There’s no doubt that this is a complex, challenging and
invigorating time to be South African – and this year’s Think!Fest, a series of
panel discussions and debates held as part of the National Arts Festival in
Grahamstown, promises to grapple with some of the burning issues on the
country’s agenda.
All talks are held at Eden Grove on
Rhodes University campus, and Professor Anthea Garman is the convener. The
Think!Fest programme is presented with the support of the Embassy of the
Netherlands and in partnership with City Press newspaper.
Student protests and the #fallist movement, decolonisation,
the plight of refugees and the migration crisis, multiple identities and
belonging, gender-based and xenophobic violence, as well as the value of the
arts and the future of the Festival itself will all be up for discussion during
Think!Fest, which runs from July 1 to 8.
“This year’s programme is probably the most intertwined arts
and politics programme we have produced yet,’ says Prof Anthea Garman, the
convenor of Think!Fest. ‘It reflects the subject matter of the performances on
the Festival programme and it draws a host of very interesting people into
conversation with each other and audiences.’
Some highlights from the Think!Fest programme:
CHALLENGING
PERCEPTIONS: Decriminalising
Dagga – a panel discussion and Weeding
out Legislative Hypocrisy with Schindler Attorneys Senior Associate
Paul-Michael Keichel, who will talk about how South Africa's @daggacouple are
challenging the criminality of cannabis.
BURNING ISSUES: A
focus on student protests and politics on July 4 will include a roundtable on The Hashtag Protests and Student
Politics in South Africa, with students, academics, researchers and
a journalist; as well as a panel discussion on whether free higher education is
possible in South Africa. There will also be a screening of Disrupt, a feature-length
documentary by Activate relating to the #RUReferenceList and rape culture at
universities. It will be followed by a Q&A session with the film makers.
THEATRE IN CONTEXT:
Three panel discussions on the role of the arts in South Africa will be held on
July 3:
-Join actors Andrew
Buckland and Thembi Mtshali-Jones, Irish theatre director Paula McFetridge,
activist Gertrude Fester and author Marcia Blumberg for Reconciliation In and Through
Performance.
-Women in
Theatre: Phyllis Klotz,
founder of the Sibikwa Arts Centre, actor and department head at Oakfields
College Jackie Rens, director and teacher Warona Seane, and Standard Bank Young
Artist for Theatre Jade Bowers will share their thoughts and experiences as
female art practitioners in South Africa.
-Mike van Graan,
Gita Pather, Alex Sutherland, Emma Durden and Peter Marx will talk about the
effectiveness of theatre as tool for activism and healing under the
chairmanship of Chris Thurman.
BOOK LAUNCHES and
AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION: Look out for the launch of the latest
Short.Sharp.Stories collection, Die
Laughing, as well as the brand-new guide from Emma Durden and Roel
Twijnstra, Theatre
Production in South Africa – Skills and Inspirations. Authors Albie
Sachs and Margit Niederhuber (My
Johannesburg), Greg Homann (The
Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary SA Theatre); Sylvia Vollenhoven
(The Keeper of the Kumm);
Joanne Hichens (Sweet
Paradise) and Fezile Sonkwane (Native
Footprints) will also be hosting sessions during Think!Fest; and
Rob van Vuuren and Danielle Bischoff put a family spin on things in their talk
about the children’s book, Florence
and Watson and the Sugar Bush Mouse.
Don’t miss the ART TALKS AND
WALKABOUTS, including a presentation on Third World Bunfight’s past 20 years as
a socially conscious theatre company by artistic director Brett Bailey (July 3).
There are POST-PERFORMANCE DISCUSSIONS with the directors and artists
themselves, offering audience members the opportunity to engage with the
theatre-makers themselves immediately after the first performance of
productions on the Main programme.
As a host of open and frank
conversations, Think!Fest encourages all Festival goers and Grahamstown
residents to participate in a discussion on the role of a national arts
festival in South Africa today (July 5). The session will be co-ordinated by
Festival CEO Tony Lankester and chair of the NAF Artistic Committee Brett
Bailey.
The community of Grahamstown is also
invited to attend a discussion about the future role and positioning of the
1820 Settlers Monument, which was opened in the mid-1970s (July 7).
ABOUT THE NATIONAL
ARTS FESTIVAL
This year’s National Arts Festival
runs from June 30 to July 10. Now in its 42nd year, it is the
largest and longest-running celebration of the arts on the African continent.
For 11 days, an eclectic mix of drama, dance, music, performance and visual
art, street performances and family fare is presented in the transformed
Eastern Cape town, enthralling and entertaining thousands of visitors.
-To browse the
Think!Fest programme and to book tickets, visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za.
-You can download a
PDF of the latest Think!Fest line-up here
-Tickets R40 (R30 students
and pensioners), unless otherwise stated in the programme.
Full details of the programme, speaker
biographies and topic descriptions will be available in the Think!Fest
brochure, available at all Festival info desks and Think!Fest venues.
Use the hashtag #NAF16
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nationalartsfestival
Twitter: @artsfestival
Instagram: @nationalartsfestival
The
National Arts Festival is grateful to: the National Lotteries Commission, the
Department of Arts and Culture, Eastern Cape Provincial Government, M-Net and
Standard Bank of South Africa.
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