MACUFE TALKSHOP – Simply Tantalising!

By Matshidiso Taleng

Dateline, 06/10//2015. MACUFE in the heart of Mangaung… The talk shop with the two mega stars Napo Masheane and Lebo Mashile was very tantalising, Napo touched bases when she was answering a question from one of the audience; that art is spiritual and that one starts by visualising that one wants to write about before writing them.

Napo and Lebo connected very well with the audience, making sure they answer each and everyone who asked a question and made sure that they were satisfied with the answers, they were very patient with every question. To touch a little on what Lebo said.. She talked about how we as artists need to work hard and letting us know that it wasn't easy for her to get where she is today, it took a lot of hard work and dedication, that we should always try to be innovative and produce our own work, tell our own stories.

I learned a lot from the truly gifted, hardworking business women, what amazed me most about them was that they're well known in the country and global but they're still as humble, this teaches us not to be selfish and to stop thinking about who's better than who in this industry, this is not a competition and we should learn to run our own raise, we'd sometimes find at some point that you're a more of a better writer than the other person who's also in the same field as you but yet they're the ones that are getting more recognition than you are just because they know all the right people in the right places

That whole thing is just going to shift your mind from what you really want, we should stop chasing fame, we should start thinking about what we want to write about and for who and how is it going to be relevant to the next person, if It'll have a positive impact on another person or your audience rather,  leaving a legacy first, touch souls and heal the wounded.. then the rest will follow, because I believe that

If we start loving what we do and putting much time and effort to it then we wouldn't be struggling to benefit from it. We don't need to go to other towns in order to get recognised or achieve our goals or live our dreams and making a living from it, we should first be united as artists; not look down on other artists, do collaborations with each other, share ideas with each other, our egos and arrogance are not going to get us anywhere except for sitting at corners, complaining about how we're not been taken seriously and talking bad about those who have made it.

Let's stop competing and work together, yes competitions are good sometimes but only if it’s to build artists and not break them, I personally don't like competitions, especially if it’s about your work as an artist I believe that your work should speak for itself whether it’s good enough to be nominated as the best craft of the year or something, some competitions leave artists broken and feeling like they're not good enough and never wanting anything to do with writing anymore, it’s time we stop looking for greatness outside but rather within ourselves.

I would like to thank the JAHROSE PRODUCTION for putting together such a great talk shop, it was inspiring and got us wanting to push and work harder in bettering our craft, we really need such talk shops around from time to time.