Singer and activist Thandiswa Mazwai will be hosting ‘King Tha Day’ on her birthday in Newtown, Johannesburg.
Thandiswa, who is best known as King Tha is turning 42-years-old on the 31st of March and she wants to be surrounded by all her sisters to celebrate her birthday with her at the Newtown Music Factory.
“I’m inviting my sisters to a women only gig on my birthday in celebration of their resilience and strength. It is an attempt to strengthen the sisterhood and together imagine new worlds. We will come together in one space to celebrate our unique power,” said Thandiswa Mazwai.
King Tha is bringing together some of the most powerful and inspirational women in South African media to inspire her all-female get-together.
The line-up of speakers is made up of author and Professor, Pumla Dineo Gqola, lesbian activist and filmmaker, Bev Ditsie, and Mail & Guardian Arts Editor, Milisuthando Bongela.
The fun begins at sundown with a market, talks and poetry at 4pm where all of these fabulous ladies will be speaking.
The Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner for Jazz, Thandi Ntuli and Ntsiki Mazwai will perform on the main stage, getting the crowd ready for King Tha and the all-female band she established five years ago.
“All who identify as women or are gender nonconforming are welcome at KING THA DAY. I have chosen to share my birthday with a room full of women to bask in their power and magic. On the night, we will create a Supernova: We will shine a thousand times brighter than the sun and our light will be seen for a billion years to come. Our coming together may even create new galaxies, new worlds,” said King Tha.
“We are strengthening the sisterhood at KING THA DAY, everyone on stage will be a woman and all our vendors, the tech teams and venue staff will be women too. This is to help empower women in many of the fields connected to music, by giving them opportunities they wouldn’t normally have. This is a celebration of women, for us, by us. Where we cannot find a women to fill a certain position we commit to running internship programmes to one day fill those positions,” she continued.
Tickets for King Tha Day are available at R250 from Quicket and the event will kick off at 4pm.