OBF2025: Better Late

Better Late is where the country’s most brilliant, bewildering, and occasionally unhinged creatives – Yaaseen Barnes and Callum Hitchcock – band together on the set of a Late Night TV show to get to the bottom of whatever the hell is going on at the Open Book Festival.

Joining them for conversations that matter are two very special guests, who you may recognise if you have been anywhere with internet access in the last few years — Settle down, brother! It’s not Grok — it’s Dan Corder and Céline Tshika.

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. 

The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: The Poetics of I

In this event, Kopano Maroga, Manthipe Moila and Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal speak to each other through their poetry. Please note the readings will be followed by a short Q&A session.

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: Spec Fic and Science

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Jon Keevy and Adriana Marais speak to Wamuwi Mbao about the intersections of art and science.

The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: Stories of Rebellion

In this event Foluso Agbaje, Lesedi Molefi and Nathi Ngubane speak to Pumla Dineo Gqola about subverting power and fighting back.

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: Exploring the Queer Imaginary

In this event Kelly-Eve Koopman, Kopano Maroga and Maneo Mohale speak to Lwando Scott about building alternate presents and futures.

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. 

The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: Finding Lightness

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. 

In this event Sven Axelrad, Khaya Dlanga and Karen Vermeulen speak to Dela Gwala about the necessity of humour to process pain. 

The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: African Cosmologies as a World of Magnitude

In this event Zara Julius, Vusumzi Ngxande and Jeffrey Rakabe speak to Wanelisa Xaba about turning away from modernity and exploring the multilayeredness of African cosmologies. 

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. 

The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: Tensions of Home

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Antjie Krog, Frankie Murrey and Sarah Uheida speak to Bongani Kona about writing one’s way to belonging

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust

OBF2025: Inherited Systems

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.
In this event, Rebecca Gore, Adekeye Adebajo and Edgar Pieterse speak to Alexandra Dodd about colonial structures—legal, spatial, cultural—that we are born into and that we either uphold, resist, or remake. These authors explore how systems define the parameters of justice, survival, and hope—and what it might take to transform them.
The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: Unsettled Accounts | The Interpeters

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Alexandra Dodd, Bongani Kona and Antjie Krog discuss memoir and personal nonfiction as ways of grappling with memory, complicity, silence, and shame—both in private lives and in the shared fictions that shape them. This conversation, hosted by Hedley Twidle, explores the risks and rewards of writing into uncertainty.

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust