Cape Town

Cape Town musician Zolani Mahola invites local artists, Yo-Yo Ma, and community members to the backyard of a family home in Langa, the oldest black township in the Western Cape, for an evening of personal stories that touch on gender and identity, joy and pain, and together imagine a shared future in post-Apartheid South Africa. By invitation only.

Yo-Yo Ma joins scientists, artists, and community members working to protect the unique biodiversity of the “great African sea forest” at the Cape of Good Hope, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans come together. A morning of music and conversation honors the location’s exceptional biodiversity and millennia of human creativity. In partnership with Sea Change and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). By invitation only.

In anticipation of the anniversaries of the declaration of District Six as a “whites only” area under Apartheid (11 February 1966) and of the late President Nelson Mandela’s release from prison (11 February 1990), Yo-Yo Ma joins local musicians, including Ncebakazi Mnukwana and members of the Bloemhof Crusaders Christmas Choir, for a procession from the District Six Museum Homecoming Centre to the Mandela Balcony at City Hall. The walk honors the pain of displacement, commemorates centuries of struggle against oppression, and celebrates the extraordinary cultural traditions that have evolved from and shaped Cape Town’s layered history. Above all, it is an act of hope for an equal and diverse society. In partnership with District Six Museum. Free and open to the public.

Part of The Rolex Conversations: The Arts in Times of Polarization

Multi-award-winning playwright Lara Foot, visionary film director and poet Annemarie Jacir, acclaimed author Wole Soyinka, and Yo-Yo Ma join Professor Homi K. Bhabha for this reflection on the power of the arts to overcome geographical division and political polarization.