The Sunday Mail
Society Reporter
JIVE Zimbabwe has come up with a programme meant to bring together local artistes under one roof to discuss various challenges the creative sector faces.
For a long time, artistes have struggled to come up with a proper platform to exchange notes pertaining to the industry.
The now-defunct Book Café used to be home for many creatives as they would occasionally meet, engage, share ideas and collaborate on projects.
However, Jive Zimbabwe — an arts promotion platform that was established to identify, develop and deploy talent — plans to address the situation through what it terms “Meat and Greet” sessions.
According to the organisation, the meetings will be held once every month at Padziva in Dzivaresekwa, Harare.
“Meat and Greet gatherings are meant to facilitate conversations among artistes, managers, producers, radio DJs, promoters, arts journalists and bloggers, among other arts stakeholders. The objective is to create strong synergies in advancing careers and, in turn, boosting the overall arts sector,” explained Jive Zimbabwe founder and director Benjamin “Benji” Nyandoro.
Nyandoro said a similar concept proved useful in the past.
“There have been growing calls from stakeholders in the arts sector for us to come up with such an initiative. We used to host a similar programme in the past but it was affected by various challenges and later on by the Covid-19 pandemic. But we have since remodelled the concept and created a new home.”
Jive Zimbabwe has worked with several local top acts in the country — among them Jah Prayzah, Alick Macheso, Peter Moyo and Suluman Chimbetu.
“It has not been easy, as in most cases, our proposals did not make much business to venue owners. However, in 2014 we established our own venue, Padziva in Dzivaresekwa. We had a fair share of teething problems as we started from ground zero with little resources,” narrated Nyandoro.
The first edition of the revamped “Meat and Greet” will be held today, June 4, at Padziva.
“This is the beginning of many good things to come for the arts sector. We hope the engagement will be fruitful as artistes and various stakeholders meet over food and drink.
“Today, we are happy that Padziva is doing very well, attracting huge crowds at events. In April, we hosted rhumba singer Juntal; in May, we had Baba Harare and Paradzai Mesi; and on June 24, we are hosting Killer T and Andy Muridzo, with several other big shows lined up,” he said.
The Jive Zimbabwe boss said their main objective is to create a conducive environment for meetings or gigs.
“This is our platform; we strive to make the terms very favourable for the artistes. Music is big business and we can all make a good living from it. We do hope such platforms will help unlock the value that artistes yearn for. Today, June 4, we are meeting at Padziva to share experiences and explore possible spaces for collaboration. Upcoming artistes must take advantage of these platforms to meet the established names. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, it is time to roll.”
