14.  BUILD-UP TO THE INDRA CONGRESS PATHWAYS 

HOSTED BY ARROWSA AND UKZN 

IN DURBAN FROM 2ND TO THE 8TH OF JULY 2018

We have an ongoing build-up to the Indra Congress Pathways that introduces the participants and arts facilitators and organisers to each other and also shares the artworks that the participating groups are working on that they will share with each other at the congress.

Meet the drama and symposium team of the Indra Congress Pathways ! 

The drama section and symposium of the Indra Congress Pathways is led by a staff member, Dr Miranda Young-Jahangeer and a PhD student, Ongezwa Mbele, of Drama and Performance Studies, University of Kwazulu-Natal while an intern from Dala, Siyavuya Mfenqa will assist with the drama activity.

                                          Ongezwa Mbele

Ongezwa Mbele is a South African applied theatre facilitator, published poet and PhD candidate at the University of Cape. She is currently a drama lecturer at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal. For her Master research she received the spirit ‘68 award for her research. This award celebrates the spirit of the 1968 sit-in, which defended the appointment of Archie Mafaje to University of Cape Town academic staff against the apartheid government’s demand to withdraw the job offer on grounds of his race. With a strong focus on supporting novel approaches to reducing social exclusion, the award is particularly suited to pilot projects.

Ongezwa has been drawn to theatre that addresses societal issues.  Therefore, she has studied courses such as Prison theatre and teaching dance in education. These courses have harnessed her passion of using theatre as medium in her work with marginalised South African youth. She attributes her interests in ‘theatre activism within youth development’ to the fact that she grew up in a marginalised area of South Africa. Therefore, she embodies and understands the marginalised South African youth’s struggles.

E-mail: ongezwambele@gmail.com

                                                                        Siyavuya Mfenqa 

Siyavuya is a young graduate from the Drama Dept at the Durban University of Technology.

He is presently doing an internship with dala which is an npo engaging in art and architecture for social change.

Dr Miranda Young-Jahangeer

Dr. Miranda Young-Jahangeer is the Academic Leader for Teaching and Learning in the School of the Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.  She is located in the Drama and Performance studies programme where her speciality is Applied Theatre.  Her work spreads across different locations including schools and public spaces however her particular interest is prison theatre and she has had an on-going programme in Westville Female Prison for the past 18 years.