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The Johannesburg War Memorial

The Johannesburg war memorial.

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As I sit beneath the shade of imperial light infantry

 and their railway pioneer regiments

 I hear the distant melting wine of an ice cream van

 and try to remember when last i bought a new tube of toothpaste.

Above the skipping chirp and play of small children

It’s the quiet hum of city that embraces this restless, cold body of memorial.

It beckons.

You can hear it in the wind

 through the bluegum and the pine and upon the

 lips of those with little courage.

Dundalk Avenue

Dundalk Avenue

There's an avenue
laid out behind me in the rearview mirror.

The fluctuate tumble of dry leaf confetti

celebrates the arrival of my car in the street

And through the windswept shadows

 I smile at their pulse when

 I pass and pass and pass.

Kicking around in the boot is a blue ball

I once found

On a day much like this one.

And I smile again because

I can smell the evening

Stillness settle in the belly of my ears.

and can feel the subtle touch of everything new

brush my cheek and whisper down my neck

that tomorrow

Tomorrow

Will be better.

Your name here.

There are currently 800 000 displaced people in Johannesburg alone. Wait, actually there are 799 994. I can definitely vouch for six men who are currently “placed” in a group that’s working toward creating something better for themselves.


These are them:



For the last two months we’ve been working toward a theatre project where they’ll have a chance to tell their stories and create a dialogue long overdue between themselves and their environment.
Suffice to say, 799 994 are a lot of random people - people. 

Social development. 

We’re only as fast as our slowest man. 

Considering that a 1/4 of Johannesburg's population are without homes and wondering the streets directionless - I’d say we’re some of the slowest rats in the race.


In order to get to the top of things you gotta know how far you are from the bottom. The homeless are not only at the bottom of ladder but they’re passed out below it, in fetal position under a blanket of newspapers and cardboard.


So what.


So what does that mean – you mean?

Well – I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure it all out. All I know is that these six men keep coming back to meet and share stories together in the cool air of evening on a Monday and Wednesday. This means that something is sticking – something is moving into place - finding a home. Whether that something is just learning a name, hearing a thought or having a conversation i think it necessary for the upward mobility of who we are as a nation and as people.

I took these guys to the theatre on the 19 of September to see Hayani - a beautifully raw and honest depiction of two lives in South Africa in search and exploration of home. It was the first time i've ever been part of such a diverse multi-lingual crowd where we were all moved by the same things.

Home is a topic wrought with both strangeness and familiarity. 

I feel like “home” is not about birth, or heart or housing – but rather a place where you can meet with yourself and become it. This is a tricky and rare space to find because we’re in a constant state of “becoming” which essentially means then that you and I, who are presumably still trying to figure out where we're all going, are.... homeless in a peculiar and first –world- problem kinda way.


See homelessness is more than just being destitute on the street – it’s a profound sense of disconnection from everything that makes you worth something more than just an ID number. It means disconnection from society, from community and from yourself. It means anonymity. Anonymity can be comforting – but for those who don’t have a choice it’s a hack that robs you of your dignity, your humanity - your name.

To solve homelessness in our country we must tackle it within ourselves first.

Here's how: 

Meet new people. Find out someone else's name and remember it. This way, you'll have to say yours too and by saying it out loud, you call yourself out of anonymity and into being - you welcome yourself and the millions of anonymous around you, home.