Call for an Archive of AfroSonics
The collective improvisations of black America – and their profound impact on poetry and sound – are near impossible to find in the annals of US academe. In fact, their absence is as stark as the control of archiving is white, writes Harmony Holiday. Since the 1950s, jazz music and the literary imagination have […]
Language Games
For poet Karen Press opposites are already united; they depend on each other integrally, thus, no presence without absence, no fear without love. Spiced by independent wit and wry humour, her games mobilizes the play of language. Are you brave enough to play along? Karen Press is a poet and freelance editor. She has […]
Letters to Hillbrow
As part of a walk-in research project inspired by the novels Welcome to My Hillbrow (Phaswane Mpe) and The Quiet Violence of Dreams (K Sello Duiker), as well as Moses Taiwa Molelekwa’s solo-album Darkness Pass, the Johannesburg-based Keleketla! Library invited participating schoolchildren to write letters starting with the phrase “Dear Hillbrow”. The letter below is […]
Bra Tebs talks
Was Bra Tebs’ “4 Blokes & 1 Doll” show the highlight of Cape Town Jazz Festival? Louis Moholo-Moholo’s beautifully manic mix of South African anthems, free jazz, and switches from Brenda to Mannenberg, all with his multi-limbed dexterity, certainly enthused crowds. Changing key, it’s time for a trio of conversations with the Blues Notes great; watch, listen […]
The Forest and the Zoo
The Forest and the Zoo* (Aryan Kaganof with Johnny Mbizo Dyani) * Johnny Dyani Interview: 22-23 December 1985 I was 19 years old when I left South Africa to avoid being conscripted into the apartheid army. My great passion was music and I had for a number of years been the head reviewer of the New […]