Balance Me...

Davishmar Hicks is a true renaissance man. His song “A Rose Blooms In Chaos” is one of my favorites. One of my favourite things about this episode is the cadence with which we speak about his music career, his boxing ambitions, and his connection to Ghana. Check out his song on Spotify here. https://open.spotify.com/album/2fA2j3NA7draH5CGrBeNiD

Richard Mudariki is the founder of artHARARE Contemporary Art Fair. As respected visual artist in his own right, Mudariki trained as an Archaeologist but studied painting part time at Gallery Delta in Harare under the mentorship of the late renowned artist Helen Leiros. He lives and works between Harare and Cape Town. Mudariki's creative career spans over 20 years. During that period he has held six solo exhibitions and participated in numerous international, contemporary art exhibitions in London, Paris, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Harare, Milan and New York. His work is held in both public and private collections around the world.

Rachel Nyaradzo Adams. Named one of the 100 Young Influential Africans of 2019 she is driven by her commitment to empower leaders towards courageous and authentic leadership. She believes that Africa will only get the future it deserves if leaders can access their highest courage and most authentic power. She is the founder of Narachi Leadership where she merges tools from neuroscience, psychology and ontology to give clients a holistic opportunity for theirs and their followers continued development. In this work she offers her expertise as a facilitator, ontological coach, advisory partner and speaker. She works with corporates, entrepreneurs, teams and individuals. Rachel has received numerous awards for leadership and academic excellence including: the Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship; the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship; the Mellon Mays Leadership and Service Award; the Mellon Mays Scholarship and the Felix Scholarship.

Boris Akeem is an illustrator, treating topics around Pan-Africanism, women and beauty. Born in Ivory Coast, he has been living abroad in several countries due to his father's position in the United Nations. He completed his schooling in socio-economics, has a BA in fine arts and a MA in graphic art. He currently resides and works in Italy. Since 2014 he has been exhibiting works at several shows yearly, the most recent being at Soho House in Rome in December of 2021, and the Dakar Biennale in May of 2022. As an Art teacher and predominately freelance artist, he is currently designing a course for creatives starting in April of 2022. Music Courtesy of Ernesto Djédjé ℗ 2000 Badmos International | All Rights Reserved

Abdellah Taïa was born in Rabat , Morocco, in 1973. In a very modest big family. He is the first Arab writer/filmmaker to publicly declare his homosexuality. He is the author of nine novels written in French and translated into many languages, including "Salvation Army" (2006), "An Arab Melancholia" (2008), "Infidels" (2012), "Celui qui est digne d'être aimé" (2017), "La vie lente" (2019). His novel “Le jour du Roi" was awarded the prestigious French Prix de Flore in 2010. His novels were shortlisted many times for the prestigious French literary prizes: le Prix Goncourt, le Prix Renaudot and le Prix Médicis. "Salvation Army", his first movie as a director, is adapted from his eponymous novel. The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival 2013, TIFF 2013, New Directors 2014, Rotterdam Film Festival 2014, and won many international prizes, including The Grand Prix in Angers Film Festival 2014. His novel "A country for dying", published in France in 2015, translated into English (USA) by Seven Stories Press in 2020, recently won the prestigious Pen America Literary Award 2021.

Abdellah Taïa was born in Rabat , Morocco, in 1973. In a very modest big family. He is the first Arab writer/filmmaker to publicly declare his homosexuality. He is the author of nine novels written in French and translated into many languages, including "Salvation Army" (2006), "An Arab Melancholia" (2008), "Infidels" (2012), "Celui qui est digne d'être aimé" (2017), "La vie lente" (2019). His novel “Le jour du Roi" was awarded the prestigious French Prix de Flore in 2010. His novels were shortlisted many times for the prestigious French literary prizes: le Prix Goncourt, le Prix Renaudot and le Prix Médicis. "Salvation Army", his first movie as a director, is adapted from his eponymous novel. The film was selected for the Venice Film Festival 2013, TIFF 2013, New Directors 2014, Rotterdam Film Festival 2014, and won many international prizes, including The Grand Prix in Angers Film Festival 2014. His novel "A country for dying", published in France in 2015,  translated into English  (USA) by Seven Stories Press in 2020, recently won the prestigious Pen America Literary Award 2021.

Today’s guest is American-Born Simba Mafundikwa was raised by a Zimbabwean father and Guadeloupean mother in his father’s home country. Simba is soft spoken, intelligent, and passionate about his work and heritage. In this episode, we sit down to talk about photography, architecture, growing up in a diasporic environment, and different expressions of self, of body, and of home.

This episode is filled with laughter. Dora Mugerwa brought her phenomenal and inspiring voice & virtual presence to the podcast today, in discussion of her art mediums, the feeling of diaspora, exploring one's own practice in and outside of the institution and more.  Dora Mugerwa is a multidisciplinary Ugandan artist, who was born and raised in Sweden, whose creative process and perspective stems from her multicultural experience, with the aim to foster and promote different modes of living, thinking, learning, and making.

James Baldwin wrote that “an identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience”. Today’s guest has been treading the path on the road to identity for a long time. Dr. Soumahoro is an French-born writer and professor, currently working an associate professor in the English department of the University of Tours, France, her alma mater. One of my personal favourite authors and diasporans, Soumahoro’s book Le Triangle et L’Hexagon or The Triangle and the Hexagon is an homage to black identity, woven with historical knowledge, as well as personal experience, Soumahoro dives deep into what it means to be black, to be a diasporan, to speak a mother tongue that is not your mother’s tongue and above all to excavate an identity that is true to oneself - in all one’s multitudes.

 In this week's episode we are joined in voice and spirit by the trailblazing Zimbabwean curator Mr. Raphael Chikukwa. We discuss the Zimbabwean and African art scenes, what changes need to be made for us as Africans to recognise and invest in our own art ecosystems, and more. Listen in now!

In this episode, I’m joined by a good friend - Megan Banda who hails from the “warm heart of Africa”. We talk about grounding, about ancestry, weaving histories in fabric, and the complexities of connection. Tune in to an incredible artist and thinker, Megan’s episode is not to be missed.

In the inaugural episode of the Balance Me... podcast, host Tinashe and her mother, Dr. Nozipo Maraire discuss the notion of the mother tongue, and talk about indigenous African language loss and revitalisation. Joined by many voices from across the globe in celebration of their mother tongues, we embark on a journey through the soundscapes of the languages we must preserve and help to thrive.