Rootformula

Neo Trinity Rakgajane is the curator of the Design Share Party, a platform dedicated to celebrating design, creativity and the exchange of ideas. His work spans graphic design, music and cultural storytelling. Through his work, he explores the relationship between creativity, identity and society. His approach combines design thinking with deep interest in popular culture. Through initiatives such as the Design Share Party and his ongoing creative projects, Neo continues to champion creativity as a catalyst for connection, innovation and cultural impact for the African Diaspora.

A multidisciplinary Malagasy creative based in Johannesburg, working across body and culture through styling, traditional massage, and culinary development, with a practice rooted in ethical, memory-led, and sustainable approaches to Indian Ocean craftsmanship. Founder of ZEK’S and Akao Food Lab, he is currently developing a fusion Food Lab project that expands culinary narratives and cultural exchange. During his residency with Rootformula Studio, he will also develop a book reflecting his research, process, and multidisciplinary practice.

SelloTapes (AmaCassettes) is a South African sound artist, producer, and cultural archivist whose practice centers cassette tapes as both medium and metaphor, exploring memory, time, and Black sonic inheritance. Through field recordings, experimental composition, and tactile publishing, he reimagines analogue processes as living archives that connect community histories to contemporary sound culture across Africa and its diasporas. During his participation in the Rootformula Residency Programme, he further developed this research-led practice through exchange, experimentation, and public presentation.

Ntsane Lerato Lichaba is a South African guitarist, composer, and sonic researcher whose work bridges indigenous memory with contemporary urban sound through performance, production, and sonic experimentation. Founder and bandleader of Urban Village, and working through House of Kuumba, he blends Soweto folk traditions with jazz, rock, and ritual-driven improvisation into a distinctive, community-rooted musical language. During his participation in the Rootformula Residency Programme, he expanded this research-led practice through collaborative exchange, performance development, and public engagement.

Bilal Da DJ is a Soweto-born DJ, producer, and sonic storyteller whose practice blends vinyl culture, genre-fluid curation, and richly layered soundscapes shaped by rhythm, memory, and lived experience. Moving fluidly across bossa nova, jungle, Afrobeat, organic percussion, and digital formats, his performances respond intuitively to space, atmosphere, and audience. During his participation in the Rootformula Residency Programme, this evolving sonic practice led to the development of Adey & Bilal Studio Sessions—an intimate live performance and documentation platform dedicated to experimentation, collaboration, and contemporary musical exchange.

Questioning what happens when women reject societal expectations and create identities on their own terms, The Rebirth of Authenticity brought together the practices of Taiwo Aiyedogbon and Mary Oruoghor during the Rootformula Residency Programme. Through live art performance, embodiment, movement, and performative experimentation, the artists created a shared space to reflect on women’s lived experiences, representation, visibility, and the evolving nature of selfhood.

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Presented as a culminating residency performance, the work unfolded as a live encounter between body, memory, and presence—opening space for conversation, reflection, and multiple ways of understanding identity.