This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Festival Director Mervyn Sloman talks to Mohale Mashigo, Lesedi Molefi and Mbali Sikakana about the ways in which Black writers are expected to perform once they have published, how many of these performances involve negotiating white spaces, what needs to change and why we have been having the same conversation for years.

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust