Jirre! It’s been a kak cold winter. En allie reën? Ny! Kannie soweesie. Spring uit! Here’s some soetlekkers to get you vuurwarm.
Literature
The most wonderful festival of literature, Open Book, is happening this month. Taking place over three days, from 6 – 8 September, at the Homecoming Centre on Harrington Street, it’s a programme of about 60 overlapping discussions from 10am until 9pm each day during which we can let our intellect out for a welcome airing and meet the authors we’ve been reading while huddled under blankets next to heaters during this frigging cold winter past. We are also introduced to authors and books we can look forward to buying at the Book Lounge’s pop-up store at the venue and reading while lounging on a deck chair during the coming summer. There will be conversations that offer new ways of looking at life’s multifarious vagaries, that offer fresh insights into history and current affairs, and that goad us into imagining better relationships, societies, and modes of being. Featuring local and pan-African writers of novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction, there are also events for children in the mornings. There are new writers, established writers, old writers, young writers, all having conversations that cut through the crap. Some events are free of charge (but you still need to book to ensure a seat), while others cost in the region of R50. Go to openbookfestival.co.za and check out the programme and book tickets.
Theatre
The biennial ICA Live Art Festival conceived and hosted by UCT’s Institute of Creative Arts is here to provoke us with a programme that ranges from theory to flesh, covering issues from land to louche. This is about visual and performing artists exploring new forms, breaking boundaries, flouting aesthetic conventions, tackling controversy, confronting audiences, and experimenting with perceptions. The avant-garde, in other words. Some performances take place in public sites such as Greenmarket Square, others on UCT’s delightful Hiddingh campus, and other is the campus’s theatre spaces, there are lectures and panels by very intelligent and affable thinkers from across Africa, with one or two from the other side of the Atlantic as well. It also has the Live Art Arcade curated by Gavin Krastin in which performance artists all do their thing for hours so we can dip in and out and walkabout and get our fill. Taking place from 4 – 7 September, tickets are available on Quicket. Click here to view the full programme and write ups.
Jazz
Trumpeting wizard. The man who’ll tickle your brainwaves, Mandla Mlangeni and his Tune Recreation Committee is out and about in Cape Town this month, blowing his magical horn and turning venues steamy hot in and around the mother city so there’s no excuse to be missing him. With the great shaking Afrika Mkhize on piano and sizzling Rheza Khota on guitar, together with Nic Williams on bass and Joshua Klein on drums, they be getting Guga S’thebe Theatre in Langa alive on Sunday 1 September from 3 to 6 in the afternoon. Tickets R130 on Quicket. Then this quartet will be lighting up the Athletic Club at 35 Buitengracht Street on Thursday 5 September with tickets from Quicket at R200 and the show starting at 8pm. Then the Tune Recreation Committee head south to Muizenberg where they groove on Saturday 7 September at Axeminster House at 8 Axminster Road with tickets at a mere R70 with the heat turning up from 8.15 in the evening.
The master who has helped mould the sound of Cape Jazz, Hilton Schindler is joined by Hilton is joined by joined by Clayton Norman Pretorius on bass, Kurt Bowers on drums and Shaheema Lakay on violin at the Gossip Lounge on Friday 6 September. You know Hilton, mos. If you don’t know, go find out at 8pm. Tickets cost R150 on Quicket.
Events
Get on yer bike and ride… with other people. Tonight 30 August at 7pm at Critical Mass Cape Town, where a klomp mense get on bikes, trikes, unicycles, roller blades, skateboards – basically anything with wheels that is not motorised – and take over the streets in order to send a message: we want to be able to safely ride our bikes and not have to risk being killed by cars everytime we do. Starting from the Green Point MacDonalds (which is a bit ironic given the non-commercial nature of the jol), the ride goes along the promenade, to the Sea Point pool pavilion, back, through the V&A Waterfront to the Silo District, along the canals, and up Long street, returning via the fan walk to the starting point. For those seeking a refreshment stop, the group splits at Greenmarket Square. The event typically lasts between two to three hours, covering about 25 km at a genteel pace, with regular stops. No cost, just rock up with your wheels.
Groove for Gaza at Trenchtown. You have not one, but two days to show your opposition to genocide: on Friday 20 September, and the next day. It’s not hard to do. There’s Fake Blonde Mom on stage from about 8pm, the Little Rock, followed by Krakatoa, and Cistamatic. On Saturday eve you can check out Sidepiece, Delicious Monsters, Stonehouse, LLSO, then Sisters, with Nani?! Closing it off after midnight. And on the Saturday afternoon there’s a market and DJs. This is a fundraiser for the Palestinian Children’s Fund. Tickets cost R100 on Quicket.