Photos by COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin Melody
Jackson from Culver City (left) and Tracy Ann
Laky from Johannasburg, South Africa create flags to
represent themselves for the Soze Project. The project was named
after late UCLA Professor George Soze Vilakati, who hoped to
advance cross-cultural understanding.
By Michaele Turnage
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
For 13-year-old Nompumelelo Mayiyane, singing came naturally.
Without any formal training, her voice brought endless praise.
“You sing what is in your soul and people listen. They
hear what I’ve got to say and what I’m feeling,”
said the young singer, who remembers her third-grade teacher
calling her “my best singer.”
But Nompumelelo, who resides in Johannesburg, South Africa,
never imagined her talent would take her around the world to the
United States ““ home to some of her favorite artists, such as
Brandy and Mariah Carey.
Nompumelelo is one of 24 young artists chosen to participate in
the Soze Project, an all expenses-paid international arts exchange
that brings together students from Johannesburg and Los
Angeles.
The project will culminate in an original theatrical production
created by the budding artists, which will perform at the end of
July at Freud Playhouse and at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New
York.
Equal Opportunity Productions ““ a non-profit organization
and UCLA Community Programs Office project ““ fund-raised more
than $150,000 to host the project in collaboration with the Market
Theater and Witwatersrand University of Johannesburg.
Last Friday morning, the youths enjoyed simpler pleasures,
hugging each other between practicing methods of choreography in
Kerckhoff Grand Salon. Protected from brief fits of warm summer
rain, the developing artists began their dance workshop by sitting
in a circle and sharing positive affirmations.
Photos by COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin (left to right)
Colleen Mogale, Robert Rumney, Pearl McCall, Griffin
Ramme, and Anna Kats create their own dance during a
workshop.
“I’m beautiful. Today is a beautiful day, and
I’m gonna do beautiful things. If somebody tries to put me
down, I’m going to try my best to get back up,” said
Amy Wilson, 13, leading the group in the mantra.
Wilson, a student at Sandringham High School in Johannesburg,
decided to share the ritual with the group after learning from her
mentor to say the mantra to herself in the mirror each morning.
Her acting mentor and roommate, Aisha Marshall, a 2001 UCLA
alumna who earned her degree in ethnomusicology, adopted the
practice. It builds self-esteem and begins the day on a positive
note, said dance mentor Alicia Bracy-Cruz, a fourth-year world arts
and cultures student.
Mike de la Rocha, the project’s managing director said,
“Once you connect with a person from a different experience,
you can see that you have allies all over, and that discrimination
is hurting everybody. Regardless of the baggage of apartheid and
discrimination in this country today, the kids are showing that
they can work together.”
De la Rocha, a former Undergraduate Students Association Council
president, has been affectionately nicknamed by the young artists
as “de la.”
The Soze Project ““ pronounced “so-zay” ““
whose mission is to build a bridge between young people in South
Africa and the United States through the arts, is the dream of late
UCLA Professor George Soze Vilakati and his student Michael
Skolnik.
Vilakati, who taught the Zulu language, passed away in October
after returning to his native Swaziland and serving as minister of
tourism. After Vilakati’s passing, his friend Skolnik felt
even more that the project had to happen.
Photos by COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin
Artists in a workshop learn new acting techniques and share
secrets during a cross-cultural development exercise behind Hitch
Suites.
“This project is dedicated to him,” Skolnik,
executive director of the Soze project, said of the project’s
namesake.
The young artists who made his dream a reality have made a
temporary home at UCLA with their mentors ““ 21 individuals
who hail from Los Angeles and South Africa. The mentors came to
UCLA a week early to plan the art, dance, music, writing and acting
workshops in which the students will partake.
“I’m doing this because I’m an immigrant, I
come from a working class family and I had a really hard time in
school,” said EqOp youth advocate Francisca Marquez, a
fifth-year Latin-American studies and Chicana/o studies student.
She added that she feels it is her responsibility to provide
guidance and information to young people.
Students were given journals and encouraged to talk to one
another to facilitate personal growth.
“The dialogue is very central to changing misconceptions
about the United States. Our experiences as marginalized
communities, and dominant communities delegitimize the idea that
America is free,” de la Rocha said, adding that he is
learning from the youths who he describes as “wise and
remarkable women and men in little bodies.”
For the South African mentors, the international arts exchange
provides a chance to live in a foreign country and dispel false
perceptions about South Africa.
“You spend basically all your life wanting to come here
and once you are here, it feels like home,” said Kholu
Kholopane, a graduate student studying drama and film at
Witwatersrand. Many of the artists echoed her sentiments,
explaining that the U.S. is like South Africa in many ways.
“(Americans) look like South Africans, they act the same.
Everything we do is unique just like you guys,” said Jade
Swartz, 12, a student at Johannesburg Girls School.
Photos by COURTNEY STEWART/Daily Bruin Caylan
Williams practices the drums during one of the music
workshops.
Participants agreed that connecting across cultures and
experiences is invaluable.
“We’re trying to create a positive space where
everyone can grow and learn from each other and where they can not
only recognize and accept each other’s contradictions, but
also recognize each other’s beauty,” de la Rocha
said.
He added that the students, who have quickly grown to be like
brothers and sisters, recognize the implications of
discrimination.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re from as long
as someone is nice to you. I’ll get the most from knowing
they are just like me,” said Griffin Ramme, 11, a student at
Culver City Middle School who performed for a crowd of 2,500 in
Cuba last year as part of the Sol Project, a predecessor to the
Soze project.
At the end of the day, mentors and youth closed their activities
with an umoja circle. “Umoja” means “˜unity’
in Ki-Swahili. The circle gave all involved an opportunity to share
their feelings and sum up their day.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said
Robert Rumney, 13, an actor and musician from Johannesburg.
For information about the Soze Project performances, visit
www.eqop.org.