In the fourth episode of The Empty Chair, PEN SA board member Bongani Kona and writer, teacher and researcher Hedley Twidle revisit The Plague by Albert Camus (translated into English from the original French, La Peste). They discuss the novel’s contemporary resonance and what… In the third episode of The Empty Chair, PEN SA board member Pierre de Vos, constitutional law lecturer Nomfundo Ramalekana and trainee human rights lawyer Elisha Kunene examine the implications of the lockdown for the judiciary and human rights in South Africa. … In the second episode of The Empty Chair, PEN SA Board Member Nicky Falkof chairs a conversation with three astute journalists: Zandile Bangani, Khadija Patel and Mia Malan. They assess the health of the South African media landscape and stand… Update: Since recording episode one of our Empty Chair podcast, we have been alerted to reliable information that Chimengül Awut has been released. We celebrate her freedom. In the inaugural episode of The Empty Chair, three wonderful South African writers… Welcome to The Empty Chair, a podcast from PEN South Africa, featuring conversations about writing, freedom of expression, resilience and solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of our five episodes is dedicated to an imprisoned writer who has been harassed,… At PEN South Africa we focus on the relationship between freedom and expression, believing that the one cannot exist fully without the other. We understand freedom of expression as the right to be able to write, think and exchange ideas,… Written by Yewande Omotoso I remember being about 15, I was in high school and we had to do the Special Author Project. I chose Toni Morrison as my author. I’d initially chosen Mariama Ba and her beautiful work ‘So… Throughout her illustrious career as a journalist, author and activist, Zubeida Jaffer has never shied away from standing up against systems that do not serve the greater good. She is a graduate of the University of Cape Town and Rhodes… Written by Nadia Krige | Featured image by Andrea Stalbom Educational institutions without libraries, these days especially – as hubs offering access to essential internet services for research purposes – are almost unthinkable. This was however until recent years the… 
Podcast / 27 May 2021
The Empty Chair Podcast Episode 4: Reading The Plague
Podcast / 13 May 2021
The Empty Chair Podcast Episode 3: Constitutional Rights and the Pandemic
Podcast / 29 Apr 2021
The Empty Chair Podcast Episode 2: Journalism in the Pandemic
Podcast / 15 Apr 2021
The Empty Chair Podcast Episode 1: “Young Writers in the Pandemic”
Podcast / 08 Apr 2021
PEN SA Podcast: The Empty Chair
SA News / 11 Aug 2019
They walked together
International News / 07 Aug 2019
A tribute to Toni Morrison
Literature / 07 Aug 2019
Zubeida Jaffer on imprisonment, censorship and women claiming their stories
Literature / 07 Aug 2019
Zonnebloem library nurtures culture of reading and respect
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`Thank you for visiting the PEN SOUTH AFRICA website. We are excited to announce the launch of our podcast, The Empty Chair. In this five-episode season, we sit down with authors to discuss writing, freedom of expression, censorship, resilience and solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Give it a listen.`
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