Eclectic mix of local short stories, by Janet van Eeden

Book of the Week: The Cream of South African Writers
The editor of this eclectic collection of short stories, Arja Salafranca, sifted through over 100 submissions before she chose stories from the cream of South African writers. There was no theme as such, but it seems as if the stories chosen examine people who are in extreme situations,emotionally or physically.

For example, Arja Salafranca’s moving story about a woman forced to live in a restrictive apparatus in “Iron Lung” is a million miles away stylistically from Aryan Kaganof’s tale of decadence and debauchery on a night out in Durban in “Same Difference.” What is similar, though, is both stories deal with  someone in extremis. The narrator of Kaganof's story is the edge of the emotional abyss. The young woman watching her mother in "Iron Lung" is too. There is no easy way to contemplate a happy future when someone you love is crippled in this way.

There are many gems in this sparkling collection. The enjoyment comes not only from the juxtaposition of many different writers, but also from reading stories with such a variety of subjects.

For example, Liesl Jobson’s “You Pay for The View: Twenty Tips for Super Pics” is a series of verbal snapshots of pivotal moments of a mother trying to find a connection with her children. It is written with poignancy and deep longing. “Doubt” by Gillian Schutte is a study of how passion can seep out of a marriage once the chase is over and when feelings of irrelevance grow due to being part of a couple.

Jenna Mervis’s “The Edge of Things” explores paranormal paranoia in a tangible way and examines the valid fear women feel on a daily basis.

The eternal clash with “the other” is explored in Gail Dendy’s “The Intruders”.  Perd Booysen’s “Sinners and Sinkholes” is a delightful modern-day Hermann Charles Bosmanesque tale of ghost towns and gullibility in the arid wasteland of the Karoo.

There are too many stories to mention individually, and some lend themselves to rereading many times. This is the beauty of the colection: there is something to appeal to all astes. And, fortunately, the real star of The Edge of Things is the genre of the short story itself.

(Published in The Witness, October 12, 2011)

Miss the rugby already? The Melville Poetry Festival Showcase kicks off this Saturday….

Date: Friday October 14^th and Saturday October 15^th 2011.

Venue: 7^th Street, Melville, Johannesburg

The first Melville Poetry Festival Showcase is happening this Friday and Saturday, with an exciting line up of poets writing in all languages set to read and perform their work.

Over 30 poets will be gathering for the festival, with readings, panel discussions, exhibitions, book launches and music taking place at different venues in 7^th Street and 4^th Avenue. Poets participating include Angifi Dladla, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Robert Berold, Kobus Moolman, Arja Salafranca, Ike Muila, Uhuru Waga Phalafala, the Botsotso Jesters, Toast Coetzer, Loftus Marais, Charl-Pierre Naudé, Johann Lodewyk Marais and Rene Bohnen.

The festival kicks off on Friday 14^th October at 9.30am at the old Koffie Huis in 4^th Avenue with the Jozi Spoken Word poetry writing and performance workshop where poets young and old can hone their skills under the guidance of established poets and writing teachers. 

On Saturday book launches by Dye Hard Press and Deep South Publishing start the day, before the festival’s official opening at 1.30pm with Ron Smerczak, Yoliswa Mogale, and the Botsotso Jesters. In a creative collaboration entitled ‘Digkyk/Eyepoems’, Naudé, Peter Fincham and Hans Pienaar will mount an exhibition of images integrated with poetry, while a theatre projection called ‘Angels and Stones’ will be narrated by Lionel Murcott. 

Panel discussions include a talk on the influence of Wopko Jensma (‘The Ghost of Wopko Jensma’) and one called ‘Into Poetry: How to Get Young People to Enjoy Wordplay’, facilitated by Pamela Nichols from the Wits Writing Centre. 

Readings and exhibitions carry on throughout the afternoon, with the day wrapping up with a music festival (Andries Bezuidenhout , Planet Lindela Jazz Trio, Riku Latti & Les Javen, and Lithal Li) which will also be used to showcase up-and-coming slam poets. 

“The festival offers a great opportunity to listen and engage with South African poets writing in all languages – and for poets to meet and talk to each other, which doesn’t always happen,” says Alan Finlay, a poet who will also be reading at the event. “I think the panel on Wopko Jensma raises a question about the spirit of South African poetry that’s worth exploring.” 

Allan Kolski-Horwitz, a Botsotso Jester who, together with the Wits Writing Centre, has run Jozi Spoken Word for several years, feels that the idea of intimate readings at cafés and shops in Melville is a unique one. "The blending of students and local residents with a wide range of poets should make for a very stimulating exchange," he says. 

"The plan is to hold a national festival next year, and then to grow it from there – and already several sponsors have shown an interest,” explains Eleanor Koning, one of the organisers of the festival. “That’s why we’re calling this festival a ‘showcase’ – we want to build on it in the future, inviting more poets from around the country and even internationally to take part.” 

“We also need to develop real public festivals – a festival where everyone is welcome and heard and we can together develop our new multicultural, multi-faceted literature,” adds Nichols. “We hope the workshop on Friday will contribute to developing the new South African poetry and we believe that Melville with its bookshops and coffee shops and restaurants and wandering poets is the perfect place to incubate a new and creative literary culture.” 

Books will be on sale at the venues. Come support South African poetry, or just browse around, catching snippets of poems and song, while visiting the local book and coffee shops that line the streets. 

Entrance to all readings, panel discussions and the Friday poetry workshop is free. The slam event and music in the evening costs R15 for students and R30 for adults. To see the full programme for the event, visit The Melville Poetry Facebook Page.

***

The Melville Poetry Festival Showcase is a collaboration between Marie-lais Edmond, Alan Finlay, Allan Kolski-Horwitz (Botsotso Publishing), Eleanor Koning (Melvilla Guest House), Pamela Nichols (Wits Writing Centre) and Hans Pienaar.

For more information on the festival, please speak to Eleanor Koning on 082 386 4688 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            082 386 4688      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or e-mail her at eleanor@melvilla.co.za

To participate in the Jozi Spoken Word poetry workshop, please contact Pamela Nichols at Pamela.Nichols@wits.ac.za

            ***

Featured artists, in order of appearance, include Gail Dendy, Robert Berold, Rosamund Stanford, Mxolsi Nyezwa, Hans Pienaar, Charl-Pierre Naudé, Peter Fincham, Ron Smerczak, Leti Kleyn, Gary Cummiskey, Michael Gardiner, Uhuru waga Phalafala, Vuyo Seripe, Angifi Dladla, Elza Botha, Botsotso Jesters, Farouk Asvat, Yoliswa Mogale, Lionel Murcott, Peter Horn, Ahmed Patel, Frank Meintjies, Mike Alfred, Toast Coetzer, Andries Bezuidenhout, Corne Cotzee, Alan Finlay, Arja Salafranca, Kobus Moolman, Bernat Kruger, Khulile Nxumalo, Johann Lodewyk Marais, Heidi Marais, Rene Bohnen, Loftus Marais, Itumeleng Magope, Chistophe Van Staden, Ellipsis, Rennie Alexander, Rantoloko, Mak Manaka, Thando, Sebilo, Emmah, Flo, Quaz and the bands Planet Lindela Jazz Trio and Lethal Lee. For the full programme see the Melville Poetry Festival facebook page. 

Ask The Dust by John Fante

This novel, written by the relatively little-known John Fante and published in 1939, was a strong influence on Charles Bukowski, who wrote the introduction for this edition, published in 1998 by Canongate, Edinburgh. The novel concerns Arturo Bandini, a young, struggling writer staying in a seedy LA hotel and his strained, and ultimately tragic, relationship with a waitress named Camilla Lopez.  A must-read for any serious admirer of Bukowski's work.

Programme for the Melville Poetry Festival, October 15, 2011

The Melville Poetry Festival 2011

Just some events at the Melville Poetry Festival on Saturday October 15 include the launch of Gail Dendy's Closer Than That, a panel discussion on 'The Ghost of Wopko Jensma', and poetry by Gary Cummiskey, Arja Salafranca, Victor Khulile Nxumalo, Kobus Moolman, Rene Bohnen, Bernat Kruger and Alan Finlay. Deep South will also be launching new titles by Mxolisi Nyezwa and Rosamund Stamford.

Pick Up All The Flowers (Demolish The Forests)

Gail Dendy in conversation with Janet van Eeden about her poetry collection Closer Than That

Gail Dendy’s new collection, Closer Than That, is full of delicate observations about the human condition, as are many anthologies, but these poems are crafted with the utmost skill and imbued with the musical soul of a dancer.

The poetry lilts and dances in rhythmic metre and one can almost imagine Dendy’s feet keeping time to the words, as if they were notes on a musical score...Read more here 

Still on the Road

Sam Shepard on Bob Dylan and myth

"Myth is a powerful medium because it talks to the emotions and not the head. It moves us into an area of mystery. Some myths are poisonous to believe in, but others have the capacity for changing something inside us, even if it's just for a minute or two. Dylan creates a mythic atmosphere out of the land around us. The land we walk on every day and never see it until someone shows it to us."

Sam Shepard, Rolling Thunder Logbook, Penguin, 1978. 

They Fish

Last Man Standing ... Al Hinkle: an interview by Stephen D. Edington

Published by Beat Scene Press in the UK, Last Man Standing... is a fascinating interview with Al Hinkle, on whom the character of Ed Dunkel in Jack Kerouac's On The Road was based. Recalling his friendship with Neal Cassady from 1946 until up to Cassady's death in 1968, this interview offers testimony from yet another "minor character" in the beat saga.
Visit http://www.beatscene.net/ for order details.

CBLQ R80

100 Thousand Poets for Change Organises Largest Poetry Event in History

Number of Participants Worldwide Growing Daily

650 events in 450 cities and 95 countries will take place on September 24 to promote environmental, social, and political change. Poets, writers, artists will create, perform and demonstrate in their communities, and decide their own specific area of focus for change within the framework of peace and sustainability, which founder Michael Rothenberg stated, “…is a major concern worldwide and the guiding principle for this global event.”

Bob Holman and Margery Snyder, in a recent article on About.com said, “the beauty of the concept of 100 Thousand Poets for Change is that it is completely decentralized and completely inclusive.” All those involved
are hoping, through their actions and events, to seize and redirect the political and social dialogue of the day and turn the narrative of civilization towards peace and sustainability.

Poetry demonstrations are being organized in political hotspots such as Madison, Wisconsin and Cairo, Egypt. Poetry and peace gatherings are planned in strife-torn Kabul and Jalalabad.

In Mexico there are over 30 events, with 18 poetic actions in Mexico City, where poets as well as environmental and political activists are hoping to encourage reflection and creative responses against systemic violence through the written and the spoken word with day long street events, readings and workshops. More than a third of these events are organized by collectives actively working towards a non-violent approach to solve the country's most pressing problems.

To date there are over 260 events in the United States. There are 20 events statewide in North Carolina where teacher/poets have mobilized to protest cuts in education funding. And along the Platte River near Omaha, Nebraska, poets will be demonstrating against TransCanada’s planned Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. More examples of events can be found at the 100 Thousand Poets for Change www.100TPC.org. Each event organizer has an Event Location blog page on the website for posting, poetry, artwork, photos, and video to document this global mega-event across national borders.

Immediately following September 24th all documentation on the 100TPC.org website will be preserved by Stanford University in California, which has recognised 100 Thousand Poets for Change as an historical event, the largest poetry reading in history. They will archive the complete contents of the website, 100TPC.org, as part of their digital archiving program LOCKSS.

Founder Michael Rothenberg is a widely known poet, editor of the online literary magazine Bigbridge.org and an environmental activist based in Northern California.

For information contact: http://www.100TPC.org
Contact: walterblue@bigbridge.org
Phone: 305-753-4569

Ons Klyntji, August 2011

The latest issue of alternative culture journal Ons Klyntji has been published and contains poetry, prose, interviews and artwork from a wide variety of names including Allan Kolski Horwitz, Aryan Kaganof, Diane Awerbuck, Koos Kombuis, Kai Lossgott, Stacy Hardy, Kleinboer and notably - from my point of view - Fred de Vries's piece on Sinclair Beiles, 'The First Man in Space was a South African'.

Contact Toast Coetzer at info@toastcoetzer.com for details.

In Flight

Apollinaire/Apple in Air - a collage by Bruno Sourdin

Original collage received from French artist and poet Bruno Sourdin