one even for the grownups considering it's comprised of five our nine official languages: isiXhosa (first stanza, first two lines), isiZulu (first stanza, last two lines), seSotho (second stanza), Afrikaans (third stanza) and English (final stanza).
P!nk and Willow Sage Heart's Cover Me in Sunshine: Where I got to lead the choir (Which I have NEVER done before). What a privilege and an experience I'll never forget.
Thunder/Four Chord/ Defining Moment/ Ocean View Medley by Kevin Smuts (Composer of the Octopus Teacher Soundtrack)
*Hall of Fame- The Script: Delivered a powerful message that the kids are in control of their future and they can build whatever they want for themselves: which is the whole purpose of the Cape Flats Wellness Centre's upliftment program *
Love Will Be My Rebellion - By David Greenwood, shares a message that love wins over everything and that our greatest power lies in how much love and healing we can spread in this world.
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