If you haven’t yet seen it, drop by 22 Kloof street anytime to Unknown Union and add your dream to the Before I Die wall.

Special thanks to all the people involved in making this one of the best BID walls yet!

Simeon
Caroline
Richard
Elena
Tina
Chris
and Ciaran!

Special thanks to Jody, Shaun and Andrew for letting us deface their wall with such beauty. Ewok, you’re a gentleman for the hook-up.

Support Nicro.co.za guys. They were going to let us use their wall, but we were too late.

PLEASE POST YOUR PICS FROM THE WALL ON THE FB PAGE, and TWEET TO @PULPONLINE for SHARES!

So when I saw the “Before I Die” project for the first time online, I knew this was a project that South Africans would embrace. Candy Chang gave us the go-ahead and within days I had found the right wall in the Maboneng District in Johannesburg CBD.

Founded in 2008 by Jonothan Liebmann, the Maboneng Precinct has become a ground-breaking urban mixed-use community. A cultural hub known for its mix of galleries, artist studios, creative venues, offices and retail spaces. What better place for a wall to share your dreams?

We started prepping the wall in advance for the project to form part of the Urban Arts festival (www.cityofgoldfestival.co.za), Johannesburg’s first international festival celebrating the urban arts of graffiti and now street art too. Rasty is the man behind the Urban Arts festival, and he also jumped onboard, offering his services of decorating the wall with one of his well known graf characters that have become so recognizable on the walls of South Africa. Clark, another graffiti artist and friend of Rasty’s agreed to do the other end. A beautiful frame to our Before I Die wall awaited.

The weeks before the project went live on the 14th April 2012 were filled with scraping down the wall and priming it with our chalkboard paint. As soon as we started on day 1, willing hands started pulling in to help. The hands of the Maboneng children who skate on the street of the precinct every Saturday. Zean Ferreira dedicates his Saturday’s to teaching these kids the art of the skateboard and he was nice enough to encourage some of them to help clean the wall.

A big lesson came during the next week: Maboneng is rife with easily encouraged amateur artists. Within 24 hours our nicely painted wall was covered in graf, art and messages written in stone by the local kids who helped prep the wall. Obviously they didn’t realise the stones would be permanent, and we didn’t mind having planted the seed of sharing in public.

So another coat was painted the following week, and this time I was way ahead of them. I had left a box of chalk at the Uncle Merv’s coffee shop across the road from the wall. Thanda, who serves the best coffee in Maboneng, would be on guard, sharing the chalk with anyone who felt like drawing. We still hadn’t stenciled the wall, so there really were no rules, just an empty chalk board.

Finally the big day arrived, and excitement had been building on our vitrual Before I Die wall that had been set up on Facebook (www.facebook.com/beforeIdie).

We got stenciling early, but it wasn’t early enough. Before the white spray paint could dry, visitors of the popular Maboneng flea market were flocking to the wall to share their dreams. Here are just a few of the gems that came out on that day:

Experience the change I see in the world
Acquire the taste for whiskey
Love myself
Get married
Visit Barca
Do acid
Master the trumpet
Meet God
Have one more minute
Live, love, create
Give birth

A month in and the wall is still going strong. I visit each Sunday morning to jot down the old dreams and wipe it down to make space for the new ones. I’m never disappointed.

Next stop Cape Town! Thanks Candy!

PART 1

PART 2

pics and videos!

They proved to be their own worst enemies setting the standard that they have to beat so high that each video that has followed has broken records and blown minds! We strive to follow!

Their second video

Or this one if you prefer

And their latest offering

March 2010 – A 3-day long MTN Group Leaders Conference was to culminate with a Capoeira performance, the likes of which was to dissent the authentic beauty of the people from whence it came. 5 Capoeira performers just doing what they do best.

The real “feather in our cap” until the call for our involvement in the FIFA World Cup 2010 Opening Ceremony came along, but a performance whose images and movement speak for themselves.

See the final video and pics here.

Real Action Pantsula knew what they were in for when we joined them on the streets of Sandton to flash mob the populace of Jozi. Many of them have spent time in a Capoeira circle before and they all rocked the acro. Check out some of the footage below.

Check the raw pluck of this performance here.