ODIDIVA and the MUTHA CITY...

LISTEN NOW: THE LIVE RECORDING OF "SPARKLE & TWIRL WITH ODIDIVA PRESENTS WICKED WEDNESDAY"

2023-11-22T23:15:00.001+02:00

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

SPARKLE & TWIRL with ODIDIVA presents WICKED WEDNESDAY - Swish with Swag vol.3

" MUTHA HAS ARRIVED ! " - ODIDIVA joins MUTHA FM on its 21st BIRTHDAY

2023-11-22T13:30:00.000+02:00

Die Bordienguis Teater biied aan: ODIDIVA Live

2020-09-17T12:16:00.001+02:00

Odidiva is die enigste performing artist wat jy ooit hoef te sien. Sy't die bekende "Beefcakes" in Kaapstad geopen. Een van Odidiva se shows, "House of the Holy Afro" was in 15 internasionale stede te sien. En vir net DRIE AANDE kom hierdie fenomeen Wellington toe.

"Odidiva climes the stairway to heaven . . . For a few moments I thought I'd died and gone to heaven . . ." - Matthew Krause, Mail and Gaurdian: June 2010.

"Odidiva must come to New York and do a solo show"- The New York Theatre Review.

Die alombekende Graham Norton was weggeblaas deur een van Odidiva se vertonings.

Kaartjies gaan vlieg in drie . . . Twee . . . Een:

Boek NOU jou plek per Whatsapp by Alma: 082 964 93 52/ almanel95c@gmail.com.

24, 25 en 26ste September. Deure maak 16:30 oop vir Pizza en drankies. Vertoning begin stiptelik om 18:30. Kaartjie koste beloop R200 per persoon.

Donderdagaand se vertoning is "ladies night". Kom dames, "If you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love someone else? Can I get a Amen?"- RuPaul

DILIGENT VIGILANTE BY ODIDIVA

2020-08-02T22:08:00.001+02:00

VAST - A Lecture by ODIDIVA

2020-01-23T16:46:00.000+02:00

VAST a Lecture by ODIDIVA

THE HIGH PRIESTESS

2019-09-30T16:15:00.001+02:00

THE HIGH PRIESTESS

Nina Simone Revival Revue

Created by Odidi Mfenyana Performed as ODIDIVA

ART OF DUPLICITY

www.170120.co.za

"I want a career like Nina Simone...like her with a loyal following….

Nina Simone had a long career, travelling far and wide, respected by all but still being able to speak her mind, as a political activist, respected even while at times behaving outrageously..."

This was answer that clinched my first Artist Management deal. It would prove to be the spark that ignited Odidi Mfenyana's and later Odidiva's professional career as a force in Cape Town's cultural nightlife.

Our first project,Faith In Poison my seminal one man show; was nightclub savvy cabaretshow for British American Tobacco debuting at exclusive Lucky Strike events in Johannesburg and Cape Town South Africa. My sophomore solo show, Rhythms Down My Spine refined and embellished Faith In Poison pushing a 21st Century Afro-Futurist trope best described by Suzy Bell for the Cape Times:

" Its the new urban-reality...Odidi Mfenyana...A gospel saint of the clubbing scene, a preacher of reconcialiation through pop-culture, a slam poet, a rap star, a rock star "

The rave review would prove to be the tipping point that influenced predicating critical mass. This came in the collaboration of Rythmns Down My Spine with Brett Bailey's creative genius to conceive the experimental theatrical spectacle House of the Holy Afro in 2004. The show became an immediate hit touring Internationally for 9 years, on 3 continents, over 13 countries and 22 cities.

In The High Priestess Odidi Mfenyana as Odidiva returns to the origins of his craft; seamlessly blending poetry, prose, political satire, stand-up comedy with showstopping vocal performances accompanied by footage of Nina Simone's last interview on BBC Hardtalk 2002. The High Priestess is ODIDIVA invoking the fierce spirit of Nina Simone.

Nina Simone interview on BBC Hardtalk 1999

Exclusive Launch Thursday 3 October 2019 20h00 - 22h00

LIMITED SEASON ENDS Thursday 28 November 2019.

Booking Essential capacity

Tickets R250 including complementary Expresso Martini by World Champion Mixologist 2019 Brent Parramore

Inside The Art of Duplicity a best kept secret

from the unique perspective of South African Pop Culture and Personal History, The High Priestess, is quintessential nu-cabaret; old school charm & sorcery of imagination with new evocative innovation.

The Art of Duplicity thus has it's Coup d'Grace to it's groundbreaking Chef d'Oever…

The High Priestess.

POSE: THE UNENVIABLE FAGULOUS LIFE OF THE BEULAH BLACK QUEEN

2019-07-19T03:36:00.001+02:00

Beulah Buffoons!

Please download or stream an app or trade exchange favours in kind.

I need you to watch POSE.

It will give you the edge; much needed incite into

The Unenviable Fagulous Life of The Beulah Black Queen.

Ryan Murphy's POSE is Gaymazing. 30 years later the trailblazing documentary made iconic by Madonna's acclaimed cultural appropriation in her smash hit "Vogue", the doccie made legendary by the choreography of Willy Ninja and iconoclastic through Rupaul's Drag Race; Paris Is Burning finally gets its Hollywood adaptation.

This is gay superstar television producer Ryan Murphy Piece d'Resistance. The show that got him through making millions for deplorable billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corp with Nip/Tuck.

Like Bottom to Top Murphy exceeded our every hedonistic campy dreams with all the seasons of American Horror Story.

Who ever thought he would Top himself? Yet he did, riding the wave of gender fluid consciousness with the critical acclaim and cult following worthy POSE.

The genius of the series is it's depth of narratives and the "realness"of character arcs seamlessly hot-glued with rhinestone glitz of eponymous 1980's "Ball Culture".

The soundtrack deftly reminds us that it was the pioneering prophecy of Gay DJ's Frankie Knuckles (The Godfather of House) Marshall Jefferson and Larry Levan that turned disco into house.

And it's clear to see how with four four to the floor the kids can do more. And they do the most; strutting & twirling literally giving life, subverting the dark clouds gathering whispering AIDS.

Ultimately the Coup d'Grace is what lays it all out, the special bittersweet relationships with our most unsuitable suitors.

The Provocative Vespertine must have the Most Elusive Shining Dark Knight, a Bruce Vayne, or a Jerk-Off & Hyde, a Nobleman Count with a Fetish to make him Bleed or even a Shapeshifting Alpha Fiend for a Freak, has been known to prey upon us Dames of the Avant-garde, The Nocturnal Socialites.

"And what flourishes at night must be never be seen in glaring gaze of the bright light of day."

POSE builds a monument to our true love quest. A character Arc d'Triomphe of unrequited love. This The Eternal Flame of The Unknown Soldiers is so pertinently captured in *Whitney Houston's R&B torch-song classic "Saving All My Love for You".

Saving All My Love - Whitney Houston

I guess it's a fitting cross to bear for shining brighter than all God's creatures. The curse of the courtesan to be loved in secret or just for amusement.

Maybe then Beulah Buffoons, you'll find the compassion; kind consideration for all we put up for a turn up.

"Ladies with an attitude, fellas that are in the mood...strike a POSE!"

*SIDEBAR:

The 1985 record-breaking eponymous debut of the chanteuse had her aesthetic exuding the very exemplary attributes of realness yearned by every Drag Queen/ Tranny walking the category:

"Opulence... I own everything!"

My First and Last Vienna Life Ball

2019-06-06T12:44:00.001+02:00

In 2005 I had the honour to meet and greet Donatella Versace with Allegra and a pregnant Heidi Klum with a Lesbian couple who'd just adopted a South African boy named Tau while doing soundcheck at The Vienna Life Ball.
I would also to our symbiotic surprise bump into JoAnne Strauss on her 1st Top Billing gig overseas. Performing at 3am I and colleague Dino Moran attended the extravaganza to be enthralled by Dita von Teese in Champagne Glass Burlesque and Haddaway slaying 90's dance hit What is love? along with the most fantastically dressed revellers and outlandish Drag Queens.
House of the Holy Afro slayed it's slot giving patrons one last hoorah before going home. Odidiva the High Priestess, permeating AfroFuturism through the African Renaissance "The Afro is the Big Black Truth as opposed to the Little White Lie, The Afro is African..."

https://lifeplus.org/en/

NEEDED: Compassion, Community, Camaradarie and Culture

2019-05-29T22:46:00.000+02:00

Hey Darling, how are you? I am finally binge watching RuPaul's Drag Race 11. I now understand your comment regarding Evie Oddly. I am on Episode 8 and already since episode 5 I have found the contestants paranoid, exhausted and lacking effervescence. This Oddly tart has done the opposite of Silky Ganash and sucked the fun out of the work room and turned it toxic. I no longer aspire to be in RuPaul's Drag Race if it's more pain than gain, especially as it's clear after All Stars 4 the of social media backlash decides outcomes and not RuPaul. Mercedes Iman, the Somali African Princess, scared stiff of revealing she's Muslim on US National Cable TV, really had me "shook" as in "spoeked" and her saying, " people don't know how hard it is to be an immigrant in this country" as she was describing how her Islamic name had her blacklisted from flying to drag pageants in the vast United States of America. Poor Gurrl had to drive all over the East Coast. It got so bad she ended up with severe symptoms of exhaustion to the point she had a stroke. One of my cousin's died from similar condition. Luckily for Mercedes Iman she was left paralyzed on one side of her body unable to walk. I guess that's better than Drag's First Suicidal Matyr of Pageantry. The level of ignorance and social intolerance amongst young queers in RuPaul's Drag Race 11 shows worrying signs of severe anti-social pathology taking root within our Queer community. A curriculum on Queer Arts Culture and History is required beyond Drag Race's commendable efforts. Our Queer Youth may be manifesting the need for another crisis of the likes of the AIDS epidemic. For only through HIV did we learn the advocacy of TLC.
It's time we revive and renew the ethos of compassion, camaradarie, culture and community of Act Up! The trailblazing First World Western Culture liberal socio-political culture must find a spiritual home.
Even here in the Southern most tip of Africa we are experiencing the fallout of the social ills of our Velvet Rage.
Losing knitwear designer, Soth African fashion industry's latest rising star Nicholas Couts under suspicious circumstances is a cry for help smothered in the whispered silence that echoes, reverberates and surrounds his tragic untimely death.
Sexuality is not Personality.
Sexual Orientation is not the Community of Society.
The Struggle is real for all those of us suffering from, what I coin Post-Closet Traumatic Stress syndrome. This is well documented in the book The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man's World

Book by Alan Downs

What we need is to be like the book by Steven Berzenaic

This is a beautiful review of its winning qualities:

Single Forever: Stories and Insights from Gay Men | Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com › ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/living-single/201104/single-forever-stories-and-insights-gay-men%3Famp

The African Queen, Odidiva heading for Performa'17 in New York City

2017-10-04T16:55:00.002+02:00

Odidiva - The African Queen, has been invited to the prestigious New York City art fair, Performa'17. Also known as Odidi Mfenyana this Cape Town based Performance Artist, named among the world's top live singing Drag Performers by the book Around The World In 80 Drag Queens, will be supporting, friend and colleague, Zanele Muholi, "Africa's most powerful female artist" - Art Review magazine.

Odidiva & Zanele Muholi, September 2017 @Tarka for The Comeback

In a trailblazing career starting in 2001 as the showstopper in award-winning South African theatre director, Brett Bailey's BIG DADA - The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin, Odidiva has taken the art of drag from the underground club counterculture to the mainstream of the arts, crossing genres, transforming African Queer culture by influencing hearts and minds.

Odidiva in House of the Holy Afro, Paris France 2013

Here is a tacit discription of Odidiva's stage persona as described by Nadine Botha for Design Indaba magazine:

Odidiva likes to brag about being the “only live act black drag queen in Cape Town”. That translates as: no lip-synching, no impersonation – everything is live, proud and personal. But what really distinguishes her is her political edge.

She likes to be compared to Evita Bezuidenhout in that regard, but Odidiva is a guerrilla fighter in comparison. She’ll have you up an’ dancing to Brenda Fassie’s Weekend Special and while you’re still pulling in your chair, punch you in the stomach with something like: “If we don’t invest in education now, we are still going to be robbed at gunpoint in 20 years time.” Which will only have you laughing even louder at her next quip about christening Jacob Zuma as “President Lovepants”.

Like Zanele Muholi, Odidiva is a LGBTI activist artist using the performing arts as a platformto inspire social cohesion as encouraged by South Africa's world leading Constitution godfathered by legendary statesman Nelson Rholihlala Mandela and spiritual icon Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu.

Now in her 16 year, Odidi Mfenyana's nom de guerre Odidiva is looking to growing and mentoring the next generation of African Queer Activist Artists with BUSHWAACKING, her self coined version of US invented Voguing/Waacking which forms the basis of Mfenyana's Master in Fine Arts thesis at AFDA on route to establishing the African Queen Queer Arts Institute.

Please tune into The Salon Bush Radio 89.5FM tonight 20h00 Wednesday 4 October 2017 for a full interview with Odidiva. Here more about her life and times and get the fierce "gees" that's bringing life to South Africa's queer arts culture.

BUSHWAACKING - House of Odidiva

The COMEBACK with Guest of Honour ZANELE MUHOLI

2017-08-24T11:23:00.000+02:00

THE SORCERY OF IMAGINATION TOHEAL THE NATION

3 Years later to the day of our last journey together to Ventersdorp, where we commiserated and archived the brutal killing of another young lesbian sister Disebo Gift Makau; Zanele Muholi phones...

All the time she is speaking my mind thinks is:

"Welcome home Qawe lama Qawekazi (Hero of Heroines)".

In the three years since we last connected working together our lives have experienced exhilerating highs and life threatening lows.

In the face of so much death, destruction and civil upheaval in the world over the last 3 years, we cannot think our strife is significant.

If anything we as human beings should be embracing our kinship.

All made more palpable by the universality of the diabolical twists and turns of film noir unravelling with ever accelerating years 2014...2015...2016...2017…

Odidi Mfenyana and Zanele Muholi en route to Venterdorp, North West Province, STEVENSON gallery Braamfontein, Joburg 21 August 2014

In the previous century the world was at war, but something tells me we are

deep in a war of worlds, so unconventional it beguile old methods of perception and requires us to reach for reinvention.

For one to turn the corner on one's doldrums one must believe in the faith of life. The blessings of abundance include the good and the bad. For if life is for the living when it is painted in the light and shade of contrast; the juxtaposition of contradiction of the human condition.

"We have Faith in Poison. We Will Live Our Lives Completely EVERYDAY…"

In eye of the cyclone one sees with that the ferocity of the tempest will temper how we distinguish ourselves.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZANELE MUHOLI , ODIDIVA AS MC OF MISS CAPE TOWN PRIDE 2010, BMW PAVILION, V&A WATERFRONT CAPE TOWN

ALL ORIGINALS STOLEN IN A ROBBERY OF PHOTOGRAPHIC AND AUDIO VISUAL EQUIPMENT with over twenty primary and back-up external hard drives containing five years' OF WORK AT HER CAPE TOWN HOME IN 2012

“Yonke into enesiqalo kufanelekile ukuba ibe nesiphelo njengokuba
nento ephilayo kufuneka emva kwexesha elithile iphelelwe bobo bom
ibuphilayo.KwaXhosa kuthiwa into engapheliyo iyahlola.Kuzo zonkeizinto ezinesiqalo neziphilayo akukho nanye kuzo eya kusiphephasiphepheke ngokupheleleyo isiphelo. Zonke ke izinto ezikhoyozithambekela esiphelweni zithanda zingathandi"

All things that have a beginning must appropriately have an end, like every that lives over time will lose the life it lives.

Where the people of Xhosa are; it is said that:

"What does not end becomes grotesque"

Sadly, the hegemony of power in the previous century, is still in denial; convulsed in the most grotesque death throes.

Reinvention requires ones ability to dig deep into the mines of one's body and soul. This is by no means a frivolous task but industrious action meant to reinforce one's "gees".

That "joie d' vivre" needs to be buttressed by emotional titanium. The ability to invest in introspection, meditation and intellectual jousting for emotional intelligence strengthens one's ductility.

Hence the universal rituals of spiritual sabbatical, fasting for feeding the soul, meditation through incantation, until body, mind and soul is imbibing divinity.

“The creative arts play a significant role in igniting moments of pause in one's life that lead us to question more.
The creative arts gifted in the imaginary are the orifice to explore life's lavish contradictions.”

Therefore the undeniable imperative of creativity as a catalyst for socialinnovation is required in the same way gold is considered a safe asset in times of crisis. For too long contemporary artists have been overexposed to being commoditized; that this essence is endangered.

It then makes it logical to understand my need to celebrate an African artist, a contemporary, a mentor, patron and friend who has recaptured and rejuvenated this zeal to the world's attention, respect and acclaim.

AFRICAN EXCELLENCE BANNED IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA UNTIL 1994

EXILED MAMA AFRICA, MIRIAM MAKEBA GREETING NINA SIMONE BACKSTAGE, AFRICAN AMERICAN ICONS OF CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT NINA SIMONE AND JAMES BALDWIN

Many of us in South Africa still do not realise the psychological trauma in the blackout of African excellence from our lives.

As an African Gay man of 23, I discovered that the writer I'd often heard named amongst America's top 10 literary authors, James Baldwin was not only not a white man, but African-American and gay too!

I promptly picked up "Giovanni's Room" and in the forward discovered a revolutionanary social catalyst for societal transformation. How radical? No life changing. Giovanni's Room is a story of two Caucasian gay men falling in love in and out of love in Paris was published in 1956. James Baldwin along with another revolutionary artist, Nina Simone best friend of exiled Miriam Makeba were banned in South Africa until repeal of the laws were repealed in mid to late 90's . Meaning accessing the work from their glory days trickled in around 2001 and due mostly to internet access.

South Africans watch with hostile envy and bewilderment as six decades long emancipated Africans enjoying cultural bonds, win Big Brother Africa.

Even with knowledge of Aparheid's deliberate seperation of us from our brethren , we have internalised the narrative propagated by our White Supremecist oppressors.

Forgetting the very media company broadcasting from our Johannesburg was the propaganda arm of the Afrikaner Nationalists that oppressed us.

So we carry on listening to mostly American and British as cleverly prescribed by the Apartheid regime. SAMRO (South African Music Rights Organisation) pays out almost 80 percent to its Western counterparts.

While we are impervious imperious in our superiority floundering believing and behaving wrongly. Xenophobia flags our debilitating symptoms from of what I will call Post Apartheid Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

"Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but the sense of their inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness.

When it is in their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness where ever they see it."

BANNED PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT ON HATE CRIMES AND GENDER VIOLENCE BY JACK LEWIS FEATURING ODIDIVA

This is evidenced in the proliferation of the serial pathology of violence against women and children in this nation of ours eMzantsi Afrika.

We have opportunity to embrace ourselves this women's month. The opportunity to grab, hug and kiss our self-esteem. The Guest of Honour works tirelessly as a catalyst for social innovation.

Receive the inspiration.

The COMEBACK - Guest of Honour Zanele Muholi is a timely, consciously deliberate expression of love, pride, and activism.

A rebuttal of all afro-pessimism wracking our society's inferiority complex, lashing out, self-mutilating with homicidal brutality.

We close this Women's Month with a graceful "klapback" at the ideologies that favour dominance and oppression, vanity and grandiosity.

This on the eve of Zanele Muholi's first exhibition in Cape Town since 2012.

A fitting vernissage to Heritage Month and the opening of

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (ZeitzMOCAA)

Zanele Muholi work will be part of the collection at ZeitzMOCAA including this image

ZANELE MUHOLI, ODIDIVA I, DISTRICT SIX, CAPE TOWN 2010

Another icon to African excellence, a crucial salve inthe sorcery of imagination that will one day help heal the nation.

Dimpho Tsotetsi, Pretoria, 2017

ZANELE MUHOLI

On Thursday 31 August, 6-8pm
Click here for more information

The exhibition is on view until 7 October 2017.

A #BraveConversation with the one and only Odidiva

2017-06-05T22:46:00.001+02:00

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference"

Amen.

VOGUE COMES TO AFRICA with Odidiva - The African Queen

2017-04-16T04:25:00.001+02:00

Design Created and Conceived by Odidi Mfenyana for Evocative Innovation

Odidiva - The African Queen

is one of Cape Town's most recognisable drag performers, specialising in Live Singing, Stand-up Comedy and Slam Poetry.Odidiva first debuted in Brett Bailey's BIG DADA: The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin in 2001 and has since become the star of electronic dance theatre show HOUSE OF THE HOLY AFRO which has toured to over 15 international cities since 2004.

ODIDIVA - Official Website

MTV Plus1 Festival with THE KIFFNESS

ODIDIVA Slaying with her Bushwaackers at MTV PLUS 1 Festival 2017

Odidiva is Cape Town's First Lady of Live Singing Drag. A trailblazer who helped put popular burger franchise Beefcakes (2009 - 2013) on the map with features in international magazines and blogs (OUT Traveller Magazine USA, Gayographger - GayAtlas.com).
So revered is Odidiva's international profile was invited to represent Africa in the book Around The World in 80 Drag Queens, the continents's sole representative. Around The World In 80days is published and available exclusively on Amazon.com .
Odidiva contributes a short story and a cocktail in New York City drag blogger and celebrity entertainment journalist Jeza Belle's coffee table book; The Harlot's Guide to Classy Cocktails . The publication has received critical acclaim and awards at the New York Book Festival and the National Indie Excellence Awards.

An in-demand MC with stage presence, eloquence and spicy comedic humour Odidiva is hosting Cape Town's new Battle of the Band contest, UPSTAGED (19, 28 April Grande Finale 3 May) at Nomad Bistro & Bar.

With more than 16 years in the entertainment industry Odidiva has hosted a number of private and public engagements including most recently the electronic dance music event, MTV Plus 1 Festival (17 - 19 February 2017) in Franschoek.

Odidiva - The African Queen - Live Dinner Cabaret Show offers you the opportunity to experience the internationally popular and critically acclaimed talents of Odidiva in the warm, relaxed and hipster cool, live music venue, Nomad Bistro & Bar over Dinner and/or Drinks.

NOMAD Fusion BISTRO & BAR - Facebook Page

SPECIAL OFFER:

ALL Tables of 4 persons or more will receive a Bottle of Bubbly on the house courtesy of Odidiva and Nomad Bistro. (meaning a bottle of bubbly for every 4 persons)

BOOK ONLINE www.quicket.co.za

ALL PERSONS dressed in Drag will receive Free Entrance and a Make-Up Touch Up from Odidiva's Professional Make-Up Artsist, . (All Ladies & Gentleman are welcome to a FREE CONSULTATION with our resident Professional Make-Up Artist)

"Beat to the Gods!"
Photo: Gary Van Wyk for Beautiful News South Africa

The show is 60min - 70min with 15min Interval
Starts 20h00 for 20h30 Every Monday through Autumn / Winter 2017
NOMAD Bistro & Bar

Mondays Get Lit with SWAG SESSIONS

2017-04-03T03:20:00.001+02:00

ODIDIVA Drag Performance Entertinment

Star of the International Hit show HOUSE OF THE HOLY AFRO (2004 – 2013),

ODIDIVA/ Odidi Mfenyana is an accomplished performing artist.

Currently ODIDIVA contributes and features in two international publications

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DRAG QUEENS and

Jeza Belle’s THE HARLOT’S GUIDE TO CLASSY COCKTAILS

"ODIDIVA CLIMBS THE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN...

FOR A FEW MOMENTS I THOUGHT I'D DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN..."

- Matthew Krause, MAIL & GUARDIAN, June 2010

BOOK on quicket.co.za or 021 418 3020

SWAG SESSIONS presented by ODIDIVA Evocative Innovation

NOMAD BISTRO & BAR

a groundbreaking variety show exposing new & upcoming artists;

fierce & fearless talent of Cape Town's vibrant counterculture

to the heart of the Mother City.

Produced and hosted by internationally renowned local performance artist,

Odidiva - The African Queen, (Vienna LIfe Ball, Face of Africa, Infecting The City Festival, Beefcakes),

SWAG SESSIONS is slick, edgy, conceptual, popular, and fabulous; the way art ought to be every night.

ODIDIVA Live on the Main Stage at MTV Plus 1 Festival, Le Paris Wine Estate , Franschoek CAPE TOWN, South Africa, 17 - 19 February 2017

"No Lip-Synching, No Impersonation, everything is live, proud and personal.”

Nadine Botha - Design Indaba magazine

Excruciating Awkwardness Made Exquisite

2017-01-05T10:29:00.002+02:00

Transparent (2014)

Excruciating Awkwardness Made Exquisite

by ODIDVA Odidi Mfenyana as seen www.IDMB.com

Transparent, a television series produced by Amazon.com, transforms how one views television by putting on TV, what most middle class people see as life turning moments into a fascinating study of a man and his family as he transitions into a woman in his twilight years.

To say the script and the acting are exceptional is to restrain hyperbole. To say the direction and production value is above any revival, takes away from the simplicity, the superb care taken by the producers to let the characters immerse one in this extraordinary tale. I have never been so freaked out by the awkwardness of scenes in a drama to the point, I am behaving like I am watching a horror film, and turning the volume off.

The subject matter in the series goes beyond just Trangender and will touch every cerebral adult whose ever struggled with a turning point: a life changing process.

Never have I seen such careful restraint, boldness or originality in American cinema or television since HBO's Looking. Both set in California and washed with its brilliant white light and breathtaking landscape echoing Cape Town and the Western Cape.

I would hate for this trailblazing gem to be diluted of its pungent divinity. Its supernatural how Transparent draws out from one all of life's emotions, from the depths of sorrow then ticking every box; ascending to euphoric happiness. The Amazon debut series does this with uncanny perfect timing and scintillating skillful finesse. The actors all have a deft touch of elevating their gifted script to believable reality. A masterclass in art imitating life.

Its only cinematic contemporaries are Cape Town boy-wonder Oliver Hermanus's Skoonheid (2011), the award-winning Neil Jordan's The Crying Game(1992) and TransAmerica (2005) that gave Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman a justified Oscar nomination. Transparent is a greedy feast an emotional smorgasbord of a television series. This is a collectors item for connoisseur's of American independent film and European Art-house Cinema.

Amazon.com must be applauded for its courageous and ingenious foray into film and television production. I can only wait with an anticipation and baited breathe for what Amazon Studios has next for the world. Transparent is as intense as 2016.

ODIDIVA Live and Exclusive @The Gold Bar at Coco Nightclub

2016-09-22T02:57:00.001+02:00

ODIDIVA Live - ONE NIGHT ONLY

Thursday 22 September 2016, LIMITED SPACE Booking Essential 0740167860 for guest list via wassap or FB Inbox

ODIDIVA Live at Gold Bar at Coco Nightclub

THE AFTER GLOW featuring ODIDIVA Live @The Collections, The Bay Hotel, Camps Bay

2016-09-06T23:58:00.000+02:00

The Afterglow

drink the warmth of rare red wines,

blush into your bubbly,

charm yourself into a local gin,

chatter and cheer with craft beer

savour camradarie in a crisp bottle of white.

unwind to smouldering sounds of DJ Lush blending the eclectic, electronic, world music

feel welcome as you are enchanted by our hostess Drag Diva

sitting sublime under the palms of Camps Bay's iconic beach,

bathed in the glow of darkening skies flushed red, burnt orange, golden delicious... sweet.

https://web.facebook.com/events/997804437005387/

ODIDIVA All Sweetness in Khuluma August 2016 issue

2016-08-05T16:46:00.002+02:00

Big Thanks to the efforts of one dedicated Odidiva fan and journalist, Keith Bain for writing such an in-depth 4 page spread, feature interview in Khuluma August 2016, the in-flight magazine of South African domestic airline Kulula.com

The interview is available online in the following link

ODIDIVA The Sweet Queen interview Khuluma Aug 2016

2 Nights with The African Queen

2016-02-12T03:17:00.000+02:00

For Two Nights Only ODIDIVA- The African Queen

brings her heartfelt vocal prowess to a vast musical set.

Starting with soul and jazzmixing it with slam poetry, social commentryand stand-up comedy

Odidiva performs her own original tracks whileweaving a seamless tapestry of popular musical renditions of songs by Amy Winehouse,Nina Simone, Portishead, Grace Jones, Massive Attack and Jill ScottThe African Queen includes local hits by Heavy K featuring Mpumi, Lebo Mathosa, BrendaFassie and Mama Miriam Makeba to name but a few.

See Africa's most internationally renowned and critically acclaimedLive Singing Drag Performer in a rare exclusive and limited engagement

“The word I would use to describe Odidi both personally and in his work is -
integrity.
This is an endangered commodity in contemporary art.

His work has immediacy and a connection with his audience who sense this
quality

–he is holding nothing back, he is transparent and fully committed.
This gives his work a political edginess that convinces and galvanizes his audience."

– JACK LEWIS (Film Director, Television Producer & Founding member of TAC)

2 Nights with The African Queen - https://www.facebook.com/events/1558933607767360/

Two Nights with The African Queen
Tasca Do Sol in Westdene, Gauteng, South Africa

Book now....082 685 9629 Kirsten

https://soundcloud.com/odidiva/sets/afrohican- ODIDIVA AFROHICAN EP
http://forecastpublicart.org/public-art-review/2014/06/highly-infectious/4/
- Public Art Reviewof The Homecoming Ball: BUSHWAACKINGInfecting The City 2014
http://odidiva.wix.com/odidiva - ODIDIVA Website

THE QUINTESSENTIAL NOCTURNAL SOCIALITE

ODIDIVA/Odidi Mfenyana was “discovered” by controversial andinternationally acclaimed
Theatre Director, Brett Bailey, while singing George Michael’s Freedom90 at the legendary
Monday Night Karoake at Bronx bar in 2001. Brett Bailey wrote OdidiMfenyana into the script
of his musical play BIG DADA-The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin as the following:
“ FIRE IN UGANDA by ODIDIVA: To be sung like Brenda Fassie meetsShirley Bassey and Grace
Jones”

Odidiva with Toya Delazy at Premiere of "While You Weren't Looking" 19 Sept 2015

Odidi Mfenyana was already a sought after Live Nightclub vocalist andrecording artist having
started alongside popular DJ’s Ryan Dent, Dino Moran, Shaun Duvet in1999 at Club MORE . As a
House music vocalist he has worked with international DJ’s TonyFinger (Italy) , Murat Kilic
(Australia), legendary DJ Paul Oakenfold and German hitmakersMilk&Sugar, who remixed the
ODIDIVA chartopper with Dino Moran GumbaFire”
By 2005 a synergy with the city’s leading fashionistas’ wasestablished alongside GQ Fashion Editor
Arthur Malan-Mureson, Glamour’s 1st Editor Amanda Gowing, MarieClaire’s Kate Wilson and Jan
Malan’s Umzingeli team who pioneered South Africa’s Fashion Showproduction and created MNET’s
Face of Africa.
This culminated in ODIDIVA and the cast of HOUSE OF THE HOLY AFROopening the 2008 FACE OF
AFRICA finale, at the Superbowl in Sun City, broad cast LIVE to 50million people worldwide.

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=136328740244
- Afro is African FACE OF AFRICA Finale, Sun City 2008

THE UNEXPECTED SOCIAL ACTIVIST

"ODIDIVA is live, loud and proud
But what distinguishes is her political edge."

Nadine Botha, Editor - DESIGN INDABA magazine, 1 May 2010

He hasactively participated with
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)

from organising Marches in Khayelitsha& Nyanga against
Xenophobia to composing

the original theme song forHIV/Aids magazine show SIYANGOBA/BEAT IT and appearing in its openingcredits for 5 years.

As ambassador for The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation(2008-2009),

ODIDIVA persuaded hndreds to participate in Drug Trials that helped create PrEP.

On 4 July 2015, ODIDIVA launched the national campaign for Male toMale sexual awarenessand HIV/Aids prevention by Anova Health Institute and Elton John AIDSFoundation "WeAreTheBrave"

ODIDIVA appears in a career defining public service announcementagainst Hate Crimes andXenophobia, Strange Fruit by Jack Lewis, singing the Billie Holidaymasterpiiece.
Mfenyana reworked with producer with Mason Black.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z-grpZOwRU
- Strange Fruit PSA Against Hate Crimes & Xenophobia 2009

'There is no passion to be found playing small -in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.'

Nelson Mandela

ODIDIVA EVOCATIVE innovationThe Sorcery & Charm of Imaginationhttp://odidiva.wix.com/odidiva http://odidiva.wix.com/evocative-innovation http://odidiva.wix.com/muscle-mary

"IT" FACTOR

2016-01-31T01:28:00.003+02:00

It's emotional

It's spiritual yet intellectual

Space cocooned by the vulnerability of trust

That gives rise to lust

A longing achingly soothed by symbiotic compassion

Born by the intertwined interdependence

That inspires chivalrous co-dependence

Courageous aquiescense

To place another inside thyself

Bonded eternally beside thee

Before thee

And yes even above thee

For without him

One can never truelly be

All that I can be

It fulfills and quenches an unyielding thirst

Communion-

A binding of souls with another

Whose spirit is like no other

For it is the you

I've been searching for secretly

Quietly yearning

For My Twin seperated by the divine

In the lottery of immaculate conception

It's an overpowering, all consuming aphrodisiac

That never loses its pugnacious arousing scent

For it was invocated

Evocatively blended

Uniquely for me

DJ GOLDEN DELICIOUS

2015-11-11T02:16:00.000+02:00

DJ. G.o.D.

by Odidi ODIDIVA Mfenyana

(suggested theme song to accompany poem: Romanthony - Bring U Up (PBR Streetgang Remix)

Golden Delicious round hot buns
Freshly baked and steaming hot from the oven
Mitted and gloved in faded dirty blue jeans
Giving that salaciously sweet wink of decolletage
A mischievous crevice of a smile
Alluding to that crack
A dirty joke wrapped in a puckered pink rose

Nobody else knows how to asphyxiate a room full of men
Raising the temperature in slow motion half seconds
As you lean forward - bend down - stretch up - scratch that
Expose that tanned golden brown, silky smooth torso
Smoking up staring eyes like Vaseline smeared lenses
Ogling a wet dream of sweating skin slapping and slurping
A lusty groaning gritty grind

Your Scandinavian Sandy Blonde Surfer locks
A sexy white squall of waves
An undulating storm straining against a fashionably fashioned
Japanese inspired Chignon bun
Cascade over your gorgeously charming good looks
Long blonde lashes framing Atlantic Blue Laced Agate eyes
pretty and precious
And that mouth a Cupid's kiss with an African Sting
Swollen to arousing perfection
A silent seduction
Spouting nonchalance in a parlance
Quintessentially induced to great Good Hope

You inspire a chorus of admirers
A tragedy of hubris you infuse in your girlfriend double speak
A slight of hand, a sneaky - cheeky little riddle
A quick witted deadpan leaving a Pink Elephant in the room
Time warped and hanging like piggy in the middle

As a skilled purveyor performer of music
You invoke serendipity's bliss
Your eyes burning bright
The lips plump in a pout with a dimpled smirk
Only the hyena whistles, giggles, and shouts
Feeding on the seamless syncopation of synchronised sounds
Sweeping effortlessly into songs,
soundscapes that set the dancefloor alight
Into a frenzy of gyrating rhythms speaking in tongues
That would be the envy of Naira Billionaire Pastors and Prophets

You struggle to keep your feet from turning you into that cartoon freak
The egotistical conceit cut-out, too high on his own supply
Nothing says "wanker" like the growing cancer of self absorbed music selectors
Mixologists ordaining themselves their own barometre: the audience, the crowd, the Go-Go dancers
Of coarse you have more class in that ass
In fact you secretly seek the approval of the dancefloor
Only then does your beauty become an albatross to your vulnerability
A humility to be recognised, appreciated and respected
On your creative skillset and not your assets
" Groove is in the heart"
is the delight at the core of your existence, your Calling
It beggars your disbelief that it must be contorted and prostituted
To sustain you in monetary value

And yet it must
As living off your looks is a banality that has metastasised your cynicism
Biting sarcasm, jaded jokes and twisted your wit
Its the cruel real politik of having it all
The big white dick
Don't care too much and you may never care enough

VAST! `Sundays with Odidiva Live @ Decodance

2015-11-03T15:10:00.001+02:00

ODIDIVA and the Mother City...: Sundays get VAST! with ODIDIVA Live @DecoDance

2015-10-24T11:02:00.001+02:00

ODIDIVA and the Mother City...: Sundays get VAST! with ODIDIVA Live @DecoDance: vast vɑːst/ adjective 1 . of very great extent or quantity; immense. "a vast plain full of orchards" ODIDIVA, The Ori...

Sundays get VAST! with ODIDIVA Live @DecoDance

2015-10-21T12:43:00.001+02:00

vast

vɑːst/
adjective1.
of very great extent or quantity; immense.
"a vast plain full of orchards"

ODIDIVA, The Original Live-Singing Drag Diva of Africa, is back after a 2 year hiatus with a new residency and a new show VAST! @DECODANCE Sundays from 25 October 2015.

In VAST! ODIDIVA will be collaborating with live musicians, guest dancers and drag performers while performing the latest hits and original tracks alongside her signature stand up comedy, social commentary, power ballades and foot stomping dance songs.

“The word I would use to describe Odidi both personally and in his work is - integrity.This is an endangered commodity in contemporary art.His work has immediacy and a connection with his audience who sense this quality –he is holding nothing back, he is transparent and fully committed.This gives his work a political edginess that convinces and galvanizes his audience."
– JACK LEWIS (Film Director, Television Producer & Founding member of TAC)

DECODANCE now includes a dedicated Cocktail Bar and VIP bottle/table service with dedicated waitron. Booking is essential Contact: Julian or Tawena at Decodance

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/events/1634326886806483/1634327120139793/

Je Suis Ravie (I am ravished)

2015-09-09T15:08:00.000+02:00

JE SUIS RAVIE

by Odidi Mfenyana

They say only women are complex, perplex and express

Contradictory notions that allow them to reign as Queens

Of a mind that can change at whim or wallow

Languishing slavishly in sorrow

Of perceived pain inflicted by the simple minded

Wooden male mind

Reduced to dim witted whipping posts

For lack of emotional dexterity does not reward compassion

This is stereotypical hyperbole in the histrionic method of hyperventilating situation comedy regurgitated sustainably and endlessly as to warrant gravitas as more than what it is: a jackass

ODIDIVA and the MUTHA CITY...

LISTEN NOW: THE LIVE RECORDING OF "SPARKLE & TWIRL WITH ODIDIVA PRESENTS WICKED WEDNESDAY"

" MUTHA HAS ARRIVED ! " - ODIDIVA joins MUTHA FM on its 21st BIRTHDAY

Die Bordienguis Teater biied aan: ODIDIVA Live

DILIGENT VIGILANTE BY ODIDIVA

VAST - A Lecture by ODIDIVA

THE HIGH PRIESTESS

Exclusive Launch Thursday 3 October 2019 20h00 - 22h00

POSE: THE UNENVIABLE FAGULOUS LIFE OF THE BEULAH BLACK QUEEN

Beulah Buffoons!

Please download or stream an app or trade exchange favours in kind.

I need you to watch POSE.

It will give you the edge; much needed incite into

The Unenviable Fagulous Life of The Beulah Black Queen.

This is gay superstar television producer Ryan Murphy Piece d'Resistance. The show that got him through making millions for deplorable billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corp with Nip/Tuck.

Like Bottom to Top Murphy exceeded our every hedonistic campy dreams with all the seasons of American Horror Story.

Who ever thought he would Top himself? Yet he did, riding the wave of gender fluid consciousness with the critical acclaim and cult following worthy POSE.

The genius of the series is it's depth of narratives and the "realness"of character arcs seamlessly hot-glued with rhinestone glitz of eponymous 1980's "Ball Culture".

The soundtrack deftly reminds us that it was the pioneering prophecy of Gay DJ's Frankie Knuckles (The Godfather of House) Marshall Jefferson and Larry Levan that turned disco into house.

And it's clear to see how with four four to the floor the kids can do more. And they do the most; strutting & twirling literally giving life, subverting the dark clouds gathering whispering AIDS.

Ultimately the Coup d'Grace is what lays it all out, the special bittersweet relationships with our most unsuitable suitors.

POSE builds a monument to our true love quest. A character Arc d'Triomphe of unrequited love. This The Eternal Flame of The Unknown Soldiers is so pertinently captured in *Whitney Houston's R&B torch-song classic "Saving All My Love for You".

*SIDEBAR:

My First and Last Vienna Life Ball

NEEDED: Compassion, Community, Camaradarie and Culture

The African Queen, Odidiva heading for Performa'17 in New York City

The COMEBACK with Guest of Honour ZANELE MUHOLI

THE SORCERY OF IMAGINATION TOHEAL THE NATION

ZANELE MUHOLI

A #BraveConversation with the one and only Odidiva

VOGUE COMES TO AFRICA with Odidiva - The African Queen

Odidiva - The African Queen

ODIDIVA - Official Website

Odidiva - The African Queen - Live Dinner Cabaret Show offers you the opportunity to experience the internationally popular and critically acclaimed talents of Odidiva in the warm, relaxed and hipster cool, live music venue, Nomad Bistro & Bar over Dinner and/or Drinks.

NOMAD Fusion BISTRO & BAR - Facebook Page

SPECIAL OFFER:

ALL Tables of 4 persons or more will receive a Bottle of Bubbly on the house courtesy of Odidiva and Nomad Bistro. (meaning a bottle of bubbly for every 4 persons)

BOOK ONLINE www.quicket.co.za

Mondays Get Lit with SWAG SESSIONS

SWAG SESSIONS presented by ODIDIVA Evocative Innovation

Excruciating Awkwardness Made Exquisite

Transparent (2014)

Excruciating Awkwardness Made Exquisite

ODIDIVA Live and Exclusive @The Gold Bar at Coco Nightclub

ODIDIVA Live - ONE NIGHT ONLY

THE AFTER GLOW featuring ODIDIVA Live @The Collections, The Bay Hotel, Camps Bay

ODIDIVA All Sweetness in Khuluma August 2016 issue

2 Nights with The African Queen

For Two Nights Only ODIDIVA- The African Queen

brings her heartfelt vocal prowess to a vast musical set.

Starting with soul and jazzmixing it with slam poetry, social commentryand stand-up comedy

See Africa's most internationally renowned and critically acclaimedLive Singing Drag Performer in a rare exclusive and limited engagement“The word I would use to describe Odidi both personally and in his work is -integrity.This is an endangered commodity in contemporary art.

His work has immediacy and a connection with his audience who sense thisquality

–he is holding nothing back, he is transparent and fully committed.This gives his work a political edginess that convinces and galvanizes his audience."

– JACK LEWIS (Film Director, Television Producer & Founding member of TAC)

THE QUINTESSENTIAL NOCTURNAL SOCIALITE

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=136328740244- Afro is African FACE OF AFRICA Finale, Sun City 2008

THE UNEXPECTED SOCIAL ACTIVIST

"ODIDIVA is live, loud and proud But what distinguishes is her political edge."

Nadine Botha, Editor - DESIGN INDABA magazine, 1 May 2010

He hasactively participated withTreatment Action Campaign (TAC)

from organising Marches in Khayelitsha& Nyanga againstXenophobia to composing

the original theme song forHIV/Aids magazine show SIYANGOBA/BEAT IT and appearing in its openingcredits for 5 years.

As ambassador for The Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation(2008-2009),

ODIDIVA persuaded hndreds to participate in Drug Trials that helped create PrEP.

On 4 July 2015, ODIDIVA launched the national campaign for Male toMale sexual awarenessand HIV/Aids prevention by Anova Health Institute and Elton John AIDSFoundation "WeAreTheBrave"

ODIDIVA appears in a career defining public service announcementagainst Hate Crimes andXenophobia, Strange Fruit by Jack Lewis, singing the Billie Holidaymasterpiiece.Mfenyana reworked with producer with Mason Black.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z-grpZOwRU- Strange Fruit PSA Against Hate Crimes & Xenophobia 2009

'There is no passion to be found playing small -in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.'

Nelson Mandela

ODIDIVA EVOCATIVE innovationThe Sorcery & Charm of Imaginationhttp://odidiva.wix.com/odidivahttp://odidiva.wix.com/evocative-innovationhttp://odidiva.wix.com/muscle-mary

"IT" FACTOR

DJ GOLDEN DELICIOUS

VAST! `Sundays with Odidiva Live @ Decodance

ODIDIVA and the Mother City...: Sundays get VAST! with ODIDIVA Live @DecoDance

Sundays get VAST! with ODIDIVA Live @DecoDance

vast

vɑːst/adjective1.of very great extent or quantity; immense."a vast plain full of orchards"

ODIDIVA, The Original Live-Singing Drag Diva of Africa, is back after a 2 year hiatus with a new residency and a new show VAST! @DECODANCE Sundays from 25 October 2015.

In VAST! ODIDIVA will be collaborating with live musicians, guest dancers and drag performers while performing the latest hits and original tracks alongside her signature stand up comedy, social commentary, power ballades and foot stomping dance songs.

See Africa's most internationally renowned and critically acclaimedLive Singing Drag Performer in a rare exclusive and limited engagement

“The word I would use to describe Odidi both personally and in his work is -
integrity.
This is an endangered commodity in contemporary art.

His work has immediacy and a connection with his audience who sense this
quality

–he is holding nothing back, he is transparent and fully committed.
This gives his work a political edginess that convinces and galvanizes his audience."

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=136328740244
- Afro is African FACE OF AFRICA Finale, Sun City 2008

"ODIDIVA is live, loud and proud
But what distinguishes is her political edge."

He hasactively participated with
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC)

from organising Marches in Khayelitsha& Nyanga against
Xenophobia to composing

ODIDIVA appears in a career defining public service announcementagainst Hate Crimes andXenophobia, Strange Fruit by Jack Lewis, singing the Billie Holidaymasterpiiece.
Mfenyana reworked with producer with Mason Black.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z-grpZOwRU
- Strange Fruit PSA Against Hate Crimes & Xenophobia 2009

ODIDIVA EVOCATIVE innovationThe Sorcery & Charm of Imaginationhttp://odidiva.wix.com/odidiva http://odidiva.wix.com/evocative-innovation http://odidiva.wix.com/muscle-mary

vɑːst/
adjective1.
of very great extent or quantity; immense.
"a vast plain full of orchards"