On April 9, 2015, the Rhodes statue fell. Students at UCT lit something that spread across the country, and the whole world watched. Eleven years later, snow is the only thing that hasn't fallen since! Welcome to Melville Untold, where the tea stays piping hot even when the taps run dry.

In this week’s newsletter:

— Aubrey Moloto, Kele Jackson

Two weeks ago, Melville shut down 7th Street for The Happening. Over three thousand people; live art. stand-up, burlesque, a parade and more. No cars. Just people, owning the road for a day. We did it again a week later for April's Melville Art Mile. The party doesn't stop there though, it's gone up another level.

Main Street Sundays

Jozi My Jozi, the organisation pushing to bring life back into Joburg's CBD, has partnered with Young Urbanists, the same crew who turned Bree Street into Cape Town's most popular Sunday hangout, to launch Main Street Sundays. This Sunday, seven hundred metres of Main Street, from Gandhi Square to Ntemi Piliso Street, will be closed to traffic and opened to people.

Mbali Zulu from Jozi My Jozi puts it plainly: "We're cleaning up the city, making the city safe, empowering creatives, driving tourism, bringing people back. The gold is gone, right? So what's going to sustain the city? The creative economy. That's the future."

Where It Started: Bree Street Sundays

The idea didn't come from a boardroom. It came from Cape Town, where Young Urbanists started closing Bree Street to cars on Sundays and watching what happened. People showed up. Not to buy anything, not to be seen, just to be in a street without traffic. They brought chairs, chalk, and the kids and their skateboards. Bree Street Sundays became the most photographed street in Cape Town, and the model was simple: close the road, open to the people, let the rest take care of itself.

How It Became a Joburg Thing

The idea struck the Young Urbanists team, and they brought it to Jozi My Jozi, who had already been working on revitalising the CBD from the ground up. The City of Johannesburg came on board. JMPD and EMS are committed to safety. 475 people had already registered "Going" before a single bollard went up.

Mbali again: "People normally feel like, the city's not safe, it's not clean, I can't walk with my phone. But for that day, for those hours, you close it off to cars and make it accessible to people. Do it in creative activities. You experience the city differently."

What to expect on Main Street this Sunday:

Silent book readings in the road and chalk drawing, skateboarding, a skate park set up in the street, cycling with the 44 Stanley crew, markets with maker, art exhibitions and A Taste Of The Melville Art Mile

"The Standard Bank Gallery is opening on a Sunday for the first time, showing "Homecoming," an international exhibition that's been in Europe for years, hopscotch, two-barley, a DJ's in the middle of the road, baskets with music, kids playing, adults playing. No cars, just the city as it was always supposed to feel."

The Melville Connection

There's no way in hell that the creative soul of Jozi misses out! The Melville Art Mile is doing "A Taste of the Mile" pop-up at Main Street Sundays as well. We'll be featuring some of our regular participants for an immersive stall to raise awareness for the mile but celebrate Melville's art heritage as well.

Personally, this is what I love about Jozi My Jozi's approach. They're not just looking at one thing. They're looking at all of it; Safety, cleanliness, walkability, tourism, and creative economy. They want to get people and businesses back into the CBD Mbali says, " Getting people back to work, back to living, back to believing in the city". He's talking about civil infrastructure, community initiatives, security and culture; you can't leave out the fun. That's balance. That's what a city needs when it's reawakening.

And Melville is Jozi's bohemian heartland. Our festivals, our art walks, our rich history and heritage sites, our community, this is where culture lives. Getting involved isn't just about showing up to the civil issue meetings about water and power. It's about showing up for the good time as well. The things that make you want to stay.

Come Support Melville at Main Street Sundays!

Enjoyed this week’s digest? Consider buying us a coffee – It keeps the newsletter going.

What's happening? Events, that's what!

For more updates as the week goes on, visit our Instagram page @snapson7th or our Melville Pulse event calendar

Typical autumn in Jozi. Cooler evenings, dry days. The Koppies are golden right now.

Thursday  

25° 🌡️ 14° | ⛅ | 🌧️ 2% | NNW 7 km/h 💨

Friday 

27° 🌡️ 13° | 🌤️ |  🌧️ 3% | SW 9 km/h 💨

Saturday 

27° 🌡️ 13° | ⛅ | 🌧️ 1% | NW 7 km/h 💨

Sunday

26° 🌡️ 15° | 🌥️ | 🌧️ 55% | NW 11 km/h 💨

Monday 

25° 🌡️ 14° | 🌤️ | 🌧️ 55% | WSW 6 km/h 💨

Tuesday 

22° 🌡️ 13° | ⛅ |  🌧️ 25% | NNW 9 km/h 💨

Wednesday

24° 🌡️ 9° | ⛅ |  🌧️ 25% | WNW4 km/h 💨

Kevdon and Co, the vintage clothing store at 6 7th Avenue, are packing up and moving to Linden. If you ever walked past and heard vinyl playing from a turntable inside, that was them. Carefully chosen denim, leather goods, vintage shoes, and a comfortable seating space that made you want to stay a while.

Kevdon was not just a shop. It was a reason to walk that side of the strip. The hood is lighter without them. Go find them in Linden, and tell show them some love in their new home!

Remember Zimtoti, the ethnic plant-based bakery in Richmond we featured before? They're finally reopening, much closer to the strip; they've moved into Wild Jasmine Guest House on 2nd Avenue. It is "a collaboration rooted in community" Zimtoti brings the food and the workshops. Wild Jasmine brings the space and the guest house energy. They're only open for online ordering via WhatsApp and their website.

New recipes, cooking classes, their famous sugar-free cookies, Moringa pesto and breads are all back. Keep an eye on their comms for the full cafe reopening and join in Wild Jasmine's vegetarian dinner Soirees to get a taste of their delicious food!

After three years and 100k+ monthly views, Meta wrongfully deleted @snapson7th without a proper explanation. No appeal worked, no human ever replied. It's really heartbreaking to know that you could work so hard on something that serves not only you but also the community, and someone could just take it away like that.

We're not rebuilding there. The newsletter you're reading right now is, and always will be, the heart of what we do. But we're going where our visual work has always belonged: YouTube. Follow our journey at https://www.youtube.com/@Snapson7th

The snaps aren't stopping. They're just moving somewhere else.

There's a smelter on the Melville Koppies that we think was built by the ancestors of today's Batswana and Sotho-speaking people sometime between 1060 and 1580 AD. Revil Mason excavated it in 1963; many others around Jozi have been built over.
On May 1, the University of Johannesburg is launching an augmented reality experience that brings the smelter back to life. You hold up your phone and see iron being forged where iron was actually forged, with storytelling that points towards a wider history of the whole region. It's not just "this wall used to be here." It's animated. It's narrated. It's for anyone from 5 to 95.

We did an in-depth article in a recent issue, then this last weekend, we joined up with Dr Izak Potgieter and his colleague, Dr Sechaba Maape, a WITS architecture lecturer and his class at the Koppies to see the site and check on progress with the project.
"The colonial narrative was that this land was empty. There weren't complex societies. There wasn't a complex economy. But it's absolutely incorrect. There was incredible complexity, incredible diversity, and an incredible amount of activity happening before the 1800s. And there's a lot we can learn from how those societies functioned," said Izak.

The project consulted the Koppies management committee, the Friends of the Melville Koppies, visitors to the site, and experts at UCT, Wits and UJ.
"People in Melville, people in Johannesburg now know that the smelter exists, and it's a site worth visiting. And perhaps even internationally, people start seeing this as a signifier of this pre-colonial chapter, which has not been written properly yet. A little pinprick opening up into a much larger world."

The Koppies are open Sundays 8-11:30am. Go walk it before May, then go back with your phone.

The good people at Ziggy's Pet Pamporium have a public service announcement..."If you find your animal is a little more itchy than usual, scratchy, itchy, scratchy, it could very well be because of the late rains," she says. "It's causing a massive flea breakout. Fleas are nasty bugs that never bite once."

The fix? Tick and flea treatment if they've already got it. A natural deterrent like a cocky bush wash if you're being preventative. And watch the cats: "They say the cats are the naughtiest breed, because they go from house to house. So they spread it."
Also: the park. "Some people have come back from the park with a flea or a tick on them. It's just generally everywhere right now."

Cobi's advice: "Keep an eye on it, stay on it, because when they get out of control, it's not fun for anyone. For them or for the humans."

You've been warned, Melville.

And just like that, phew! The 4th edition of Melville Art Mile has risen and fallen on a quieter easter weekend in Melville. Although it was quiet, people still showed up and helped us celebrate our art heritage in true Melville spirit.

Melville Art Mile May Edition Application Link: https://form.jotform.com/260664684478068

The MBA are calling all Melville business owners and community members to The Green Fork this Thursday at 4pm post-happening debrief. The agenda is simple: what worked, what didn't, and what happens next.

The Happening pulled over three thousand people onto 7th Street, and it was magic, but magic needs maintenance.

Cobi put it this way in the business group: "This is a community-driven event. Join the meeting to make it worthwhile for your business and our entire community."

That's all folks! Thank you for joining us again. If this newsletter made your week a little better, consider buying us a coffee.

Want to reach our engaged 1100+ audience? Let’s talk about advertising with us. You can also support the Melville Art Mile by spending at our stand at Main Street Sundays.

Know something the Ville needs to know? Hit reply.

Read something that made you smile? Forward this mail to a friend who loves Melville.

Til next week Melville, stay fierce, stay family focused, stay friendly.

Jajohecha peve. ✌️