I’m Mthetho Mapoyi
I’m 28 years of age
and I live in Summer Greens outside of Cape Town
To call yourself an opera singer,
I must behave like one.
I must walk like an opera singer,
talk like an opera singer.
I want to live that life every day
and I take pride in it.
When I was a kid
I grew up in a township.
It’s a poor environment,
but it’s alive.
My mother introduced me to opera music.
We would sing together.
It became my passion.
When my mother passed away from HIV
I was heartbroken.
I lost touch with who I was.
But even some of the gangsters
they knew music it’s my ticket out.
They told me, keep on going Mthetho.
You will make it.
The music she introduced to me
kept me going.
Singing made the difference in my life.
I want to become a professional opera singer.
But for now, I work two jobs as a waiter.
Day
And night.
When that’s finished
I sing wherever I can.
I sang ‘Una Furtiva Lacrima’
for my mother’s funeral.
And now, when I sing ‘Una Furtiva Lacrima’
I’m telling her how much I love her.
I want to make them feel the emotion that I got from the song.
When I sing, I like to imagine that the room is empty.
There is only one person that I can imagine there,
and I sing for her.
I surf because it inspires me.
It’s almost like being in a painting
but a painting that you can smell and feel and touch
and laugh with and be scared with.
My name is Sergio.
I’m a graffiti artist.
I’m a cataloguer.
I’m an indexer.
I’m a person like you.
I’m born in ’83.
I’m like a child of the new democracy.
Hip-hop is basically the
the culture and the lifestyle that started all of this inspiration for me.
Giving back is like a core principal of this Hip-hop community.
When I’m doing workshops with people
it is to encourage them to make positive decisions for their own lives
and their families lives.
Others inspired me
and now I need to keep that energy going by inspiring others.
With HIV I think it’s definitely come a long way,
I think it’s definitely improved.
The paradigm shifted in so much as it’s more now about the education.
There are good people dedicating their lives
to affecting their change.
Yeah I love the ocean.
It’s a space where you get to connect with nature again.
The observing of nature is what I
almost live my life by.
I see red,
blue,
green,
black.
Shades of pinks and mauves and whites.
I have been inspired by nature because
you stop thinking and you start experiencing.
My intention is to remind people of nature.
I’m not trying to make rules for the rest of anybody it is just what
pushes me and inspires me.
It’s the contribution that I bring to the greater culture.
This is how I make the difference in the world.
This is how I be the change.