Book Cafe Pop-up shows us what we have been missing

Book Cafe made a cosy shack out of Chez Zandi this past Monday when it hosted a pop-up show at Chez Zandi, Alliance Francaise in Harare.

The main act performing was the Afro-punk rock band Chikwata263.

The occasion was themed as the celebration of an election without former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe.

We arrived there some way into the show, with slam poetry delivered by the lyrically dexterous Madzitatiguru. He invited celebrated percussionist onto the stage and together their short set gripped the attention of an expectant crowd from different walks of life.

That was the thing, though. In a place where people were having a drink, slam poetry had the people’s attention, even when delivered in Shona, a crowd which included outgoing British Council Director Sam Harvey soaked it all in. Other notable people present were Lavuka’s Mandla Ncube, film director Joe Njagu, musician Netsayi Chgwendere, producer Humphrey Domboka, Vee and Sunny Mukarati to mention a few.

Before Chikwata263 took to the stage, we had a performance from one of the founding members of the iconic House of Hunger Poetry Slam, Biko aka GODobori who dropped a few bars with the backing of a DJ.

Then Chikwata263 themselves came on, lead singer Tom Brickhill calling them ‘the original Team Zimbabwe’. It was not the best we have seen them perform but for the crowd it was adequate. The pulled out some of the favourites from their debut album. Vee Mukarati and Sylent Nqo were among some of the artists who joined them on stage. From the original group Hector Mugani was on mbira. Domboka joined in at some point.

When we met Brickhill who was also one of the organisers of the show, he was beside himself with excitement. Like Ncube, he said this reminded him of the good old days, when people would come together on a night at Book Cafe for nothing else but to enjoy art.

In a time when activism through the arts has gone mainstream in some respects, there is space and need for something like we had on Sunday…

When art is allowed to live, in different forms… without feeling commercial.