Fest to host explosive ‘Cocktail Hour’ series
THOUGHT-provoking conversations will take place at this year’s “Time of the Writer” festival with the introduction of the “Cocktail Hour” series. Each evening from March 15 to 19 at 5pm, writers and thoughtleaders will discuss subjects that draw from their experiences.
In the first of the “Cocktail
Hour Conversations”, SAfm radio journalist Michelle Constant will speak to psychologist Coralie
Trotter, medical surgeon and author Emmanuel Taban, playwright
Nadia Davids and author Helen Moffett about writing in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic and the social and psychological coping mechanisms needed.
On March 16, cultural producer, Russel Hlongwane, will moderate a discussion with film-maker Firdoze Bulbulia, Durban International
Film Festival curator Chipo Zhou and author and academic Maik Nwosu about his book The Comic Imagination in African Cinema & Literature.
On March 17, Sam Mathe will chat with journalist, author and activist Zubeida Jaffer about her book about the phenomenal life of Charlotte Mannye Maxeke, Beauty of the Heart: The Life and Times of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke.
On March 18, journalist Ayesha Kajee will discuss “Feminism and Writing: a Path to Self-Realisation and Empowerment” with authors
Abi Dare, Carice Anderson, Lethokuhle Msimang, Shafinaaz Hassim and Oksana Zabushko.
And in the last of the series, on March 19, Nancy Richards will moderate a discussion on the value of literature and the arts in teaching reconciliation in schools. Author Sindiwe Magona’s book, Mother to Mother, about reconciliation, will be up for discussion.
Sessions will be live streamed on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.