We heated up the climate change conversation this year as we took to the streets with our fellow youth to demand climate change action!

Learners from 3 schools in Pietermaritzburg, St. John’s DSG, Maritzburg College and Slangspruit Primary School, put together song and dance performance pieces to express their concerns about our future. They collaborated with researchers, musicians and choreographers to create song and dance performances, and partnered with the PMB Climate Crisis Coalition (PMB CCC) to host a series of events during National Science Week, an initiative of the Department of Science and Technology. The theme this year was “facing the harsh realities of climate change”.

Hip Hop Science Spaza created an opportunity for young people to explore how climate change impacts their daily lives and circumstances. Learners met with researchers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Research Chair in Waste and Climate Change and team members from the uMngeni Resilience Project to better understand climate science, and to develop songs through which to share what they had learned. They were also featured on television programme Hectic Nine-9. Be sure to catch their feature above.

The learners wrote their hip and happening songs after interviews with the researchers, and they recorded their HOT tracks! Then, in association with local dancer and choreographer Bonwa Mbontsi, they created a dance routine to perform at our final event!

Check out these cool cats!

Thank you to these organisations for collaborating with us!