Secret Johannesburg Guide: A guide to the unusual and unfamiliar

About Claire Bell

Lisa Johnston is a writer and photographer who was born and grew up in Johannesburg. She has worked variously as a travel design and art journalist and is drawn to the unique creative pulse of the city and its people. In her early adult years Johnston tried on various occasions to leave Johannesburg for a quieter life both locally and abroad but Joburg's combination of grit green and glamour kept calling her back. She has lived the past 15 years in Johannesburg and has given up her quest for a country life focusing instead on growing an urban farm in her small garden not far from the city. Claire Bell grew up on Johannesburg's East Rand and fell in love with the city at the age of 5 when she first caught a train downtown. A journalist and investigative researcher she has a masters degree in philosophy from Birkbeck College in London and writes the blog UnpopularEssays.com. She loves how Joburg is at the epicentre of social political and cultural change. Bell is part of the team that runs Consciousness Cafe a pop-up dialogue cafe that brings South Africans together in galleries community centres and gardens around the city to have uncomfortable conversations about how the politics of the past still overshadow the present and to encourage deep democracy - where every voice is heard and valued.