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Mike van Graan on the “arts campus”, Africa 101
2011-10-27 Africa 101 explored contemporary trends, icons and innovations in African music, literature, cinema, dance, theatre, visual art and cultural tourism. It took place in the Artscape from 24 to 29 October 2011.
Dismantling fear
2011-10-27 Many transsexual people I have encountered over time have chosen to introduce themselves to friends or acquaintances as being more than "just" transsexuals. Instead of just being honest about having been biologically male or female, and having changed that, they invent stories about having been born intersex – presumably because in their minds the audience […]
Big Book Chain Chat #83: Where does poetry begin?
2011-10-26 Poetry begins in silence and transcends ourselves. A poem is both a message and a destination. A poem is both a process and an entirety. We are channels and also embodiers of the poem. Where does the poem end and another existence begin?
The Tempest Prognosticator: Enlivened poems worth reading
2011-10-25 I must confess at the outset that I am a huge fan of Isobel Dixon’s work. (I don’t know how else to express it.) Weather Eye is for me a finely crafted evocation of place and intimacy; while A Fold in the Map is a poignant and delicately controlled tribute to memory and to family.
South African collector-artist Siemon Allen on his ''collection projects''
2011-10-21 For the past decade South African collector-artist Siemon Allen has been exploring the image of South Africa through a series of “collection projects”. Combining his passions for music and collecting, his studio practice investigates how ...
The Other Booker Prize: Amusing, gentle and full of natural wisdom
2011-10-20 Azila Talit Reisenberger has made a name for herself as a poet and short story writer, and also as South Africa’s only female rabbi for the Temple Hillel community in East London. She also heads the Hebrew section of the School of Languages ...
Kicking the crutch
2011-10-20 The world around us is filled with people who are selfish, cocky and arrogant about their own religious beliefs. I say not these things because I resent the pride others take in their religion, but because the pride some of them take in their choice of beliefs boils over into a hatred of the religious […]
Imagine Africa: Idealism and disillusionment in the imagining of Africa
2011-10-20 Imagine Africa, a collection of essays and literary pieces edited and introduced by poet, writer and activist Breyten Breytenbach, is the first in a projected series of volumes from the Gorée Institute ...
Shafinaaz Hassim in conversation with Janet van Eeden
2011-10-19"The common theme running through the stories is that of disempowerment, either through sexism, poverty, racism or war. The phrase 'belly of fire' refers to the churning anxiety inside each soul whose voice has been suppressed through fear of reprisal."
Will somebody please think of the children?
2011-10-14 I regularly meet a friend of mine, who is a Christian reverend, for drinks at a local coffee shop. We enjoy casual chats about religion, persecution and human needs and frailties. He’s mentioned to me that there is no one Christianity, but many, and that today there are more than 200 different formally identified "mainstream" […]
Copying, circulating, concealing and contesting in Cape Town’s reading cultures
2011-10-13 As an outcome of this boekjol the social movement Equal Education will hand over a fully stocked and functioning library to Matthew Goniwe High School in Khayelitsha. I’m a product of a Cape township high school and I remember that the library was kept under lock and key in the principal’s office, more for the benefit of reporting to the school inspector that no books had been lost or stolen
Book extract: Bad Sex (2)
2011-10-11 It was then that I awakened to the fact that Sabina wouldn’t put up with my “poor attitude”.’‘Right, as you pointed out just now,’ says Anna.