Dr Jade Gibson (PhD) is an academic, visual artist, poet and author of the prize-listed (Dundee Prize UK, Virginia Prize UK and Sunday Times Barry Ronge Prize, SA) novel ‘Glowfly Dance’ (Penguin Random House Umuzi 2015), a true story concerning gender violence, and its impact on children, as well as emphasising their resilience. She has a PhD (UCT, South Africa) and masters (UCL, London) in anthropology of art, a BA in fine art at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art in London, UK, and a BSc Hons in Biomedical Science at St George’s Hospital Medical School, UK. She has worked and taught on interdisciplinary projects at UCT (including NIHSS researching material and symbolic connections across BRICS; CAS), UWC (CHR; Cities in Transition Cape Town Transport Museum project), UCL (Diverse Cities in a Diverse World) and NYU in London (lecture course on World Art in Museums). She is currently lecturing a course this semester titled, ‘Strategies in Art Discourse: The World in Art, Art in the World’ at Michaelis Art School, UCT while continuing research with the Afro-Asia musical migrations 700-1500AD precolonial interdisciplinary project in Sociology, UCT. She was also a resident artist at Greatmore Art Studios, Cape Town for five years. Artworks/art films have been shown and/or presented in South Africa, Paris, London and Belgium in exhibitions or conferences. Community-based projects have been in South Africa and London. She has also worked as an artist/anthropologist for seven months in a rainforest with villagers setting up an environmental centre in Vanuatu, the South Pacific. She is a co-organiser of the Cape Town Writer’s Network meetup and has featured often at Off the Wall Poetry in Cape Town, and McGregor Poetry festival 2017. Jade combines academic knowledge and visual expression with a strong interest in interdisciplinary and collaborative projects, working across different genres and communities, and publishing likewise in academic publications spanning visual art, anthropology, performance studies, history and dance. She has always believed in the collaborative and communicative capabilities of art to embody social change, and is committed to talking about the issues of gender violence, particularly embodied in her novel Glowfly Dance.
Interview with Deborah Kalb, Washington US on Glowfly Dance
http://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.co.za/2017/10/q-with-jade-gibson.html
Article commissioned by ‘ThisisAfrica’ on the writing of Glowfly Dance
A truly remarkable women
Glowfly Dance needs to be published globally
We could all learn so much from Jade especially now in these challenging times THe PANDEMIC The effects of lockdown loss of income for millions the loneliness for many the effects of mental illness
What it means to us humans not interacting families being separated blah blah blah
The upside Nature how we value it birdsong clean air la la la
Jade takes the time to share the beauty whist enduring extreme pain The glass is always half full
She epitomises The DIvine
She needs to be universally heard
I met her when she was studying at St Martin’s Central school of art She would spend her holidays here in Pembrokeshire with us. I found her inspirational and she became a very dear and special friend. As a South African myself living in Wales the U.K. I was delighted she loved South Africa and ultimately got her SA residency it was an uphill struggle
She needs to write a sequel to Glowfly Dance I gather from her she has a draft copy but …
Ask her
Jade is a brilliant communicator using many different platforms
She is a superb Salsa Dancer
Discover Jade and your life will be enriched beyond belief
South Africa needs to really treasure her She is a gem