Msaki readies up for intimate performance at Braamfontein’s Untitled

For two days, 11 and 12 December, South African Music Award-nominated indie Afro-folk composer and songstress Msaki will take to the stage at Braamfontein’s Untitled Basement for Msaki presents At Stakeand Other Love Songs.

At Stake is a protest song about femicide, the history of violence against women, and violence against the marginalised queer people. It is also a love song and Msaki has been exploring the idea of the protest song, as a love song with her project Platinumb Heart. Road-testing these songs on stage over the last two years in order to reach creative and emotional conclusions about the questions that come with living in a #RIPwxmen nation.

In the absence of answers to questions posed at femicide, these songs are Msaki’s attempt to keep a supple heart through heavy and callousing times, and the painful hashtags that are becoming part of our story as a country.

The concert, much like the song, is an offering, a musical creation for when the trending topics are over, when the designated days of outrage that leave us more triggered have ended. Like the song, it is a place of uncomfortable questions (some being historic), a safe space to face or deposit the unprocessed, a way to reach for a layer of joy during mess and maybe even a moment of healing together as we all wonder how we got here as a nation.