Blessing’s HIFA Diary - Day 4, Bedridden spirit, poetry & ZESA

May 1, 2010 by Blessing Musariri ·
Filed under: Entertainment, Arts & Culture

30 April Friday
Lion Lager day

“Life is just a shelter for the soul.” – Phillippa Yaa de Villiers - poet (HIFA 2010)

___

Today my body came to HIFA but my spirit stayed in bed. It caught up with me much later on, just before the Hot House Flowers show in the evening but by that time I could only persuade my body to stay only a little bit longer.

My day started off with Only Hope, a play at the Standard Theatre, which ironically enough began with a funeral scene, just like Hamlet did, in the same theatre two days ago. The dirge they sang was exactly the same as in Hamlet, but without the searing quality of the delivery, however, it fitted the scene. Deja-vu? I sat too close to the front and felt far too involved in the whole enterprise. I always prefer to be a little further away so as not to feel too captive an audience. However, there was some really good acting here.

Straight after that I went to 7 Arts to watch Ikapa Dance’s, The Stadium. The dancing was a fantastic showcase of skill and choreography but the music was not the best thing for a fatigued system. It possessed a consistent droning quality that invited too complete a relaxation. Needless to say I lost a few moments here and there when my eyes decided to rest themselves without either warning or permission. If I had to choose a body to be in though, it would be that of a dancer – lean, strong and flexible with balance and control, certainly more than enough for eyelids.

As I’ve said before, it’s not a day at HIFA if I don’t have lunch on the Green. I decided to change from my usual Mongolian barbarque selection and ended up entertaining an indifferent chicken curry in the company of two insipid rotis. Change is not always a good thing. I didn’t talk to anyone this time, made no new best friends. Maybe because my spirit was probably still only wandering around the house deciding what to have for brunch before taking a shower.

I made my way to the Hivos Spoken Word Cafe for the launch of Phillippa Yaa de Viller’s book, “The Everyday Wife” – a poetry collection. The place of my friends. It’s kind of like Cheers you know, the place where everybody knows your name. Today at the poetry cafe, it was better than good. Phillippa speaks her words with conviction and writes them with depth that always makes it personal for the reader (or listener). You understand where she’s coming from. All the performers put on their best hats for the spoken word session and it was magic. We were even graced by the esteemed presence of Oliver Mtukudzi, who joined one of his protégées (from Pakare Paye Arts Centre) up on stage for a poignant duet about war.

I joined up with Zubz and TJ and we had something to eat on the Green, checked out Haitian singer Emeline Michel on main stage – “a goddess of Creole music”. We found our way to Alexio’s show on the Global stage and in mimicry of the ZESA situation at home, the power went out towards the end of the performance (and came back a few minutes later) and we took that as our cue to continue wandering. In the main stage grounds during the Hot House Flowers concert I bumped into a new found friend who told me he was happy to see me with friends for a change because whenever he’s seen me I’m alone and he was starting to feel a little lonely for me. I laughed and made some flippant remark but what I didn’t tell him was that I am never lonely alone and at HIFA, even when you’re on your own, you’re never alone.

BTW ( always thought this meant between you and me, don’t know why) but BY THE WAY, our electricity finally came back and I hear even people in the kombi were clapping when they got to the intersection and saw the traffic lights back on. In our neighbourhood I know there was probably a resounding HURRAY from people who would have been outside setting up cooking fires. “These are the days of our lives.”

Tell the world: