Top books take centre stage
THE National Arts Festival in Grahamstown from July 2-12 has an impressive Think!Fest programme of discussions and seminars on several books, some with the author, in its “Play on Words” section.
Bass-baritone Musa Ngqungwana, this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist for Music, will present his newly published autobiography on July 6, the same day as his solo concert at the Rhodes Chapel.
Port Elizabeth-born Ngqungwana has sung in the great opera halls of Europe and the US and his inspirational rise to fame is detailed in Odyssey of an African Opera Singer: From Zwide Township to the World Stage.
Think!Fest is also a fitting place to pay tribute to the late André Brink, who lectured at Rhodes and died earlier this year. His friend and former colleague Godfrey Meintjes will celebrate the life and work of the Afrikaans teacher, critic and writer in A Chain of Voices: The Prose Oevre of André Brink.
“Play on Words” kicks off on Friday July 3 with the “funny, peculiar and sometimes bizarre” episodes contained in the new book, When I was a Fish: Tales of an Ichthyologist. Written by Rhodes University professor Mike Bruton – it is his account of the scientific life of an ichthyologist. Alexander McCall-Smith, author of The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books has high praise for When I was a Fish.
“This remarkable and highly readable book will appeal to all naturalists, particularly when he talks about the coelacanth – a subject on which few will know more than he does.”
Bearing in mind that Bruton studied at Rhodes in the time of the legendary JLB Smith and that he pioneered research on this odd sea creature, and you can see that this new title from Jacana Media is likely to be extremely interesting.
If you are not in Grahamstown over the festival, Fogarty’s is hosting the Port Elizabeth launch of When I was a Fish on Monday July 6 at the GFI Gallery.
There are several other book-related seminars at Think!Fest, including the third annual anthology of Short.Sharp.Stories with this year’s focus on journeys, under the apt title Incredible Journey. The winning authors will be announced on Friday July 10.
Photographer Cale Waddacor will showcase this country’s most influential graffiti artists in a photo montage of street art, Graffiti South Africa.
Roy Sargeant and Diane Wilson will read from famous and not-so-famous passages in Shakespeare’s Word Play on Thursday July 9. These seminars will be in Eden Grove’s Blue Theatre. Tickets cost R30.
ý Booking is no longer at Computicket. See the festival programme, available at Standard Bank outlets or online at www.nationalartsfestival.co.za