Voices of the Unheard
Art, research, cultural exploration, surrealism, spirituality, and thesearch for existence all open pathways into the theme “Voices of the Unheard.” We seek to question what is hidden, misunderstood, voiceless, or repressed, drawing on theoretical concepts and the aesthetics of negative emotions, as Sianne Ngai writes. Through these expressions, writers, researchers, professors, and artists uncover silenced truths and invite us tolook beyond convention.
This theme also speaks directly to Johannesburg: a city of layers and contradictions, where histories of displacement andstruggle sit alongside immense creative force. Its energy is both fractured and vibrant, demanding that we uncover, unearth, and rediscover the voices that shape it. In doing so, we return to something raw and deeply human.
The TEDxJohannesburg youth team invites you to spend the day with us where ideas, art, and theory converge. The program will unfold in separate sessions. Within each session, three to four speakers will share the stage with a performer—be it music, poetry, or another unexpected expression—each offering seven to fifteen minutes of curated insight or artistry. Between sessions, the space transforms into part of the experience, through immersive works that invite guests to wander, contemplate, and participate. The format is created to cultivate intimacy and resonance – drawing the audience nearer to the ideas, the art, and to one another through curated dialogues and shared explorations.
Scroll down for the TEDxJohannesburgSalon: Voices of the Unheard speakers.
Because ideas change everything.
Voices of the Unheard
Saturday, 28 February 2026 | 10:00-18:00 | Goodman Gallery, Rosebank
Buhlebendalo
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Philanthropist, storyteller, healer, visionary, a chosen vessel from the gods - are a few words to describe the vocal prowess that is Buhlebendalo. The stage is Buhlebendalo's safest place. When her feet start tapping to the beat of a drum, it is as though the heavens are clapping in jubilation.
Desire Marea
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Desire Marea is a performance artist, experimental musician, actor, painter and writer and sangoma. His practice interrogates and embodies the multiplicity of black being. He asks the question: What does it mean to be? He identifies as Isimakade.
ByLwansta
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ByLwansta is a South African artist-entrepreneur and cultural producer. His work spans music, design, curation, and infrastructure building. He is driven by a simple philosophy: creating the things he wishes existed. His work prioritises storytelling, world-building, and long-term cultural infrastructure over monetary visibility.
Anna Reverdy
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Anna Reverdy is a cultural entrepreneur, studio, and artist manager. Anna is known for building bridges across artistic communities and leading projects that connect practices with diverse audiences and stakeholders.
Mbali Dhlamini
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Dlhamini performs visual, tactile and discursive investigations into current indigenous cultural practices. Working to maintain a state of unlearning and relearning, Dhlamini's process recognises language as a medium of understanding and as a repository of knowledge.
Thando Phenyane
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Thando Phenyane's work examines how identity, space and power shape the Black psyche. His practice is conceptually grounded in Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, using the idea of the "mask" as a metaphor for the psychological, social and spatial adjustments Black people are compelled to make in order to survive within inherited systems of power.
Relebone Rirhandzu eAfrika
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Relebone Rirhandzu eAfrika is a small-town girl who relishes getting lost in the city. She is a writer, mental health advocate, and philanthropist who writes on a variety of topics, including gender, music, culture and spatial politics.
Thando Zide
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With a voice that carries both depth and nostalgia, musician Thando Zide is shaping a new sonic landscape where contemporary R&B, Jazz and African soul intertwine seamlessly.
mpho ndaba
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mpho ndaba is a writer, business strategist, producer, and transdisciplinary scholar. mpho's intellectual inquiries sit at the intersections of Black Studies, Black Planetary Studies, Environmental Humanities Critical Queer Studies, Black Sonic Studies, Critical Urban Studies, and Change Leadership. At the core of mpho's thinking, life is a sustained inquiry around the historical processes that inaugurated alienation in Black psychic life.
David Mann
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David Mann is an award-winning author, editor and art critic. He currently works as the writer and for the arts incubator, The Centre for the Less Good Idea, and is a co-founder of the Johannesburg-based arts writing collective, Writers' Block.
Tumi Mogorosi
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Percussionist, scholar, composer, and activist Tumi Mogorosi is in the vanguard of the South African music and cultural scene's burgeoning outernational dimension. He took the drummer's chair in multiple boundary-pushing formations. Driven by activist urgency and a large-scale creative vision, Mogorosi explores musical motives and improvisation to create modal grooves rooted in spiritual jazz and hard bop, working toward a sound that celebrates collective expression.
