Botsotso 17: a multi-lingual journal of new writing – poetry, short fiction, essays, reviews – and visual art. This edition contains the work of over 60 poets and writers from all over the country and expresses the range of themes and styles that are being explored in contemporary South African writing. A photographic essay on jazz musicians by Moshe Sekete and sketches by Ahmed Patel provide visual content.
ISABELLA MOTADINYANE: a re-issue of the collected poems of Isabella Motadinyane by Deep South Books. Isabella was born in 1963 in Mofolo Central, Soweto, and died in 2003 in Orange Farm. She used English, Isicamtho and Sesotho to create a powerful legacy of performance, poetry and song. She was a member of the Botsotso Jesters performance group; in fact, the group took its name from one of her poems. The tributes to her by Botsotso members are reproduced in this edition.
THE COLOURS OF OUR FLAG: a new collection of poems by Allan Kolski Horwitz illustrated by the painter James de Villiers. Kolski Horwitz’s poetry encompasses sensually charged relationships and encounters between men and women, examinations of political realities (including the lives of artists and revolutionaries) and imagistic depictions of natural phenomena. This collection, comprising 80 poems written over the past three years, represents a further collaboration with de Villiers –the collection THERE ARE TWO BIRDS AT MY WINDOW (published in 2014) having been the first. James de Villiers has worked with Botsotso for over ten years and produced soundscapes for two Botsotso cd’s of poetry.
LOUD AND YELLOW LAUGHTER: poems by Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese. The original version of this collection was written as part of the poet’s Master’s thesis in Creative Writing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. A collection of 39 pieces, some mystical and elliptical, some seemingly mundane snatches of prose-poetry that retain a poetic intensity, together they create an atmosphere of nostalgia tinged with a subtle yet matter-of-fact sadness. Accompanied by a series of graphic images, made up of old photographic portraits and scenes of natural beauty, Busuku-Mathese has created a very well crafted and enchanting body of work.
CAPE TOWN
Time: 6 for 6.30pm
Date: Friday, 15 July
Venue: CWD, Athlone Culture Hub, 146 Lawrence Rd, Athlone
JOHANNESBURG
Date: Thursday, 28 July
Venue: David Krut, 140 Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood (Rosebank)
Please join us for readings from the poets and writers. We will also be having a short discussion about the role of independent publishers in the current cultural scene.
Light (and heavy . . .) refreshments will be served to supplement the words on hand.
FREE ADMISSION TO ALL WHO SEEK THE TRUTH and versions thereof . . .