Tracey Saunders is a project manager by day, a journalist and theatre critic by night and a women’s rights activist & social justice advocate 24/7. She has worked in the social justice sector in South Africa for 34 years in a wide range of organisations from Abahlimi Bezekhaya to Zabalaza. She was a rape counsellor and political advocacy trainer at Rape Crisis where she served on the steering committee. A strong believer in the strength of the solidarity of womyn she was a member of The Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women, an organising member of the first One Billion Rising campaign in South Africa in 2013 and participated in the Total Shutdown Movement march to parliament in 2018. She currently serves on the board of Philisa Abafazi Bethu, a women’s centre in Steenberg, Cape Town.
Tracey is passionate about the possibilities of arts and culture to achieve social justice and believes that theatre can change hearts, minds and the world. She utilises her organisational development and financial skills on the boards she serves : FTH:K, a theatre company that creates theatre for the deaf community, Theatre in the Backyard, which creates site specific performances and Theatre Arts, an independent theatre venue in Cape Town that promotes
accessibility for audiences and artists. She is a member of the Fleur du cap Theatre Awards judging panel and was part of the National Arts Festival Artistic Committee where she curated the Arena Programme and convened the Standard Bank Ovation Awards Panel. She divides her time between Khululeka Grief Support, an organisation that supports bereaved children and #LoveYourWork where she follows her favourite writer, Mary Oliver’s “Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”