Bare Stories: Inaugural Bare in Conversation event with Sir Professor Zanele Muholi
Event 29 August 2019
Event photograph from ‘Bare in Conversation with Sir Professor Zanele Muholi’, Session 1 of the ‘Bare Stories’ series hosted on A4’s ground floor. At the back, Muholi’s framed photograph ‘Martin Machapa’ is mounted on the white wall. In the middle, visual activist Zanele Muholi and Welcome Lishivha sit in conversation. At the front, attendees are seated.
Event: Bare Stories’ inaugural Bare in Conversation event with Sir Professor Zanele Muholi, August 29, 2019. Image courtesy of A4 Arts Foundation.
Title Bare Stories: Inaugural Bare in Conversation event with Sir Professor Zanele Muholi Dates 29 August 2019 Location Ground Floor Tagline A series of public talks. Credits

Facilitator:
Kgosi Motsoane

Established in Johannesburg, Bare Stories is a platform for the queer community to air censored narratives. 

Sir Professor Zanele Muholi speaks at the inaugural Bare in Conversation held at A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town:

I have to say that it is very important for us to think of black persons, black queerness and also black excellence. When we talk about ‘lack of anything’, it speaks against the majority. I want to be clear that I speak Zulu, and most of my work is made in Zulu. I always think to myself that it feels wrong to speak about queerness in a foreign language that is not about the people that it speaks for. Here, in Cape Town, the majority language is Afrikaans and Xhosa, and people speak Afrikaans and Xhosa before they become English speakers. We are forced to speak in English, and this is where we go wrong with our kind because it seems like it is ‘un-African’ to be queer. So I say to all those scholars and theorists who are so fascinated by LGBTIQ blacks in the townships: we are the most studied people, but we are not educated, because of the historical problems of the past that remain today. I think of all those LBTQI black children who are expelled from school and who have no access to higher education.
– Sir Professor Zanele Muholi, in a transcription taken from a recording of the event

A series of talks, events and an online platform will be home to the stories of the LGBTIQ community.

Ephemera from ‘Bare in Conversation with Sir Professor Zanele Muholi’, Session 1 of the ‘Bare Stories’ series hosted on A4’s ground floor. A photograph shows two individuals looking at the camera.
Image courtesy of Ayanda Nino.
Event photograph from ‘Bare in Conversation with Sir Professor Zanele Muholi’, Session 1 of the ‘Bare Stories’ series hosted on A4’s ground floor. A closeup view depicts visual activist Zanele Muholi and Welcome Lishivha in conversation.
Event photograph from ‘Bare in Conversation with Sir Professor Zanele Muholi’, Session 1 of the ‘Bare Stories’ series hosted on A4’s ground floor that depicts seated attendees.
Event photograph from ‘Bare in Conversation with Sir Professor Zanele Muholi’, Session 1 of the ‘Bare Stories’ series hosted on A4’s ground floor that depicts attendees seated and standing.
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