SA: Meet 2022 Standard Bank Young Artists

The inductees comprise prolific vocalist Msaki, jazz musician Linda Sikhakhane, poet Koleka Putuma, visual artist Lady Skollie, ‘Theatre Duo’ Mahlatsi Mokgonyana and Billy Langa as well as choreographer Thami Majela.

Putuma’s first volume of poetry, Collective Amnesia, was published by uHlanga Press in 2017. This was followed by her self-published collection Hullo, Bu-Bye, Koko, Come In (2021). Putuma’s sense of her craft and role as a poet is informed by the wide-ranging legacy of various South African wordsmiths, including stage divas and literary greats.

Mokgonyana and Langa officially became ‘Theatre Duo’ some seven years ago, but the two have worked together since they met at the Market Theatre Laboratory, producing several works with Langa as the writer-performer and Mokgonyana as the director-dramaturg, including their landmark project Tswalo. Among other accolades, the play has won a Cape Town Fringe for Best Directing and Performance, a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival in 2018 and a Naledi Theatre Award in 2020. It has toured widely in South Africa and Europe.

Lady Skollie, born Laura Windvogel-Molifi, is a committed activist who tackles a range of subjects through her work, in particular the “forbidden fruit” at the intersection of lust, greed and power, and the deployment of sex as a weapon. Linked to this is her protest against gender-based violence, expressed in images that depict women as shackled, yearning to be free.

Msaki took South Africa by storm in 2019 when she featured on Prince Kaybee’s smash hit ‘Fetch Your Life’ which has garnered more than 10 million views on YouTube. In the same year, Msaki teamed up with DJ Black Coffee on ‘Wish You Were Here’ one of the tracks on the Grammy-winning album Subconsciously.

Bloemfontein-born Thami Majela has danced his way around the world, developing a distinctive repertoire that fuses classical ballet, contemporary dance and various African dance styles. Majela has worked with prominent South African dance practitioners like Dada Masilo and PJ Sabbagha. In 2015, he was selected by Pro Helvetia for a research residency in Switzerland. Majela’s first solo piece, A Last One in Colour, developed into an international collaboration with dancer-choreographer Manaho Shimokawa and filmmaker Axel Stasny. This spurred Majela into various short film projects Sub Zero, Layered Waves, Each Passing Minute, iNxeba and Lilith, Lucifer and Eve.

Having pursued a musical journey from Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal to New York City and back again, Sikhakane’s compositions and performances reflect a global jazz outlook that is firmly rooted in the local. His early mentors included Brian Thusi and Nduduzo Makhathini in South Africa and Billy Harper, Reggie Workman, David Schnitter and Charles Tolliver in the United States. Sikhakhane completed his undergraduate degree at the New School in New York after winning the SAMRO Overseas Scholarship. He is currently enrolled for a master’s degree at the Norwegian Academy of Music. But this saxophonist extraordinaire’s creative output has not been limited to his studies – he cut his teeth through long hours in the recording studio and on stage, working with a host of musical artists ranging from the late Sibongile Khumalo to Thandiswa Mazwai and Feya Faku to Marcus Wyatt.

"We congratulate and celebrate the achievements of the 2022 Standard Bank Young Artists. As we build towards the 2023 Festival the work these artists are creating will help define the mood and tone of our 2023 Festival and we look forward to working with them."

The event will take place from 22 June to 2 July 2023.

Previous recipients of the award include musicians like Johnny Clegg (1989) and Sibongile Khumalo (1993), and more recently Spoek Mathambo (2020), Sisonke Xonti (2020), Kyle Shepherd (2014), Nduduzo Makhathini (2015), Thandi Ntuli (2018) and Mandla Mlangeni (2019).