By way of storytelling, the Brum sessions event seeks to give students the opportunity to describe in their own words the day to day lived experiences of a place they call home.
As a collective that formed itself out of the 2015-2016 student protests, BlackStudio is particularly interested in archiving how Braamfontein has changed since the protests. Kick-starting the initiative, Braamfontein Jazz Band ‘Iphupho L’ka Biko’ will give a live performance open to the public within the adjoining alley at BackStory, which leads to the Neighbourgoods market entrance area. This performance will be accompanied by an exhibition of the work of visual artist Mzoxolo Vimba, accompanied with a series of urban and architectural speculative drawings.
These sessions are intended to be less about memorializing and more about paying homage to a moment in time when the city was used as a tool of resistance during student protests. The discussion sessions thereafter, set on the 13th and 20th of September, use the BackStory framework of mapping a place through the stories and perceptions of its inhabitants and overlaying this with the raw details of Braamfontein Development plans to form basis for discussing revealed urban patterns, experiences and reactions during, and after, the protests.