KEWPIE, daughter of District Six

95pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Cape Town, 2019

This publication follows the exhibition curated by Jenny Marsden and Tina Smith, first held at the District Six Homecoming Centre, September 2018-March 2019.

Hairdresser, socialite and drag queen Kewpie (1941-2012) was born at 13 Osborne Street, District Six. She was a gender fluid individual who preferred feminine pronouns.  She trained at Salon André in Hanover Street before opening her own Salon Kewpie in Kensington, which became the center of the queer and drag community. A keen dancer, she performed in local charity cabaret events under the stage name of Capucine.

Includes photographs from Kewpie’s personal collection of more than 700 prints, taken from the 1950s to the 1980s. The collection is held at the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) archive in Johannesburg. Kewpie provided captions for the photographs when the collection was acquired in 1997. Also features photographs from the collection of Kewpie’s sister Ursula and the District Six Museum archive.