Download PDFJust a month ago, for one of the internal activities at the Khanya, the staff were exposed to a relaxing session with a group of Wits-based youthful art practitioners who evaluated the staff without them realising. When finally revealed, it was a light moment during the session, but some interesting facts were learned.
During the Zines art session by PaperJam, staff learned about the diverse purposes of magazines, zines, posterzines and how to create one. They were divided into three groups who all produced posterzines. The context of the zines done by the groups focused first on a map of ‘what matters most’ to the members of each group.
As it turned out, things like sleep, safety, development, family, God, plants, community engagement, were some of the basic things which the staff said mattered to them. On a lighter note, there were numerous offerings like music, brainteasers, sports, keeping fit, and dark chocolate were some of the picks for the day, leaving the participants laughing big time when these were read out loud for the rest to discover. Politics and activism were also a big feature.
After some time has passed since 20 August 2024 when the workshop session was held, staff members have had some time to think about the session and what it meant to them. These were some recollections.
The outcome of this training was to ensure we know what makes a Magazine, and how each magazine resonates with each personality. The 3 members who were facilitating the training decided to conduct a test that will help them determine the type of personality that each group has. The exercise involved what music we listen to for certain moods, what matters to us, and the last one involved hypothetical questions that required group answers.
Wandile Mazibuko who recently joined Khanya team remembered that the first exercise was to create a foldable magazine. The second exercise was finding out what music each group listens to for different moods. The first question for that exercise was, ‘What song do you listen to when you are feeling heartbroken?’ The second question posed to the workshop participants was ‘What music do you listen to when you go to gym?’, the third was about music that makes one cry, and the last question was to find out what music one listens to when out at groove.
The third exercise involved writing what matters to us as the cover page of the Magazine and that was to determine what is important to each of the staff. “This training was very fundamental and the most captivating part was when the three members facilitating the training gave us the results of the type of personalities each group has. These personalities were associated with colours. My group was dubbed with the colour blue, because we are trustworthy and self-introspective,” recalled Mazibuko, quite proud.
“My group and I learnt a lot about ourselves during this training and now we know the importance of a magazine,” he added.
Mamello Masoatsa, from Kliptown, also a member of staff said, “Creating your own magazine has to be the best part ever since you have to think about things you do not [usually] take into consideration. It is not hard, not easy though it just needs you to think out of the box. The day we were creating our own zine was just amazing since we were asked about things that we think about when in need.” She continued, when thinking about the question about what matters the most, “The first thing that came to my mind was my mom and son and also the biggest fear of losing them. Creating your own zine makes you realise that you have to use every moment you have wisely. That day and that session helped me to learn more about music, and also life in general. Having to respond to the questions we were asked and did what we were asked to do was fun and made my mind more relaxed. The time we were rewarded the red, blue, yellow cards made me realise that at some point we all think about the same thing and mostly what matters to us is similar.”
Speaking on her experience of the Zine workshop, Mbali Sithole said, “The Zine workshop has helped me understand and look at a magazine with a different eye. It helped me understand that a zine is all about creativity while being informative at the same time.”
Sithole continued, “A zine does not only talk about gossip and everything that happens but it gives off recipes, word puzzles and a whole lot more. The ladies that held the workshop made it so fun and interesting to want to learn more about zines. From what I took from the workshop was that anyone can have their own zines and the idea of it is to be creative and informative as well all at the same time.”
“Magazines, or zines, as I learned they’re called, are such amazing little things. It was thrilling to learn how to fold them and that they could be used in such a therapeutic fashion. Despite the exciting energy during the session, I was unsettled about a question about how to deal with stuff involving gossip about one’s superiors at work, as that was unexpected. A team should not have such problems,” Siyabonga Mviko thought back to the session.
This article was submitted on 25 September 2024. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
