We are delighted to continue the collaboration with #CocreateSA on the event and thanks must go to Bonnie Horbach and her team for their ongoing support.
This year’s #cocreatePOETICA celebrates three years of partnership between the Dutch Consulate General and the Open Book Festival Poetica programme. Through our national campaign, #cocreateSA, we have established a successful collaboration. Even though our countries differ, there are many parallels in the public and cultural debates on identity, integration and transformation. By co-creating cultural interventions, we have and continue to build mutual understanding and trust between the Netherlands and South Africa. – Bonnie Horbach, Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Here are just some of the poets joining us for the festival in 2018:
Gabeba Badroon, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese, Megan Ross, Puleng Lange-Stewart and Roseline Lambert (Canada)
Mbongeni Nomkonwana, Javier Perez, Pieter Odendaal, Adrian Diff van Wyk and Jorge Vargas Prado (Peru)
This collaboration highlights poetry and spoken word as exciting and important channels through which to explore challenges and identify solutions. Conversations, performances and readings allow for poets from different spaces to engage on issues of identity, language, shared histories and environment.
Other who have been announced to date are: Lesley Nneka Arimah, Jonas Bonnier, Tumelo Buthelezi, David Chariandy, Clinton Chauke, Anna Dahlqvist, Rebecca Davis, Haji Mohamed Dawjee, Guy Delisle, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Frankie Edozien, Mariana Enriquez, Judith February, Aminatta Forna, Pumla Gqola, Craig Higginson, Nozizwe Jele, Siya Khumalo, Landa Mabenge, Angela Makholwa, Mohale Mashigo, Niq Mhlongo, Sue Nyathi, Ijangolet Ogwang, Mariko Tamaki, Adam Smyer, Jeremy Vearey and Zuki Wanner
The programme will be available on our website in early August and tickets will go on sale through Webtickets at the same time.
If you would like any additional information about the festival, please get in touch with Frankie.
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Open Book Festival is organised in partnership with The Fugard Theatre, The District 6 Museum, The A4 Arts Foundation, The Townhouse Hotel, Novus Holdings, The French Institute, The Canada Council for the Arts,The Embassy of Sweden, The Embassy of Argentina, The Dutch Foundation for Literature, UCT Creative Writing Department, University of Stellenbosch English Department, and Central Library and sponsored by Leopards Leap, Open Society Foundation, Pan Macmillan, NB Publishers, Jonathan Ball, and Penguin Random House.