Book News & World Music in a Short Listing

THIS WEEK

Last week the cultural menu was so packed and I expected that this one would be similar, building up to the summer season ...   but in fact it's unusually quiet and empty.   And not for the first time, the two events that I really want to go to in this relatively uneventful week, happen at exactly the same minute.

WEDNESDAY PM ONE:  BOOK LOUNGE BIRTHDAY

The Book Lounge are celebrating their third birthday and we're all invited to the party.  It's at the shop on Wednesday afternoon and it takes the form an an indoor picnic and their ritual naming of the best books of the year.  Plus a tantalizing announcement which promises to be great news to all who love books.... It should be a very fun and celebratory occasion.

The Book Lounge
Wednesday 1 December 17h30




WEDNESDAY PM TWO:  ARI SITAS BOOK LAUNCH

Also an appropriate place to celebrate good book news,  the Wolpe Trust is hosting the launch of The Mandela Decade: Labour, Culture and Society in Post-Apartheid South Africa by Ari Sitas, professor of sociology at UCT.   Ari will be joined by speakers  Prof. Pitika Ntuli (sculptor and expert in African indigenous knowledge systems) and Barbara Hogan,  and between the three of them it should be an extremely engaging intellectual experience.

Wednesday 1 December   17h30 for 18h00
UCT   Leslie Building  LT 2B




SACRED INDIAN MUSIC AT THE ALLIANCE

On Thursday  night is a "sacred world-music experience" which sounds quite fascinating -  and a little challenging!  A group with the rather awkward name of Gaura Vani & As Kindred Spirits present a programme of music which fuses kirtan, a form of devotional music from India, with  "rich ethnic rhythms and fresh western harmonies and grooves."   It's a participatory experience for the audience, with the band leading call and answer songs and chants over about two hours during which they claim "you will not be able to resist the urge to dance and sing." 
A review from The Boston Globe describes "a hybrid of ancient Indian sacred music and modern Western styles. Sitars, mridanga drums, and chanted vocals meld smoothly with guitars and the occasional hip-hop vocal flow..."

Alliance Francaise   155 Loop Street
Thursday 2    20h30
R80

JAMES GRACE CLASSICAL GUITAR CONCERT

James Grace is one of South Africa's leading classical guitarists.  At the Centre for the Book on Friday evening he performs songs from his three albums Cafe Latino, Sevilla - Music of Spain, and World Cafe.   Have a listen on his website to samples from all three.

Centre for the Book  62 Queen Victoria St   19h00
Cost: R 60 
Tel: 0861 742 667   www.jamesgrace.co.za
   

On in Theatres Museums Bookshops Bakery Church Warehouse & Wine Farm

5:20 OPERAS

This week only at the Baxter, a programme of five new South African operas each 20 minutes long.  Presented by Cape Town Opera, UCT Opera School and Gipca, FIVE:20 features work by Hendrik Hofmeyr, Peter Klatzow, Peter Louis van Dijk, Bongani Ndodana-Breen and Martin Watt, with plots based on Saartjie Baartman, Lucy Lloyd and the Bushmen, xenophobia, the assassination of Chris Hani and Breyten Breytenbach's prison poetry.  Directed by Geoffrey Hyland and Marcus Desando. There is also a special guest performance of Nick Fells's Sublimation from a conceptually similar concert staged in Scotland.

Baxter Theatre
Tues 23, Weds 24, Fri 26, Sat 27   19h00
021 685 7880   www.baxter.co.za    R150 and R100

GUITAR MAESTROS AT THE OLYMPIA BAKERY

Acoustic guitar wizard Antonio Forcione has a formidable international record of concerts and collaborations and rave reviews. He will team up with Tony Cox and Cape Town flamenco guitarist Saudiq Khan for five shows only at the Olympia Bakery this week.   The Stage magazine wrote about Forcione: “A performer of world class status ... forceful and with an enviable technique, he takes the guitar to new levels of expression combining its melodic powers with dramatic percussive effects. He boldly goes where no guitarist has gone before and the results are quite spectacular ..."

Olympia Bakery,
Wednesday 24 to Sunday 28   20h00
Cost R180
www.antonioforcione.com
www.computicket.com




SOLMS-DELTA SUMMER CONCERT

This summer concert is a good opportunity to visit the Solms-Delta wine estate near Franschoek which has departed in such significant ways from the mainstream way of doing things on the winelands, with the workers owning a one-third stake in the the estate. One project worth seeing is a museum about slavery in the area, and there's also a programme to "preserve and celebrate the joyous, resilient and defiant musical traditions of the Cape winelands."  In this concert blues guitarist Hannes Coetzee performs with local bands Delta Soetstemme, Delta Langbroeke and Lekker Lekker Delta.

Solms-Delta Wine Estate, Delta Road (off the R45)  
Saturday 27  18h30 to 21h30
Cost: R 170 (incl. buffet) (< 12 R 85)    Tel: 021 874 3937 ext 115 

CAPE DANCE COMPANY AT ARTSCAPE

The Cape Dance Company celebrates its 15th year with a diverse season at the Artscape Theatre from Wednesday. The company performed at the Edinburgh festival recently and reviews were mixed, but this new season includes some choreographic works that sound really worth seeing.  One of these is Enemy Behind the Gates an award-winning contemporary ballet by Christopher Huggins, ex-Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Other works on the programme are by Alfred Hinkel of Jazzart, Brazilian/American Carlos Dos Santos and "cult classic" On the Wings of Sue by French choreographer Redha, re-staged here by Esther Nasser.

Opens Wednesday 24, runs till 4 December   20h15
Artscape Dial-a-seat 021 4217695

ENTER THE MAIDS

Asanda Phewa was UCT's "best theatre-maker of 2008". This production, to be staged in an historic church, is her "interjection" of Jean Genet's 1952 play The Maids. 

Central Methodist Church

Corner Longmarket and Burg Streets

Tuesday 23 to Saturday 27    20h00

Book at 021 4473683 or  artsadmin@mweb.co.za

GRAND OPENING OF FIVE EXHIBITIONS AT SANG

SA National Gallery will be launching  five new or new-ish exhibitions at a "grand opening" on Saturday.
1) Borders, an exhibition from the Bamako Encounters 8th African Photographic Biennale.
2) A retrospective of Louis Maqhubela
3) Photography by Roger Ballen
4) Imagining Beauty in which textiles and items of adornment from Iziko’s permanent collections are put together with a selection of award-winning fashion designers such as Black Coffee, Craig Native, Darkie and others. "Included are works of superb southern African beadwork; the work of Michael Kra’s collaboration with San artists; and the edgy designs of Beloved Beads, a fusion of the best British and African designs. A rare Rwandan crown, worn by the royalty of the Great Lakes region shortly before its collapse, as depicted in Irma Stern’s famous portrait of Queen Gicanda in 1942, is also on view."
5) In Context was originally conceived as a series of site-specific exhibitions and interventions in and around Johannesburg over the period of the FIFA World Cup in June 2010. It features "a diverse group of contemporary international and South African artists who explore the dynamics and tensions of place, in reference to the African continent."

SA National Gallery

Opening on Saturday 27 November at 17h30 for 18h00

WRITING FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

The winners of the 2009 Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature, Alex Smith (for Agency Blue) and Adeline Radloff (for Sidekick) will be in discussion about writing for young people at the Book Lounge this Tuesday evening.

Book Lounge
Tuesday 23     18h00




DEEPER THAN COLOUR: EU LITERARY AWARD WINNER

James Clelland has won the 2010 EU Literary Award for this novel which deals with the effect that South Africa's border war had on young white conscripts.  The Jury for the award commented:  “Deeper than Colour tells a tale that is seldom told in the new South Africa: the effects of supporting apartheid on the white population. A bitter and disturbing but compulsively readable book, Deeper than Colour raises unsettling questions about our socially fractured society.”

Book Lounge
Wednesday 24  17h30




POETRY AT THE BOOK LOUNGE

In my last posting I wrote about It's Difficult to Explain, an anthology of poems by students of Finuala Dowling's class, which includes a brief memoir of her experiences as a poetry teacher. For "all who prefer their poetry with more than a dash of intelligence and noticeably devoid of sentimentality"  it will be launched at the Book Lounge on Thursday.

Book Lounge
Thursday 25   17h30 for 18h00

AUTOBIOGRAPHY: IN THE DARK WITH MY DRESS ON FIRE

This is the haunting title of the autobiography by Blanche La Guma who "lived out her passionate commitment to justice"  as a nurse-midwife in poor black communities, supporter of her writer-activist husband Alex La Guma, mother of two sons, and as an underground activist.   It will be launched together with a biography of Alex La Guma by Roger Field, at Lobby Books this Thursday, with Albie Sachs as guest speaker.

Lobby Books  Spin Street  Cape Town
Thursday 25   17h30
RSVP to aspath@idasa.org.za

MADE IN TRANSLATION: IMAGES FROM AND OF THE LANDSCAPE

This new exhibition at the SA Museum deals with copies made of rock paintings and engravings, which are seen as acts of translation. "It showcases a diverse range of translations including the works of copyists from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. A collection by Leo Frobenius who explored southern Africa with a team of ethnographers and artists between 1928 and 1930 reveals the remarkable large-scale copies his project produced. Included in the exhibition are copies by, amongst others, George Stow, Helen Tongue, Dorothea Bleek, Joseph Orpen and Charles Schunke. It also includes insights of contemporary scholars, historical and contemporary photographs, and translations of San texts and stories."  Curated by Pippa Skotnes of Michaelis art school and Petro Keene of Iziko museums.

The South African Museum
Opened Sunday 21 November and will run till November 2011

VIRTUAL EARTH

While at the SA Museum, you might want to take young visitors to the newly-opened Virtual Earth.  This is a Gaiasphere, "an interactive digital theatre housed in a back-projected hemisphere with which animations of changes happening on the earth’s surface can be shown."  From a touch screen you will be able to select different views of our changing earth, such as the earth at night, ozone hole evolution, earth surface temperatures, earth core structure etc.

SA Museum
20 November to August 2011




SHOPPING  NEWS:  BLUE BIRD GARAGE MARKET

A new neighborhood market has recently opened in Muizenberg.  Blue Bird Garage is  on every Friday afternoon into evening in a beautiful old converted warehouse just next to the railway line in Albertyn Road.  There's lots of home-made food, craft, jewellery, clothing and book stalls, and a kids' corner.  The organizers say they are planning a Sunday antique and vintage market some time soon.

Blue Bird Garage Albertyn Road  Muizenberg
15h00 to 21h00 every Friday

Gardens and Textiles, Dancers and Poets, Painters who Print

ELGIN GARDENS THIS WEEKEND
See the last item in last week's blog for this garden-lover's pleasure weekend.

FROM SUZANI TO SHWE-SHWE

At the Artvark gallery this week  only "a celebration of the tradition of cloth making and its decoration, from the suzani embroidered cloth of Uzbekistan to traditional South African textiles."  Some cloths will be on sale.
Artvark Gallery in the Cape Quarter - must be a new, we  know them from Kalk Bay - call  021 4186572.
Till Sunday 7 9h00 18h00 

PAINTERS WHO PRINT EXHIBITION

Over the past twenty years at The Artists Press, Mark Attwood has noticed that artists who are primarily painters tend to make the most exceptional prints. This "alchemy" will be seen in  a selection of work at the Press including Kim Berman, Karin Daymond, Johann Louw, Robert Hodgins, Penny Siopis, Judith Mason, Deborah Bell, Colbert Mashile, Pat Mautloa and Andre Naude.

Gallery Grande Provence    Franschoek
31 October - 1 December



Colbert Mashile The Barometer
Medium: nine colour lithograph

UCT DANCE AT THE BAXTER

An interesting work from the UCT School of Dance annual showcase.   "Stravinsky’s compelling score forms the backdrop to an exploration of ritual, tradition and notions of modernity. Choreographed by Maxwell Xolani Rani, pioneer of Intsika technique, and Jamila Rodrigues, studying for a Master's in Choreography, the work challenges normative stereotypes of African dance and peoples of the African continent. "  The second half of the programme focuses on an eclectic mix of dance languages in an adaptation of Carmen.
Baxter Theatre
Thursday 4 to Saturday 6   19h30

LAUNCH OF LA DJUDERIA DE RHODES

Author Isaac Habib is a "first-generation son among a handful of Sephardic survivor-families from the Island of Rhodes who found their way to Cape Town."  This book of poetry is a memento of the life of that community, and while I don't know the poet's work I'm interested enough by the fact that it is written in Ladino, the ancient Judeo-Spanish language spoken on Rhodes, with  literal translations into English and French.

Alliance Française  155 Loop Street
Wednesday 3 November 2010
19h, Free Entrance




BOOK LAUNCH: THE FOSSIL ARTIST

I don't know Graeme Friedman's writing but this sounds like a good premise for a story: "Needing desperately to find out what really happened to his fossil-hunter father (the protagonist) begins a quest that will lead him to the very core of the biggest scientific fraud of all time – the forgery of the Piltdown Man fossils – and to a discovery what it really means to be able to love."  The author will be in conversation with Ronnie Govender, author of The Lahnee's Pleasure and Song of the Atman.

Hosted by the Book Lounge but note the venue:  Sendiggestig Museum    40 Long Street.
Thursday 4  16h30 for 18h00



  
IT'S DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN

This is the title of an anthology of poems by students of Finuala Dowling's class, including a brief memoir of her experiences as a poetry teacher.  "This collection will appeal to all who prefer their poetry with more than a dash of intelligence and noticeably devoid of sentimentality"  and I'm sure a good time is to be had at the launch.

Kalk Bay Books
Friday 5   18h00 for 18h30