Call For Artists - Artisan Gallery Durban

Artisan Gallery is looking for Artworks for their new exhibition.

They will be having a end of year exhibition on 5th November.

They are looking for Artists to bring them their best artworks.
They are looking for Artists to create a mini-exhibition.

You have until 15th October to contact them about details.

All work must be submitted by 29th October.


Contact Details for Artisan Gallery: 344 Florida Road, Durban.
Email: info@artisan.co.za

Connell Cruise delights fans at Virgin Mobile flagship store in Braamies

Connell Cruise delights fans at Virgin Mobile flagship store in Braamies

(Connell Cruise with WITS student Nkhensani Baloyi) 

On Friday 19 September, fans flocked to the Virgin Mobile flagship store in Braamfontein to meet with popular South African singer Connell Cruise.

The three times SAMA nominee and brand ambassador for LG Electronics and their G3 smartphone, who’s been topping iTunes charts with hits such as Into the Wild, climbed into the Virgin Mobile Mini Cooper photobooth to take selfies with locals.

In August 2014, the 27 year old Jo’burg born singer signed a mega recording deal with Sony/Epic Records in the USA. Since then he has been flying back and forth from New York City compiling his next album.

“I landed from New York just the other day and I’m still feeling very jet lagged. Today, being at the Virgin Mobile store has been great.  It’s been packed with some really cool people who took time out of their day to come say hi. I’m really lucky and really privileged to be able to do all this cool stuff,” says Connell.

When asked what his plans were for the future, Connell replied, “To carry on making good music while working with the best people. I want to make SA super proud and really live up to this incredible opportunity”.

During the two hours that Connell spent at the Virgin Mobile store he managed to capture loads of selfies with fans using the LG G3 Smartphone. If you were one of the lucky fans who popped past the funky store on Friday, then be sure to go to the Virgin Mobile Facebook page to find your selfie.

For more information, be sure to visit www.virginmobile.co.za or follow Virgin Mobile SA on Twitter and Facebook and tag @VirginMobileSA #virginmobilebraamies

Catalina Theatre Call For Theatre Productions 2015 - Exhibition Opening - Theatre Workshop

The Call for 2015

We are looking for new works and experienced professional productions to fill our wide variety of time slots: daytime school term, daytime holidays, prime time evening and late night. There is a variety of collaboration options including venue hire, associations, and sponsorship for new works. We look forward to hearing your idea for a theatre production whether it is simply a script that you have, a fully-fledged show or simply an idea for a show that you would like to produce.

If you would like to stage a production at the Catalina Theatre, please forward a proposal to the Artistic Director, Rowin Munsamyad@keepthedream.org or complete the online form on the Collaboration tab at www.catalinatheatre.com. For inquiries about the theatre, emailinfo@catalinatheatre.com or call 031 837 5999 during office hours.

Venue: Elizabeth Gordon Gallery, 120 Florida Road, Durban.

Tel: 031-303-8133

Time: 6pm

Date: 1 Oct 

ASSITEJ SA WORKSHOP for CHILDREN’S THEATRE FESTIVAL

with KZN THEATRE4YOUTH MENTOR GISELE TURNER

PLAY-PLAY!

Theatre-in-Education veteran script writer, director and performer, Gisele Turner, currently KZN Theatre4Youth mentor, offers a Make a Play Workshop exploring the capacity to create through play. Serious playfulness is a core element in children’s’ theatre, connecting the performer with the audience through innovative and unexpected play. Ordinary objects become magical in the hands of an animator. Make a Play date for Monday 6 October from 10 am through 12 pm at the Catalina Theatre. Open to theatre practitioners and play makers.  Call Gisele on 083 5458546 to book or email her on gisele@saol.com  Limit 30 participants. Free of charge for PANSA Members.

Social Media Evening - Durban - 18h30 - 15 October

Info: http://socialbythesea.blogspot.com/

This edition by +Fred Felton 

PACSA Film & Arts Festival For Pietermartizburg

2014 PACSA FILM AND ARTS FESTIVAL

Theme:  People live here … 20 years into democracy

Under the theme of “People Live Here … 20 Years into Democracy”, the annual Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA) Film and Arts festival is set to showcase a stimulating and highly topical range of films, art, poetry, music and debates that celebrate the lives and power of ordinary South Africans, 20 years after the first democratic elections.

Hosted in collaboration between PACSA and the Alan Paton Centre and Struggle Archives at the University of KwaZulu Natal, the festival runs from the evening of Friday 26 September until Sunday 28 September, with all sessions being held on the local campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Now in its fifth year, and a firm item on the city’s cultural calendar, the PACSA festival has a strong local flavour, with some of the films on offer having been made in and around the city by a variety of local residents.

Films with a national focus – “compulsory” viewing for all South Africans – include the highly acclaimed Miners Shot Down directed by Rehad Desai, which tells the story of the 2012 Marikana Massacre from the perspective of the miners; and Crumbs: Toppling the Bread Cartel, written and directed by local filmmakers Dante Greeff and Richard Finn Gregory, about one man’s bid to expose collusion among some of the country’s biggest bread manufacturers. Local “bread hero” Imraahn Mukaddam, the former distributor at the centre of the story, and current representative of the National Consumer Forum (now Consumer Fair), will be at the screening to share his experiences.

PACSA director Mervyn Abrahams said this year’s festival theme – which acknowledges a creative debt to the title of Athol Fugard’s play People are living there – was an attempt to consolidate and build on the transformative potential of last year’s theme, “Reclaiming our power … imagining possibilities”, by highlighting and affirming the existence of multiple repositories of power in our young democracy.

“Twenty years on, the grand narratives of democracy threaten to render the ordinary person both invisible and irrelevant. But at a local level – in the places where they live – men and women are claiming the space to be, to think and to act,” he said. “Despite their remove from macro-level politics, and despite the socio-economic challenges faced in their daily lives, ordinary people are making choices to claim and advance their own power.”

“Thus, the festival offers a range of opportunities for residents of the city to learn more about their fellow South Africans – the people living here – and hopefully inspire and empower positive forms of social action,” he said.

Festival Launch

Well-known Daily Maverick contributor, political analyst and talk radio host Stephen Grootes will be “in conversation” on the festival theme at the launch which takes place on the evening of Friday 26 September in the Colin Webb Hall on the Pietermaritzburg campus of UKZN. An exhibition of the evocative works of Cedric Nunn, one of South Africa’s best known photographers, will also form part of the launch. At the conclusion of the festival the photography exhibition will move to the Msunduzi Museum where it will be exhibited under the same theme, “People live here … 20 years into democracy”, from October 3 to October 31.

Films

In addition to CRUMBS: Toppling the Bread Cartel and Miners Shot Down, the film line-up includes a PACSA production aptly entitled UN-A-FOOD-ABLE, which explores the burning issue of food affordability in Pietermaritzburg and documents the real struggle for food among thousands of households in the city. The issue of food security is also addressed in a UKZN film entitled Food Insecurity which shines a telling and empathetic light on the plight of hungry UKZN students and the aftermath of hunger, including high failure and dropout rates, the “sugar daddy” syndrome, HIV and more.

There are also two community films. One is Kwenzakalani? Wa shusiswa, wa dingiswa wangaxolelwa!, a docu-drama made in Sobantu by students of PACSA’s film workshop series FilmCraft, which explores the challenge of reintegrating criminal offenders back into the community.

The other is Justice Switched Off:  the Electricity Action Group’s struggle for dignity, which documents the Msunduzi-based action group’s struggle to get the municipality to keep its promises to provide access to sufficient and affordable electricity that ensures a dignified life for the city’s poorest citizens.

Music

On the music side, look out for local Afro-jazz group Soulful Sound and Zazi Mncube, part of the Pietermaritzburg-based ZTM group.

Poetry

For poetry and rap lovers, there are appearances by four-member “urban poetic soul” group Many Moore; Antidote, who is known for adding soul into his rap lyrics and now works with live bands; Durban-based artist Xoliswa who was nominated as the Best Female Poetry performer in the Original Material Awards in 2012; and PMB-based poets Microphone Mthembu and Menzi Sibiya.

Film-making workshop

The festival offers budding film-makers an opportunity to learn practical skills as NGO “Jetty in a Sea of Stories” returns this year to run its popular film-making workshop. Jetty aims to empower people and communities, especially those marginalised from mainstream media, to tell their own stories. The workshop is free and is open to beginners. All you need is a video camera (a cell phone camera is fine), pen and paper.

Children’s art workshop

There will be an art workshop for children from invited schools.

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Friday, 26 September

Launch of the PACSA Film & Arts Festival and Cedric Nunn Photography Exhibition

Venue: UKZN Colin Webb Hall

6 pm:               In conversation with Stephen Grootes on the festival theme: “People live here….20 years into democracy”

Light refreshments will be served. 

RSVP: Sonia Nunthoolall at sonian@pacsa.org.za or 033 342 0052 by 24 September 2014

The Cedric Nunn Photography Exhibition can be viewed all weekend in the Colin Webb Hall

Saturday, 27 September 2014

Film Festival

MINERS SHOT DOWN

Venue: DSLT Lecture Room

Time: 11:30 - 12:30pm

Venue : Colin Webb Hall

Time: 15:30 - 16:30pm

Miners Shot Down charts the seven days leading up to the 2012 Marikana bloodshed, much of it in real-time. The film uncovers disturbing new footage showing a line of police, with armoured vehicles in the background, firing live ammunition on a crowd of miners who are moving in a huddle towards the police line – challenging the police narrative that they acted in self-defence. The documentary utilises compelling, previously unseen police, security and TV footage, some of which was submitted to the inquiry into the massacre, which is under way.

CRUMBS: Toppling the Bread Cartel

Venue: Council Chambers

Time: 11:00 - 12:00pm and 16:30 - 17:30pm

The David-versus-Goliath story of Imraahn Mukaddam, the bread reseller who blew the whistle on bread price-fixing in South Africa. The documentary explores the turmoil Imraahn faced taking on the corporate food machine. Crumbs works at the frontline in the moral struggle between greed versus humanism. The documentary explores the legal, financial and personal turmoil of Imraahn’s fight against the corporate food machine in the quest for accountability and social justice.

Discussion with Imraahn Mukaddam from the National Consumer Forum on the film Crumbs: Toppling the Bread Cartel

Venue: Council Chambers

Time: 12:00 - 13:00pm

UN-A-FOOD-ABLE: When food prices increase, the poorest suffers most

Venue: Council Chambers

Time: 10:00 - 10:45am

Produced by PACSA and Jetty in a Sea of Stories, UN-A-FOOD-ABLE is a documentary that explores the impact of the rising cost of food on the poor. We are producing more food today than ever before yet more and more people are going hungry because they simply can’t afford to eat. When other living costs are added, the increased cost of food starts to hurt. The film includes interviews with activists and candid stories from three families in Pietermaritzburg who share their daily battle to put food on the table. Also featured is the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA) who discuss the evidence of their ‘food price barometer.’ Ultimately, the film asks the question: should the unaffordability of food be considered a social injustice?

KWENZAKALANI? WA SHUSISWA, WA DINGISWA WANGAXOLELWA!

Venue: DSLT Lecture Room

Time: 14:00 - 14:30pm

Scripted, filmed and directed by members of Sakhubuntu Youth Development, Kwenzakalani is a short docu-drama produced as part of the FilmCraft series of workshops hosted by PACSA. Set in Sobantu, the oldest township in Pietermaritzburg, the film explores the challenge of reintegrating criminal offenders back into the community. It follows the character of uGogo who returned to Sobantu in 2014 after an eight-year prison sentence for abduction and mutilation. Rumours and fears of her association with muti, mutilations, witchcraft and the disappearance of local children result in her being forced to leave. This film explores the victim-offender-dialogues and the need to hear all points of view in order for healing to begin.

JUSTICE SWITCHED OFF: The Electricity Action Group’s Struggle for Dignity.

Venue: DSLT Lecture Room

Time: 14:45 - 15:15pm

In 2010 the Msunduzi Municipality in Pietermaritzburg passed a resolution to provide 200kWh of free basic electricity to struggling households, but households on prepaid electricity meters, the poorest citizens in the city, were excluded. An advocacy group was formed in response to lobby the local government to provide free quantities of electricity to all households on the prepaid meter system. Justice Switched Off narrates the struggle of the Electricity Action Group, which started with humble requests for the municipality to keep its promises, and developed into a powerful collective, organising locally and in solidarity, demanding that nobody be denied access to services because they were unable to pay.

FOOD INSECURITY ON THE UKZN CAMPUS

Venue: Council Chambers

Time: 14:00 - 15:00pm

A telling and empathetic depiction of the plight of students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. This documentary reveals the repercussions of student hunger: high failure and dropout rates, the “sugar daddy” syndrome, HIV, and much more. However, light shines in the darkness, and a nutritious students’ food garden is an example. The screening of the documentary has already struck a chord with a variety of professional bodies and earned newspaper coverage. The Disciplines of Agriculture and Psychology at UKZN have subsequently started using this film for teaching purposes.

FESTIVAL WORKSHOPS

Film-making Workshop

Venue: Colin Webb Hall

Time:  10 am to 2 pm

Jetty in a Sea of Stories presents a FREE FilmCraft workshop, which is open to beginners. Participants will learn filming techniques and will need to carry a video camera (a cell phone camera will do), pen and paper. “Jetty in a Sea of Stories” works with organisations and communities to empower them in telling their stories across various media, including video, books and exhibitions. Jetty’s practice and its work seeks to enhance the communication processes of those marginalised from mainstream media and new media technology. It is working towards the creation of a society in which all people have equal access of expression and where their dignity and human rights can be protected.

CHILDREN’S ART WORKSHOP

Democracy through Art (by invitation) :

Time: 09:00 - 13:00pm

Venue: Chemistry Outside Lecture Room

The workshop is aimed at the development of the youth through the arts. The project will start with the 45 students from local KZN schools getting to know each other. There will be a short slideshow and thereafter the students will be encouraged to form their own opinions on what they believe the theme for the festival means to them. Thereafter the students will be divided up into groups where they will work to compose short stories which communicate their views accompanied by illustrations they have drawn. The goal of the workshop is to allow the youth a platform to vision a democratic South Africa.

Jazz Festival 2014

ARTISTS INCLUDE SOULFUL SOUND AND ZAZI MNCUBE

Venue: Colin Webb Hall

Time: 19:00 - 21:00pm

Sunday, 28 September 2014

Church Service

A service led by Rev Janet Trisk and integrating the festival theme: People live here . . . 20 years into Democracy

Venue: St Alpheges Church, corner of Connaught Road and Alan Paton Avenue

Time: 7:30am

Poetry and Music Session

STARTING WITH AN OPEN MIC SESSION, POETS INCLUDE:

Many Moore; Antidote; Xoliswa; Microphone Mthembu; Menzi Sibiya

Host: Mxolisi

Venue: Colin Webb Hall

Time: 13:00pm

This edition by +Fred Felton 

All the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards KZN regional winners

KwaZulu-Natal regional winners Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards 

(KZN Region Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards winners - Back Row: Rowen Philp, Jonathan Erasmus and Kyle Cowen

Front Row: Judy Sandison, Andries Liebenberg and Nonkululeko Hlope, Taresh Harreeparshad, Thuli Dlamini, Dasen Thathia, Mhlabunzima Memela, , Xolani Celi, Tony Carnie and Julie Laurenz)

This year, the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards celebrate 20 years of democracy and mark the 20^th anniversary of Vodacom. It’s a double celebration, both of journalistic excellence and communication facilitated by Vodacom. During this period, journalists covered stories with global reach and significance, requiring in depth research to bring their stories to life.

Convenor of the judging panel, Mary Papayya said: “Once again, the judging process was filled with vigorous debate, and I thank the judges for the critical and concise decision making they committed themselves to. The work we saw was excellent and we hope to see continued growth and momentum for the Vodacom Awards.”

This year, 967 entries were received in the 12 categories: CSI/Sustainability, Editor’s Choice, Financial/Economic, Online, Photography, Print Feature, Print News, Radio Feature, Radio News, Sport, Television Feature and Television News. This was an increase on last year where 830 entries were received. This year, the Print Feature category received the most entries, with 211 journalists vying for the title.

Maya Makanjee, Chief Officer for Corporate Affairs at Vodacom Group said: “I would like to thank the panel of judges for their sterling work during the judging process.

“This year’s judging panel comprised experts in their fields, and I would like to thank Elna Rossouw, Mary Papayya, Collin Nxumalo, Arthur Goldstuck, Johann de Wet, Joe Thloloe, Ryland Fisher, Megan Rusi, and Patricia McCracken, who made their time and expertise available to us,” said Makanjee.

Regional winners for the KwaZulu-Natal Region were announced at a function at the Protea Hotel Umhlanga Ridge, Durban. 

Regional winners will each take home R5 000 and travel to Johannesburg for the national finals on 31 October 2014.

The winners of the 2014 Vodacom Journalist of the Year regional Awards in the KwaZulu-Natal region are:

2014 CSI/Sustainability winners

Tony Carnie. The Mercury, The protection of rhinos in context.

And Loni Prinsloo, Business Times, Beneficiaries feel shafted in Rio equity deal.

2014 Financial/Economic winners

Jonathan Erasmus, Mhlabunzima Memela, and Rowan Philp. The Witness, Jay Singh uncovered.

2014 Online winner

Kyle Cowan. Newcastle Advertiser, The search for Marcel.

2014 Photography winner

Thuli Dlamini. Sowetan, Living in Nkandla.

2014 Print Feature winner

Rowan Philp. The Witness, How crime like cable theft cripples the economy.

2014 Print News winner

Rowan Philp. The Witness, Funeral of former President Nelson Mandela (body of work).

2014 Radio Feature winner

Taresh Harreeparshad. SABC, Coverage of former President Nelson Mandela’s funeral.

2014 Radio News winners

Andries Liebenberg and Nonkululeko Hlope. SABC Radio News, Killing fields.

2014 Sport winners

Carvin Goldstone and Xolani Cele. eNCA, Blind fight.

2014 Television Feature winners

Julie Laurenz and Jacqui Jayamaha. eTV Viola’s hope.

2014 Television News winners

Dasen Thathiah, Xolani Cele, and Thuthuka Zondi. eNCA, Body of work on South African role models who have succeeded against the odds.

(Source - Vodacom) 

Community Dialogue Event - Auditions New York Film Academy - Development Grants - Theatre Festival Call For Productions

Community Dialogue On Social Cohesion

The Department of Arts and Culture will be staging a Community Dialogue on Social Cohesion which will culminate to the Provincial Dialogue. Details are as follows:

Date : Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Venue : Bester Hall, Inanda

Time : 17:00 – 20:00

Topics for discussions include:

• Ubuntu and our Humanity
• Promotion of gender equity
• Building a caring nation
• Difference, tolerance, discrimination, inclusion and exclusion
• Social Cohesion, A means or an end for Development

Your attendance will highly be appreciated as it will contribute towards eradication intolerance in our Province.

THIS IS AN OPEN EVENT. Please invite other relevant stakeholders.

For catering purposes please RSVP: 0833078980

SHARPEN YOUR ACTING SKILLS!
Learn to think on your feet!

On the 17th 18th and 19th of September, PANSA is hosting 3 days of exciting Improvisation
Workshops as part of its service to members, at its premises 3B Beach Road, Woodstock in Cape Town.
The workshops will be run by the talented Jason Delplanque, Director and CEO of The Longshots – a Cape Town based improvisational comedy troupe currently wowing its local audiences.

The cost of participating in the workshop for PANSA members is only R50 per day. For non members its R100 per day. (Or you could just become a PANSA member for R120 per annum!!) And enjoy the discounted price, for this and all our other projects to come for the next year!!).

The workshops will run from 10am to 4pm (Please bring your own lunch). And you may attend as many as you wish to, from day to day.
For purposes of high quality input and output, only 15 participants will be selected to participate in the workshops.
Please contact info@pansa.org.za , or call 021 488 3513 for registration.

Auditions 

New York Film Academy

The New York Film Academy is looking for artists talented in Musical Theatre, Acting and Filmmaking. The purpose of these auditions is to find young artists who show talent and drive for the industry, and assist them with scholarships to study further at the Academy. South African artists who are selected for the different programmes will be offered partial Talent Based Scholarships and Needs Based grant assistance for their studies.

Musical Theatre students are trained by Broadway professionals whilst Filmmaking students will be on set shooting from their first week. They will also write, direct, shoot, and edit 8 of their own film projects and will crew on an additional 21 others in just the first year of the BFA program! Auditions are by appointment only. To book an audition, please emailsaauditions@gmail.com

NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY: ON CAMERA WORKSHOPS

Sat 20: 11h00 – 12h00 Workshop; 13h00 – 16h00 Audition; 17h00 – Info Session
Sun 21: 09h00 – 10h00 Info booth; 10h00 – 11h00 Workshop; 12h00 – 13h00 – Audition

Development Grants from Arts & Culture Trust (ACT)

The Professional Development Programme funded by Nedbank Arts Affinity is designed to support the development of a reliable, sustainable and vibrant arts and culture sector in South Africa. The programme makes provision for support of activities that increase job opportunities for and develop sustainability of South African arts and culture organisations, associations, cooperatives, networks, individual artists and practitioners with various grants:

Once-off Grants
Eligible for once-off grants of up to R60,000 are arts and culture organisations, associations, cooperatives, networks, individual artists and practitioners, for range of activities that support their professional advancement, on an on-going basis

ONCE-OFF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

Arts and culture organisations, projects (cooperatives and collaborations) and individual artists as well as arts administrators and managers working in any one or a combination of the following disciplines are eligible to apply for once-off grants of up to R60,000:

• Literature
• Dance
• Music
• Visual Art
• Theatre
• Arts Education
• Arts Administration
• New Media

Multi-disciplinary (a combination of one or more of the above)

Closing date for applications: 30 September 2015
Outcome available: 15 November 2015

For more information visit Arts and Culture Trust website http://www.act.org.za/development-grants.html#once-off-grants

Zabalaza Theatre Festival call for applications

The Baxter’s Zabalaza Theatre Festival is calling for applications from theatre-makers, directors, script writers, community groups and theatre companies to participate in the 2015 Zabalaza Theatre Festival.

The festival will take place at the Baxter Theatre Centre from 20 to 28 March.
The deadline for applications is by 3 October 2014.

Productions which are selected from applications received will first be auditioned and will then be invited to participate in the Zabalaza mini-festivals, which are planned for January 2015, when the final selection for the 2015 festival line-up will be made.

Auditions take place from 6 October through to 12 December 2014, so artists are strongly encouraged to apply early.
The Festival organisers are looking for one or two-handers, children’s theatre productions, puppetry, musical theatre, drama, comedy, physical theatre and storytelling.

For further enquiries or more information contact Ziyanda Mxokozeli or Zoleka Helesi on 021 680 3980, fax to 021 689 1880 or email  them ziyanda.mxokozeli@uct.ac.za, zoleka.helesi@uct.ac.za or baxterzabalaza@uct.ac.za.

Alternatively visit www.baxter.co.za www.facebook.com/zabalazafestival.

This Edition by +Fred Felton 

Architects talk spatial planning - Book Launches - Art Exhibits

SA architects echoes the call on bureaucracy jam in property development

The South African Institute of Architects (SAIA) has decided to add emphasis to last week’s call by the South African Property Owners Association’s (SAPOA) for the Minister of Rural Development and Land Affairs, Gugile Nkwinti, to invoke his discretionary powers to expedite spatial planning.

While matters relating to the property development have remained topical in South Africa a lot of work still needs to be undertaken in the housing development sector. “SAIA supports SAPOA’s appeal and any other initiatives which would help unblock barriers to development which, in turn, would lead to faster, more efficient processing of development applications”, said Sindile Ngonyama, the SAIA President.

The massive infrastructure development target which is set by the government could only be achieved in the event that unnecessary bureaucracy is particularly avoided where it relates to property development. “We urge the honourable Minister to take heed of the call in order to facilitate the approval process for applications and indeed appeals in the property development arena”, said Obert Chakarisa, the SAIA Chief Executive Officer.

SAIA is a national body of professional architects as well as corporate architectural firms. In addition, with a total of 11 regional affiliates, The Institute is also the voice of architects in the SADC region.

Article by +Lauren Immelman 

Book Launch 

Thursday 11 September , 5.30 for 6.00 pm

Ex-Durban novelist , Marguerite Poland , will launch her latest novel , The Keeper , at Adams Books Musgrave Centre . Written in the exquisite , haunting prose for which Marguerite Poland is renowned , The Keeper published by Penguin Books (R235.00) , is the story of two generations of lighthouse keepers – men obsessed by their duty to the light – and the wives who accompany them into a life of frightening isolation . The only other community on the desolate island are the guano workers , confined with the lighthouse keepers , yet rigidly separated .

The shimmering tensions and injustices endured for so long by the guano workers erupt into a single act of violence , at the same time as lighthouse keeper Hannes Harker’s wife Aletta’s past secrets erupt into the present . Marguerite Poland was a featured author at the recent KZN Midlands Literary Festival . We hope you can join us Thurs 11 Sept 6.00 pm for a rare public appearance by one of South Africa’s most treasured writers . Please rsvp to this e-mail or sms Cedric 082 873 2702 

Exhibitions At artSPACE durban 

(A Bernice Stott Sculpture - Just one of the artworks on display.) 

For details of the exhibit visit: http://artspacedurban.blogspot.com/