Durban's weekend line-up: where culture meets community and music takes centre stage
This weekend promises to be an unforgettable experience for Durbanites, featuring a tapestry of events that celebrate music, community spirit and environmental awareness.
Durban City Orchestra in Concert
Music-lovers have an opportunity to listen to the Durban City Orchestra (DCO) perform at an afternoon concert.
The DOC will perform a captivating programme of striking melodies from Mozart, Coleridge-Taylor and Mussorgsky, along with the debut of a new Spring overture.
The concert will also showcase the talents of Tsepho Ntswelengwe, who will perform the Mozart Horn Concerto.
Where: NG Kerk Umhlanga, 34 Herrwood Dr, Herrwood Park.
When: Saturday, May 17, at 3pm.
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IOL News
2 days ago
- IOL News
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Igor flashing a look Image: Renegade Paws Rescue/The Washington Post The shelter tried to train him, the post says, but Igor made the trainer cry. 'Igor wants you,' the post continues. 'He'll plan evil schemes with a dog sibling or two. But he doesn't want too many friends and he might need an exorcism if you bring that nice golden retriever from down the street over for a playdate.' Simply put, 'Igor is not a good boy,' the post reads. 'Igor is an experience.' Yet, apparently, many potential adopters are eager to experience all that Igor has to offer. Shortly after the rescue shared Igor's adoption post on Facebook on July 7, it went viral with thousands of likes, comments and shares. Dozens of adoption requests poured in. 'I'm pretty sure I just found my soulmate,' one person commented on Facebook. 'I see no red flags here,' wrote another. 'Nobody expected it to get that big,' said Jennifer Taylor, founder and director of Renegade Paws Rescue. 'It just blew up.' Igor is believed to be about 5 years old. Image: Kerry Farinha/The Washington Post The post was written by the rescue's team of social media volunteers, who often lead with humor in describing their adoptable dogs. 'We have to see a lot of sadness every single day,' Taylor said. 'Sometimes, we just need a laugh.' Plus, she said, the strategy has proved effective. 'We make posts like that all the time to make people laugh and draw attention to the dogs that need it,' Taylor said. Igor's fame quickly spread beyond social media, landing him a feature on Savannah's WSAV News 3 and an appearance on NBC's 'Today' show - which involved a trip to New York City. Igor was mostly behaved during his travels, Taylor said, aside from a minor mishap at the airport, when he growled at a Transportation Security Administration agent. Igor giving side-eye. Image: Kerry Farinha He gave 'side-eye and all the sass,' Taylor said. 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The Citizen
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IOL News
10-07-2025
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A love letter to Durban and all its flaws
Award-winning novellist Elana Bragin's latest novel Station Life Repair is a love letter to all that is joyful about Durban, while not hiding the darkness. Image: Supplied Prolific author, Elana Bregin, is launching a new novel, Station Life Repair, which focuses on the intersection of lives and events, choices and circumstances of a series of characters living and working in Durban. Bregin will be in conversation with Lliane Loots, lecturer, commentator, academic and director of Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience and Flatfoot Dance Company, at Ike's Books in Greyville on July 29 at 6pm. One seldom reads a book, deeply rooted in a contemporary Durban which is cognisant of this city's multi-layered complexities. Station Life Repair is a love letter to all that is joyful about the city, while not hiding the darkness in the shadows. The story has an array of well-developed characters covering the spectrum of people you find in Durban – a wise, heroic, engaging black therapist; a white woman trying to craft authentic life choices; passionate African foreign nationals trying to assimilate themselves into inner-city life and contribute meaningfully to their adopted home; an eccentric but empathic Indian vendor at the morning market; a feisty and outspoken older woman living with deep scars and rage; and a grumpy, harassed but bighearted single parent with his own demons to purge. The novel Station Life Repair features an array of characters who call Durban home. Image: Supplied Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Bregin, as a writer inspired by the city she lives in, always finds huge empathy and resonance towards all the citizens of her city. Her novels unpack how Durbanites of different backgrounds engage with each other and find commonality and connection in the face of 'othering'. She finds interest in setting opposing characters against each other and allowing circumstances to enable them to find a way to meaningfully connect – breaking down stereotypes in the process. Her writing is infinitely readable, her plots carefully structured, her characters are plausible and real, and there is always a shimmer of hope and optimism as the story unfolds. Ruby's life is, outwardly, a fortunate one: she stays in a pleasant suburb, teaches at the inner-city community school, KwaSisonke, and can be counted among the more blessed of Durban's citizens. But none of it satisfies the void at her centre. "The music has stopped," as Kirshiel, the oddball stranger at the morning market observes. The arrival on her doorstep of a problematic elderly house guest with traumatic history stirs up murky waters in Ruby's life. She becomes embroiled in the other's messy family dynamics, forcing her to confront her own undealt-with traumas, both past and present. Like the other characters, and the city itself, Ruby must undertake the difficult journey forward through the heart of the wound, in order to find wholeness. Bregin's body of work reflects a diversity of styles and genres, from children's and young adult novels to adult fiction, narrative non-fiction and speculative fiction. Born in Johannesburg she has lived most of her life in Durban and holds a BA degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MA in English cum laude from the then University of Natal. She lives and works remotely, just outside Durban in 1000 Hills area. Bregin first came to attention for her award-winning Young Africa titles such as The Red-haired Khumalo, The Boy From the Other Side and The Kayaboeties, which addressed racial dynamics in a changing society and have retained an enduring popularity with teachers and pupils in South African classrooms. Her work has sometimes attracted controversy for its tendency to write across rather than within categories and its frank tackling of sensitive issues. The Slayer of Shadows (1996), a fantasy-realist work set in the turbulent days of 1990s internecine violence, won the English Academy Percy Fitzpatrick Prize in 2000.
