“I’m lovely and lonely and belong deeply to myself”. All hail Queen Warsan Shire. Let’s break this down really quickly. Lovely: is one of my favourite words, it’s pure and unambiguous. Lonely: some people think that alone means lonely. I am not some people. My name is Ntoetse Lerotholi and I believe in community, I Belong. I’m also one of the most social “loners” you’ll … Continue reading I’m Lovely not Lonely & Belong, deeply
A heartbroken human is a raw human. You get to confront all of the stuff you usually swat away. You learn the depths of your sorrow, the cost of your loss and the limits of your crazy. And hopefully you treat this raw exposed nerve version of yourself with grace and without judgement.
We’re all living through a pandeminc and we’ve all had our hearts broken.
Music is the connective tissue that holds our memories suspended in time. We all hold a library of music and memories within us. If you trace the albums that define your moments across a lifetime, you’ll have a time capsule. This exercise is part Trip Down Memory Lane, part Artist Spotlight (full-time absurdly abstract). Enjoy!
I’m so proud to be part of a generation of women who are coming for everything. We sit on the shoulders of the many women who came before us. While the views have improved, we’re also constantly ducking the glass shards that are almost constantly falling from the ceilings we continue to shatter.
Puleng Mongale is an accidental visual artist. Nothing about her talent is, but today we’re going to trace how this Sotho girl from Orlando East found her way from teenage award-winning poet and thrice failed blogger (4th time’s the charm) to a visual artist who has found a new way to mix media in her soulful collages that feature her but centre something much bigger.
Sticky Post
Alternate title: “I have other talents” a meditation on fear and failure.
I’m a dreamer, a scientist and an artist. An optimist and a realist. I believe in the life-affirming power of contradictions and fear.
The word Diaspora is an acknowledgement of the nature of our relationship. That though we are scattered across the globe, we share common blood and ancestry. The nurture part seems to always get in the way of our reconciliation efforts however: this is the unusual story about how Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther helped me bridge this gap.
Post call is a strange time. I’m excited about going home to bond with my pillow but I’m just lucid and loopy enough to have philosophical and emotional breakthroughs. “Somewhere between psychotic and iconic”. This is the sequel to Science and Faith.
As we walk this journey together, I think some things are pretty clear (particularly because it’s my 40th post!): I’m passionate about friendship and I enjoy giving people their roses while they’re still around to smell them.
Collaborative Eavesdropping 