info@pensouthafrica.co.za

August 2018 events

31 Jul 2018
in Events

Below you’ll find a list of literary events featuring PEN South Africa members, as well as a selection of other noteworthy launches, classes, performances, exhibitions, readings and workshops happening around South Africa.

If there is an event you’d like us to feature please let us know.

FESTIVALS

PLAYS

  • Around the Fire, written by Siphokazi Jonas
    Where: Artscape Theatre, Cape Town
    When: Tuesday 7 August–Saturday 11 August 2018, multiple stagings
    About: In this unique fusion of theatre, poetry and live music, a uniquely South African story unfolds. Four women with very different backgrounds, Mbali, Faiza, Amber, and Angel find themselves sharing a makeshift fire on a rainy Cape Town evening. Brought together by unexpected circumstances, they form a bond as fierce and temporary as the fire. Mbali, the homeless guardian of the fire, and Eastern Cape ‘refugee’, unravels the stories that brought them there while trying to make sense of her own place in a city that renders her invisible.
    Tickets

LAUNCHES, PANELS & CONFERENCES

  • Launch of Melusi’s Everyday Zulu by Melusi Tshabalala
    Where: Love Books, The Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg
    When:Wednesday 1 August 2018, 6:00 p.m. for 6:30 p.m.
    About: In conversation with Macfarlane Molele.
    RSVP: kate@lovebooks.co.za
  • Launch of Becoming Him by Landa Mabenge
    Where: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town
    When: Wednesday 1 August 2018, 5:30 p.m. for 6:00 p.m.
    About: In conversation with Mervyn Sloman.
    RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com
  • Heroin Coast: the political economy of the heroin trade along the Indian Ocean seaboard, a presentation by Simone Haysom
    Where: WiSER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus, Wits University, Johannesburg
    When: Thursday 2 August 2018, 1 p.m.
    About: The Indian Ocean seaboard plays a key role in the world’s third largest heroin route out of Afghanistan — yet until recently its mechanics and geography were poorly understood. Drawing on the Global Initiative against Transnational Crime’s ‘Heroin Coast’ report, this talk provides an analysis of the how the trade has become embedded in political systems along the Indian Ocean coast, arguing that the ‘governance’ of the heroin trade mirrors the governance system of the country where it operates, and that the control of the trade both shapes and is shaped by local political dynamics. This argument draws on a trend we observe, across the continent, where sharp escalations in the prevalence of organised crime correlate to economic liberalisation and moves to multiparty democracy. In other words, organised crime thrives in democracies and is facilitated by economic growth. The talk also covers attempts to understand the ‘impact’ of illicit trade, including the public health impact of the drug trade (and the merits, or lack thereof, in the public health responses along the coast); the linkages between murder rates and the drug trade; and the other pressures that organised crime and corruption places on civil society.
  • Launch of The White Room by Craig Higginson
    Where: Love Books, The Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg
    When: Thursday 2 August 2018, 6:00 p.m. for 6:30 p.m.
    About: In conversation with Karabo Kgoleng.
    RSVP: kate@lovebooks.co.za
  • Launch of Shame on You by Amy Heydenrych
    Where: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town
    When: Thursday 2 August 2018, 5:30 p.m. for 6:00 p.m.
    About: In conversation with Mohale Mashigo.
    RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com
  • Launch of Melusi’s Everyday Zulu by Melusi Tshabalala
    Where: Bridge Books CBD, 95 Commissioner Street, Between Loveday and Rissik, Johannesburg
    When: Friday 3 August 2018, 6:30 p.m. for 7 p.m.
    About: In conversation with the Cheeky Natives
    RSVP: info@bridgebooks.co.za
  • A book discussion of Always Another Country by Sisonke Msimang
    Where: WiSER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus, Wits University, Johannesburg
    When: Tuesday 7 August 2018, 5 p.m.
    About: Sisonke Msimang’s Always Another Country is a remarkable tale of belonging, identity and coming of age in the postcolony. Insightful and beautifully written, the memoir sets a new benchmark in the genre. Sisonke discusses the book with Gail Smith, Terry Kurgan and Shireen Hassim.
  • Launch of We Don’t Talk About It. Ever. by Desiree-Anne Martin
    Where: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town
    When: Tuesday 7 August 2018, 5:30 p.m. for 6:00 p.m.
    About: In conversation with Melinda Ferguson.
    RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com
  • Launch of Markets on the Margins: Mineworkers, job creation & enterprise development by Kate Philip
    Where: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town
    When: Tuesday 14 August 2018, 5:30 p.m. for 6:00 p.m.
    About: In conversation with Pippa Green.
    RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com
  • Launch of Called to Song by Kharnita Mohamed
    Where: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town
    When: Wednesday 15 August 2018, 5:30 p.m. for 6:00 p.m.
    About: In conversation with Barbara Boswell and Fatima Seedat.
    RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com
  • Launch of Turning and Turning by Judith February
    Where: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town
    When: Thursday 16 August 2018, 5:30 p.m. for 6:00 p.m.
    About: In conversation with John Maytham.
    RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com
  • Launch of These Bones Will Rise Again by Panashe Chigumadzi
    Where: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town
    When: Friday 17 August 2018, 5:30 p.m. for 6:00 p.m.
    About: In conversation with Professor Brian Raftopoulos.
    RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com
  • Launch of This Is How It Is, writings from the Life Righting Collective
    Where: Love Books, The Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg
    When: Monday 20 August 2018, 6:00 p.m. for 6:30 p.m.
    About: Dawn Garisch chats to Arja Salafranca and Ronelle Hart.
    RSVP: kate@lovebooks.co.za
  • Launch of Turning and Turning by Judith February
    Where: Love Books, The Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg
    When: Tuesday 21 August 2018, 6:00 p.m. for 6:30 p.m.
    About: In conversation with David O’Sullivan.
    RSVP: kate@lovebooks.co.za
  • Launch of The Redwood Poetry Collection Volume 1
    Where: Love Books, The Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg
    When: Tuesday 28 August 2018, 6:00 p.m. for 6:30 p.m.
    About: Tafadzwa Taruvinga launches.
    RSVP: kate@lovebooks.co.za

POETRY

  • Rioters in Session x ICA’s Great Texts/Big Questions at Centre for the Book
    Where: Centre for the Book, 62 Queen Victoria St, Cape Town
    When: Wednesday 1 August 2018, 5:30 p.m.
    About: Rioters in Session, a community of womxn poets of colour established by Ashley Makue, Koleka Putuma, Khanyisile Mbongwa and Allison-Claire Hoskins; Milisuthando Bongela, Arts Editor of the Mail & Guardian and writer, cultural worker and filmmaker; and Panashe Chigumadzi, writer, journalist and author of the recently released These Bones Will Rise Again. The focus of this Great Texts series is archives of black womxnhood as inspired by the life of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. In the wake of her recent death, and the readings, mis-readings and counter-readings that have been made about her life, this series is interested in how the voices of womxn in history – particularly black womxn – might be uncovered and reclaimed in complex ways.
  • Eliza Galgut at Off the Wall
    Where: A Touch Of Madness, 12 Nuttall Road, Observatory, Cape Town
    When: Thursday 2 August 2018, 7:30 p.m.
    About: Followed by an open-mic session, for anyone, from first-timers to veterans, to perform their own poetry or that of other poets.
    More details
  • Stephanie Saunder at Off the Wall
    Where: A Touch Of Madness, 12 Nuttall Road, Observatory, Cape Town
    When: Thursday 9 August 2018, 7:30 p.m.
    About: Followed by an open-mic session, for anyone, from first-timers to veterans, to perform their own poetry or that of other poets.
    More details
  • Kerry Hammerton at Off the Wall
    Where: A Touch Of Madness, 12 Nuttall Road, Observatory, Cape Town
    When: Thursday 16 August 2018, 7:30 p.m.
    About: Followed by an open-mic session, for anyone, from first-timers to veterans, to perform their own poetry or that of other poets.
    More details
  • CJ Jonty Driver & Douglas Reid Skinner at Off the Wall
    Where: A Touch Of Madness, 12 Nuttall Road, Observatory, Cape Town
    When: Thursday 23 August 2018, 7:30 p.m.
    About: Followed by an open-mic session, for anyone, from first-timers to veterans, to perform their own poetry or that of other poets.
    More details
  • Karin Schimke at Off the Wall
    Where: A Touch Of Madness, 12 Nuttall Road, Observatory, Cape Town
    When: Thursday 30 August 2018, 7:30 p.m.
    About: Followed by an open-mic session, for anyone, from first-timers to veterans, to perform their own poetry or that of other poets.
    More details
  • Reddits Poetry, monthly poetry nights in Grahamstown
    Where: Cafe D’Vine, 31 New Street, Grahamstown
    When: Last Friday of every month, 6 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
    About: Reddits has been running monthly poetry nights in Grahamstown for over a decade. Come for featured readings and an open mic.
    More details

EXHIBITIONS

  • Dead Centre by Rowan Smith
    Where: WHATIFTHEWORLD, 16 Buiten Street, Cape Town
    When: Wednesday 11 July 2018–Saturday 25 August
    About: WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to present Dead Centre, a solo exhibition by Rowan Smith. With this latest body of work, Smith executes a number of strategies intended to exoticise the idea of whiteness in contemporary South Africa, removing the veil that allows it to persist as normative and unseen. The themes and concerns of the exhibition are consolidated with a publication of accompanying texts from Nick Mulgrew and Zinaid Meeran. Arising out of conversations surrounding the exhibition, these texts are autonomous entities, unconcerned with explaining the exhibition or directly unpacking the artworks. Rather, they operate as sounding boards, serving to add additional layers of meaning and spaces of reflection to the discourse of Rowan Smith’s work.
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