Last year New Contrast, one of SA’s very first literary journals, celebrated 60 years in print. With two editors and a many-hatted admin, we take a look at its past, present and future.
A psychology professor uses his imagination, personal and professional experience to paint a picture of the soul of Salt River in the sixties.
It seems that never before has death been so prevalent as the pandemic cuts a swathe across the world. And with death comes grief. To help you at the worst time of your life, Bridget McNulty has just produced The Grief Handbook. Hear her tell, first hear how she dealt with it herself.
The works of Shakespeare have seen any number of incarnations over the centuries. Actor and associate director Buhle Ngaba, talks about performing in the very newest, a reading of a very South African version of Hamlet – online.
The flames that swept the slopes of Table Mountain in April this year also took a devastating toll on the nearly 80,000 strong collection of books and material in the University of Cape Town’s historic Jagger Library – some of it irreplaceable. The ashes settled and tears dried, a librarian tells the tale. http://www.lib.uct.ac.za/jagger-recovery
From climate change threats to the scorched Kalahari for National Geographic, to a curious pangolin, the Psychonauts and the parlous state of public mental health, science scribe Leonie Joubert has a lot on her mind.
Into its second year and third season, the Daily Maverick podcast Don’t Shoot the Messenger is making waves both locally and across the world. Dawjee and Davis, producer and host respectively share its origins, its thinking and its lickability!
In this Lupus Awareness month of May, a young woman describes in a book called Crazy Became Me, how this unpredictable disease took hold of her life. Lupus (meaning wolf) is so called because centuries ago it was said the rash looks like a wolf bite.
A clinical psychologist shares his journey of caring for his dying mother and takes a look at the 'invisibilisation' of the caring profession.
It's World Book Day on April 23, but if Lesley Beake had her way, it would be Children's Book Day every day. A teacher and author of over
90 books herself, she talks about how to write, especially for children.
For a Cape Town artist, inspiration has sprung from the ground beneath his feet. For him the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos represents so much more than a bunch of flowers.
With a gestation period of many years, bright young theatrical Tiisetso Mashifane has created a play about two women that cuts right to the race quick. The debut of ‘Delela’ as a reading revealed still more for both audience and author.
For the 5th year <a href="https://ipafest.co.za/">The International Public Art Festival</a> took place recently in Cape Town with 20 local and international artists bringing the walls of the city to life. Members of the public were invited to walk, run, cycle or skateboard the different routes, and in some cases get lucky seeing the art in action.
Meet the man who summited Table Mountain 22 times in almost as many hours, who cycled the Sani Pass in crazy climatic conditions. Who went from drug-taking teen to endurance athlete – who tells his story in a book called Determination – the inspirational story of the life-changing power of sport.
Stories in the First Place: Storytellers from the San indigenous peoples centre
At a place called !Khwa Ttu, up in the hills of the West Coast of South Africa, is where indigenous and original San culture, legacy, language, and stories especially, are cherished and shared.
See more on www.khwattu.org and take a listen here…
The Sunshine Tour is a professional golf tour based in South Africa – a country which has proven itself by producing some of the world’s finest players. The game itself has an interesting history as well as present and potential future in South Africa – a great deal of which sports journalist Dan Retief has captured in a generously outsized book called The Sunshine Boys – the epic story of how South Africa’s golfers conquered the world. He looks at the game heroically but honestly with all its pros and cons.
Three years ago, a bone marrow transplant gave eight year old Rachel Ancer a new life. In Rachel’s Second Chance, the book that she wrote with a little help from her parents Jonathan and Jean Ancer – she tells her story and the mysteries of bone marrow transplants are simply explained. The book is available through the SA Bone Marrow Registry on www.sabmr.co.za
With 30 years in advertising behind him, ten of them in a time of deep economic crisis, Mike Abel founder of the M&C Saatchi Abel Group of Companies shares some key insights – about advertising, society and art. In his book WILLING & ABEL he shares some hard-earned ‘Lessons from a Decade in Crisis’. Painting by Nelson Makamo
