Street art for the benefit of locals!

Last days have went so fast by adjusting to the new working structure, Mondays and Tuesdays with the children and rest of the week planning painting workshop space and learning local street art culture. I also produced an article for the Finnish youth web magazine about the public space in Cape Town and how street art fits to the picture on producing functional and safe spaces in urban realm!

Woodstock, gallery.

Now I have been two weeks in Lotus River, paintings done and soccer played, I also attended to a  nation building lessons on Monday, where I introduced myself to over 70 kids. Did you know that  South Africa has 11 national languages? 

During this time I have learned a lot of the local culture of the kids in Lotus River. I got a chance to do six interviews about their everyday movement in the city, favourite spaces and places and their feelings of safety and trust. It was interesting to find out how the most popular places for the kids to feel safe are shops, like supermarkets and restaurants. Church is also one important place to feel safe besides home. Kids don't trust many people, family is the most important, then comes doctors and teachers. 

Yesterday I visited first time in Khayelitsha, second largest township of whole South Africa. It has 3 million residents including very different neighborhoods, 54 primary schools and one college. Almost 90% of the local kids go to school but the problem is the lack of proper equipment and school materials compared to the schools in the other areas of Cape Town.

I can honestly say that the first impression was warm and welcoming, neighbourhoods in Khayelitsha seem to a have strong feeling of community. I did a bicycle tour, visited local coffee shop Sikis Koffee Kafe and the most famous bakery, Spinach King shop. Company tries to bring healthy food and vegetables more accecible for everyone no matter of socio-economic background.

Khayelitsha, Ilitha Park

There is a lot communal organic gardens in Khayelitsha. I visited 2 of them and below is a picture of the largest garden which organises also teachings of gardening for the locals since 1989. Biggest problems in the garden are snails, white butterflies and bats, where you need organic tricks to keep them away.

Today I also attended to the street art tour of my internship company in Woodstock and learned a lot of the history of the neighbourhood as well as the background stories of the murals on the streets. Woodstock is currently under a strong gentrification process: prices are rising and tourists are starting to find the area. Increasingly real estate firms are interested of the land and try to make deals with the locals to buy their houses to demolish them and rebuilt bigger ones on the same place. Locals, people who have lived in Woodstock for decades, are actually the poorest ones in the neighbourhood and easily take the deals of the houses since they can't afford for the living prices in the neighbourhood.  

This is where the street art comes to the picture: actually, by painting the houses of the locals, besides just gentrifying the neighbourhood, it also raises the value of the authentic Woodstock with its colourful local housing. I will also do some effort for this purpose, next week I will start to paint my two murals in Woodstock! I hope the weathers would be merciful during those days. :-)

This mural is in Khayelitsha, representing a South African woman. If you take a good look, you can recognise under the mountains also urban landscape, the townships.