Biography
After 8 Sistahood is a collective of women and non-binary people who gather to move through African cities at night. Through walks, public transport journeys, and creative interventions, the collective reclaims the night as a space for connection, care, joy, and belonging. Together, Sistahs challenge fear, remap segregated urban spaces, and imagine new ways of being present in the city after dark.
Synopsis
A Stitch in Time is a public performance in which participants collectively embroider memories, images, and phrases from previous After 8 sistahood gatherings onto cloth. The performance will take place on Government Avenue in the Company’s Garden.
The Sistahood will trace their footsteps in thread and conversation, unfolding fabric across space and time. Walking becomes remembering; remembering becomes conversation; conversation becomes stitching; and stitching becomes a promise of future encounter. The resulting fabric functions not as a definitive map of Cape Town, but as a living archive and an evolving invitation to imagine new relations with the city.
In a contemporary South African context, where histories and freedoms remain unevenly distributed, A Stitch in Time asks whether joy, safety, and connection can be witnessed across difference. What value lies in proximity to another’s experience? What remains inaccessible? And what, if anything, can be shared?
Festival-goers are invited to pull up a chair, join the conversation, ask questions, or add a stitch of their own.