Great things come out of parties

It's a month before we launch The Creative Exchange in November. This will be a lively forum where I will be talking to leading creative minds about their work, their vision, and the importance of culture and creativity in the world today. This will be a journey of discovery for all of us and I look forward sharing it with you in this blog.

I should tell you how this whole thing came together: About a month ago, I was at a party chatting to some very interesting people when I saw the ever ebullient Sarah Thompson, publisher of The Women's Post.

We rushed towards one another, thrilled to see each other again. We had not spoken since a fundraising dinner for my opera The Passion of Winnie in June. We had spent the entire dinner talking about art, music, her newspaper and of course, Winnie Mandela. Mrs. Mandela (the guest speaker on that occasion) was refused permission to enter Canada and had been replaced by the filmmaker & actor LeVar Burton whom we all know from the epic series Roots and also Star Trek: The Next Generation. After LeVar's moving speech that evening, Sarah got to hear me swear (out of shock) as LeVar, without warning me, announced in front of all assembled for dinner that he is inviting me to write the musical score of his next movie being shot in Africa. These were the exciting circumstances of our last encounter.

So, back to the current party, we rushed to each other and hugged. I could see she had some special news to share, she could hardly contain her excitement. I learned she had just done a naughty thing, bought an online radio station. I was thrilled and I enquired further. It was going to be an extension of the paper, exciting new topics to explore, engaging with a whole new audience.It also turned out she's looking for someone to do a cultural segment, would I know anyone? Despite the heat and the wine fogging my mind, a light bulb dimly switched on in my head, I used to be on South African Broadcasting’s radio network back in the day, reading the news and also doing arts interviews for a classical music station before I left for the New World.
I really enjoyed it and would be thrilled to do it again, music schedule permitting.

So here we are, a month before the launch of the first interviews for The Creative Exchange. Sometimes, great things come out of parties.