Latest news with #Hayward
The Star
15 hours ago
- Health
- The Star
Cape Town woman clarifies viral sea foam video: 'I felt like a mermaid in a bubble bath'
Gerry Cupido | Published 47 minutes ago When Michelle Sky Hayward shared a video of herself having the time of her life swimming in the ocean, she had no idea it would make headlines around the world. In the now-viral clip, the Capetonian is seen frolicking in foamy waters, even blowing bubbles in what many at the time assumed was 'sewage water.' Since the video spread online, Hayward has been flooded with questions about the incident. Stunned by the reaction, she posted a follow-up video to address some of the concerns. She began by clarifying that she's not an American tourist but a local who swims in the ocean at least once a week. Naturally, people were concerned about her health. But Hayward reassured viewers she didn't get sick. 'If anything, maybe it even boosted my immune system, because I've been feeling great ever since,' she said. While she admitted the water appeared murkier than usual, she noted there was no bad smell that might have put her off swimming. She did, however, point out the unusually large amount of foam. 'Honestly, I loved the foam. I loved it! I felt like I was in a bubble bath. It was so cool. I felt like I was a mermaid in a bubble bath,' she said. The slightly warmer water made the experience even more enjoyable. 'I was having the time of my life. I spent so much time there,' she added. Though many assumed she was swimming in sewage, the City of Cape Town has dismissed those claims. 'Claims that the sea foam at Blaauwberg beach and surrounds in Cape Town is a result of sewage or pollution are incorrect,' they said in a statement. 'Water quality samples taken at Big Bay, Small Bay and Table View over the past 12 months showed excellent results.' They added that sea foam is a natural phenomenon caused by ocean activity, especially strong wave action along the city's exposed coastline. Marine scientist Dr Barry Clark explained in a separate video that the foam, along with murky water, was likely due to waves hitting kelp, breaking it down into particles that mixed with other organic material.
IOL News
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Cape Town woman clarifies viral sea foam video: 'I felt like a mermaid in a bubble bath'
Michelle Sky Hayward's video of herself enjoying a swim in the ocean has gone viral. Image: Screenshot / Instgram When Michelle Sky Hayward shared a video of herself having the time of her life swimming in the ocean, she had no idea it would make headlines around the world. In the now-viral clip, the Capetonian is seen frolicking in foamy waters, even blowing bubbles in what many at the time assumed was 'sewage water.' Since the video spread online, Hayward has been flooded with questions about the incident. Stunned by the reaction, she posted a follow-up video to address some of the concerns. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading She began by clarifying that she's not an American tourist but a local who swims in the ocean at least once a week. Naturally, people were concerned about her health. But Hayward reassured viewers she didn't get sick. 'If anything, maybe it even boosted my immune system, because I've been feeling great ever since,' she said. While she admitted the water appeared murkier than usual, she noted there was no bad smell that might have put her off swimming. She did, however, point out the unusually large amount of foam. 'Honestly, I loved the foam. I loved it! I felt like I was in a bubble bath. It was so cool. I felt like I was a mermaid in a bubble bath,' she said. The slightly warmer water made the experience even more enjoyable. 'I was having the time of my life. I spent so much time there,' she added. Though many assumed she was swimming in sewage, the City of Cape Town has dismissed those claims. 'Claims that the sea foam at Blaauwberg beach and surrounds in Cape Town is a result of sewage or pollution are incorrect,' they said in a statement. 'Water quality samples taken at Big Bay, Small Bay and Table View over the past 12 months showed excellent results.' They added that sea foam is a natural phenomenon caused by ocean activity, especially strong wave action along the city's exposed coastline. Marine scientist Dr Barry Clark explained in a separate video that the foam, along with murky water, was likely due to waves hitting kelp, breaking it down into particles that mixed with other organic material. IOL Lifestyle
The Guardian
a day ago
- General
- The Guardian
‘Our dreams were shattered': the Black Californians forced from the city they built
In the early 1940s, Gloria Moore's parents migrated west from Arkansas, seeking – as many Black southerners did at the time – work, and a reprieve from poverty and Jim Crow. They first found jobs working in the wartime shipbuilding industry in Portland, Oregon, before ultimately settling in Russell City – a small, unincorporated community in the San Francisco East Bay, and a bastion of Black and Latino culture and life. There, the Moores bought several acres of land, built a house and raised Gloria and her three siblings. Now 82, Moore remembers life in Russell City as rich, pastoral and communal. The local school, where her mother worked as a cook, had dedicated teachers and an impressive orchestra; the dirt roads that cut through town led to vast oak fields that exploded with wildflowers every spring; and residents always looked out for one another. 'We really were a village,' Moore said, recalling reading National Geographic magazines over milk and cookies at the home of the local librarian. But in 1963, that village was razed to the ground. Citing eminent domain, the predominantly white city of Hayward forcibly removed residents of Russell City from their land, paying homeowners paltry sums for their property before incinerating every building in the community to make way for an industrial park. For the surviving members of the 205 families that were displaced, that trauma is haunting. 'We lost everything. Our community was erased. My parents, they lost their dignity,' said Moore, who now lives in Los Angeles. 'Our dreams were shattered and we were forced to scatter.' From West Oakland to San Francisco's Bayview-Hunter's Point neighborhood, the Bay Area has a long history of displacement that has largely been forgotten by those not directly impacted. But thanks to the work of a state-wide reparations taskforce, as well as local reparations efforts – including in Hayward, where city and county officials last week committed to allocating $1m to a fund for former residents of Russell City – these little-known stories are coming to light. For the next seven months, these histories are also on display at the Oakland Museum of California (Omca). Through the lenses of history, art, and architecture, Black Spaces: Reclaim and Remain explores patterns of displacement in the San Francisco East Bay as well as the resilience Black communities have shown despite being repeatedly pushed out of the homes and neighborhoods they have built – first from the racist deployment of policies like eminent domain and today through a housing affordability crisis that disproportionally affects communities of color. For museum director Lori Fogarty, it's a narrative with reverberations far beyond the Bay Area: 'This is a very local story, but it's also a national story.' With close proximity to the Bay Area's numerous shipyards and its own railroad stop, Russell City became a hub for Black southerners resettling in California during and immediately after the second world war. Although it was an unincorporated community, and therefore cut off from many of the services provided by the nearby municipality of Hayward, the town developed many of its own institutions, including a school, a fire brigade and a blues club that attracted the likes of Ray Charles and Etta James. Despite this, the city of Hayward, which refused to deliver sewage and garbage services to Russell City despite residents' repeated requests, labelled the city a 'blight' – a term used repeatedly by local governments in the 1950s and 1960s seeking to remove communities of color from certain areas. In so doing, Hayward authorities gained grounds to lay claim over Russell City and force residents, like the grandparents of Marian Johnson, to sell their land for egregiously small sums. Johnson explains that her grandparents bought the land for $7,500, but only received $2,200 from the city in return. For years, she couldn't understand why her grandparents sold the six lots they had purchased for their extended family in Russell City and moved to East Oakland. But once she learned about eminent domain, she realized they had been forced out. 'They bought plots of land so that their children wouldn't have to pay mortgages, so their children could generate generational wealth by not having to pay rent,' Johnson said. 'All of this was stripped from our family.' Today, all that is left of Johnson's family plot is a willow tree planted by her grandfather. 'We would still be there,' she said, thinking of the present that could have been had Hayward not prioritized the development of an industrial park over the homes and livelihoods of more than two hundred families. Johnson's family story is one of those on display at Omca, where visitors are guided through three core elements that have defined the histories of Black displacement in the East Bay: homes and domestic spaces, cultural and communal institutions, and destructive policies. Objects like the suitcase Otis Williams carried with him from Louisiana to the Marin City shipyards and Ernest Bean's 1940 home videos showing women pruning roses in a flourishing West Oakland garden transport viewers to a time of hope and prosperity; documents like a transcript of public hearings held regarding the Russell City redevelopment project and the paltry cheque made out to Johnson's grandfather, Bernice Patterson, for his land serve as stark reminders of the destruction that soon followed. 'It's important to understand that these are lived experiences,' said associate curator of history Dania Talley, who curated the exhibition. In the adjacent hall are three pieces from community collaborators that tell the story of continued displacement in the Bay Area, as well as resistance and hope for the community's future. Particularly striking is the full-scale replica of the East Oakland house that activists with the housing justice organization Moms 4 Housing occupied for nearly two months in 2019. For Carolle Fife, an Oakland councilmember who participated in the 2019 occupation, there is a clear through-line between the forced displacement of Russell City residents in the 1960s and the inaccessibility of housing — especially for people of color — nationwide today. 'This is something historically Black folks have been going through in every urban center, and now even rural spaces throughout this country, because of systemic racism,' Fife said on opening night of the exhibition. Brandi Summers, an Oakland-born sociologist and associate professor at Columbia University, said the severity of the cost-of-living crisis in Oakland has once again forced displacement upon the city's Black residents, who are today moving to more distant suburbs and exurbs, or out of the state entirely. 'A lot of Black people actually don't feel comfortable in Oakland any more, regardless of whether we can actually live here,' said Summers, who also leads the scholar and artist collective Archive of Urban Futures, one of the groups that collaborated on the exhibition. Against the backdrop of that crisis, California has in recent years emerged as a national leader when it comes to acknowledging past harms perpetrated against Black communities. In 2020, the state legislature established a nine-person reparations taskforce. And in 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom allocated $12m to racial justice initiatives and issued a formal apology for California's role in slavery. Individual localities have also engaged with the issue. San Francisco established its own advisory committee, which recommended in 2023 that the city issue individual reparations payments of $5m to qualifying individuals. And last week, Alameda county approved $750,000 in redress funds for former residents of Russell City. Hayward, which in 2021 issued a formal apology for its role in the community's destruction, earmarked an additional $250,000 for the fund. But many activists and community members have expressed disappointment at what they see as insufficient progress, especially after bills that would have issued direct cash payments and enabled those displaced through eminent domain to reclaim lost land failed to pass through the legislature last summer. And for former residents of Russell City, the $1m redress fund is woefully inadequate. 'It is pennies on the dollar for the value of the land that you took,' said Johnson. 'That's just a slap in the face.' AUP's Summers worries that public interest and political favor are turning away from issues of Black equity – especially as the current federal administration targets institutions, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture, that study and elevate the often-sidelined histories of Black Americans. It is for these reasons, Summers says, that shedding light on the legacies of Black Americans' past experiences of displacement, while still possible, is so critical. 'As funding for the arts and humanities goes, stories that are less known will disappear,' she said. For museum director Fogarty, the fact that Omca is telling histories of Black displacement at this moment is in itself a form of resistance. 'Look at what's happening. There is an overt governmental attack on these kinds of stories,' she said. 'There are many places in this country that this show could not be presented right now.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
‘Our dreams were shattered': the Black Californians forced from the city they built
In the early 1940s, Gloria Moore's parents migrated west from Arkansas, seeking – as many Black southerners did at the time – work, and a reprieve from poverty and Jim Crow. They first found jobs working in the wartime shipbuilding industry in Portland, Oregon, before ultimately settling in Russell City – a small, unincorporated community in the San Francisco East Bay, and a bastion of Black and Latino culture and life. There, the Moores bought several acres of land, built a house, and raised Gloria and her three siblings. Now 82, Moore remembers life in Russell City as rich, pastoral, and communal. The local school, where her mother worked as a cook, had dedicated teachers and an impressive orchestra; the dirt roads that cut through town led to vast oak fields that exploded with wildflowers every spring; and residents always looked out for one another. 'We really were a village,' Moore said, recalling reading National Geographic magazines over milk and cookies at the home of the local librarian. But in 1963, that village was razed to the ground. Citing eminent domain, the predominantly white city of Hayward forcibly removed residents of Russell City from their land, paying homeowners paltry sums for their property before incinerating every building in the community to make way for an industrial park. For the surviving members of the 205 families that were displaced, that trauma is haunting. 'We lost everything. Our community was erased. My parents, they lost their dignity,' said Moore, who now lives in Los Angeles. 'Our dreams were shattered and we were forced to scatter.' From West Oakland to San Francisco's Bayview-Hunter's Point neighborhood, the Bay Area has a long history of displacement that has largely been forgotten by those not directly impacted. But thanks to the work of a state-wide reparations taskforce, as well as local reparations efforts – including in Hayward, where city and county officials last week committed to allocating $1m to a fund for former residents of Russell City – these little-known stories are coming to light. For the next seven months, these histories are also on display at the Oakland Museum of California (Omca). Through the lenses of history, art, and architecture, Black Spaces: Reclaim and Remain explores patterns of displacement in the San Francisco East Bay as well as the resilience Black communities have shown despite being repeatedly pushed out of the homes and neighborhoods they have built – first from the racist deployment of policies like eminent domain and today through a housing affordability crisis that disproportionally affects communities of color. For museum director Lori Fogarty, it's a narrative with reverberations far beyond the Bay Area: 'This is a very local story, but it's also a national story.' With close proximity to the Bay Area's numerous shipyards and its own railroad stop, Russell City became a hub for Black southerners resettling in California during and immediately after the second world war. Although it was an unincorporated community, and therefore cut off from many of the services provided by the nearby municipality of Hayward, the town developed many of its own institutions, including a school, a fire brigade, and a blues club that attracted the likes of Ray Charles and Etta James. Despite this, the city of Hayward, which refused to deliver sewage and garbage services to Russell City despite residents' repeated requests, labelled the city a 'blight' – a term used repeatedly by local governments in the 1950s and 1960s seeking to remove communities of color from certain areas. In so doing, Hayward authorities gained grounds to lay claim over Russell City and force residents, like the grandparents of Marian Johnson, to sell their land for egregiously small sums. Johnson explains that her grandparents bought the land for $7,500, but only received $2,200 from the city in return. For years, she couldn't understand why her grandparents sold the six lots they had purchased for their extended family in Russell City and moved to East Oakland. But once she learned about eminent domain, she realized they had been forced out. 'They bought plots of land so that their children wouldn't have to pay mortgages, so their children could generate generational wealth by not having to pay rent,' Johnson said. 'All of this was stripped from our family.' Today, all that is left of Johnson's family plot is a willow tree planted by her grandfather. 'We would still be there,' she said, thinking of the present that could have been had Hayward not prioritized the development of an industrial park over the homes and livelihoods of more than two hundred families. Johnson's family story is one of those on display at Omca, where visitors are guided through three core elements that have defined the histories Black displacement in the East Bay: homes and domestic spaces, cultural and communal institutions, and destructive policies. Objects like the suitcase Otis Williams carried with him from Louisiana to the Marin City shipyards and Ernest Bean's 1940 home videos showing women pruning roses in a flourishing West Oakland garden transport viewers to a time of hope and prosperity; documents like a transcript of public hearings held regarding the Russell City redevelopment project and the paltry cheque made out to Johnson's grandfather, Bernice Patterson, for his land serve as stark reminders of the destruction that soon followed. 'It's important to understand that these are lived experiences,' said associate curator of history Dania Talley, who curated the exhibition. In the adjacent hall are three pieces from community collaborators that tell the story of continued displacement in the Bay Area, as well as resistance and hope for the community's future. Particularly striking is the full-scale replica of the East Oakland house that activists with housing justice organization Moms 4 Housing occupied for nearly two months in 2019. For Oakland Councilmember Carolle Fife, who participated in the 2019 occupation, there is a clear throughline between the forced displacement of Russell City residents in the 1960s and the inaccessibility of housing — especially for people of color — nationwide today. 'This is something historically Black folks have been going through in every urban center, and now even rural spaces throughout this country, because of systemic racism,' Fife said on opening night of the exhibition. Brandi Summers, an Oakland-born sociologist and associate professor at Columbia University, said the severity of the cost-of-living crisis in Oakland has once again forced displacement upon the city's Black residents, who are today moving to more distant suburbs and exurbs, or out of the state entirely. 'A lot of Black people actually don't feel comfortable in Oakland any more, regardless of whether we can actually live here,' said Summers, who also leads the scholar and artist collective Archive of Urban Futures, one of groups that collaborated on the exhibition. Against the backdrop of that crisis, California has in recent years emerged as a national leader when it comes to acknowledging past harms perpetuated against Black communities. In 2020, the state legislature established a nine-person reparations taskforce. And in 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom allocated $12m to racial justice initiatives and issued a formal apology for California's role in slavery. Individual localities have also engaged with the issue. San Francisco established its own advisory committee, which recommended in 2023 that the city issue individual reparations payments of $5m to qualifying individuals. And last week, Alameda County approved $750,000 in redress funds for former residents of Russell City. Hayward, which in 2021 issued a formal apology for its role in the community's destruction, earmarked an additional $250,000 for the fund. But many activists and community members have expressed disappointment at what they see as insufficient progress, especially after bills that would have issued direct cash payments and enabled those displaced through eminent domain to reclaim lost land failed to pass through the legislature last summer. And for former residents of Russell City, the $1m redress fund is woefully inadequate. 'It is pennies on the dollar for the value of the land that you took,' said Johnson. 'That's just a slap in the face.' AUP's Summers worries that public interest and political favor are turning away from issues of Black equity – especially as the current federal administration targets institutions, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture, that study and elevate the often-sidelined histories of Black Americans. It is for these reasons, Summers says, that shedding light on the legacies of Black Americans' past experiences of displacement, while still possible, is so critical. 'As funding for the arts and humanities goes, stories that are less known will disappear,' she said. For museum director Fogarty, the fact that Omca is telling histories of Black displacement at this moment is in itself a form of resistance. 'Look at what's happening. There is an overt governmental attack on these kinds of stories,' she said. 'There are many places in this country that this show could not be presented right now.'
IOL News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Is it safe? Cape Town influencer swims into weird ocean foam and the internet reacts
TikTok sensation Michelle Sky Hayward dives into Cape Town's murky waters, sparking a wave of reactions online. Image: TikTok TikTok user and content creator Michelle Sky Hayward leaves netizens scratching their heads after taking a deep dive into what seems like bubbling sewer water. Generally, most people know to steer clear of dodgy-looking water; however, Hayward seems to have taken the phrase 'diving into the unknown' quite literally. The content creator, who has since gone viral, shared a video of herself swimming in the mysterious-looking foamy water in Cape Town. 'I'm having so much fun, I literally don't even feel the cold,' she told the camera, moments before taking an unintentional gulp of the questionable water. Hayward then screamed and laughed after some water went into her mouth, saying it tasted 'salty'. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading Not only has the mother of one gone viral on social media, but she has also made the international news headlines for her unconventional swim. The adventurous fitness enthusiast has since posted a video on both Instagram and TikTok confirming that she is 'not an American tourist' and is a local to Cape Town, swimming in the sea 'at least once a week'. She said, 'I actually didn't smell anything when I went into the sea; it smelled like the normal ocean smells. 'I did notice that the water was super murky, and it is usually clear in that spot. There was also a lot of foam that I hadn't seen before. But I honestly loved the foam. I felt like I was in a bubble bath; it was so cool.' The video's comments section was filled with people baffled by the water's murky appearance. Viewers were quick to point out the obvious signs of questionable water quality, with many left wondering how Hayward didn't notice. 'I refuse to believe this is raw sewage and it doesn't have the worst smell … how did you not smell it?' asked @nsreemxx. 'As humans, we have a natural aversion to things that don't look or feel right. Even if they didn't know the exact reasoning, people would not want to get in this water upon seeing it. But I guess not everyone,' said @RedScarf.
