Tonight Reporter
The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (Gipca) hosts a line-up of various talks and music activities this month.
First on the bill on Thursday is award-winning author Damon Galgut who will present a public lecture series along with the award-winning writer, Imraan Coovadia.
Galgut had his first novel, A Sinless Season, published when he was only 17.
His collection of short stories Small Circle of Beings (1988), was followed by the award-winning novel The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs (1991) and The Quarry (1995).
It’s his novel, The Good Doctor, that delves into the relationship between two different characters in an isolated, rural hospital in post-apartheid South Africa, that was shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the International Impac Dublin Literary Award, and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book from the Africa Region.
Galgut’s winning writing flair is apparent in his plays, too – such as Echoes of Anger, Party for Mother, Alive and Kicking and The Greens-keeper; which has also been selected for the National Magazine Awards and the PEN/O Henry Prize Stories Anthology.
Classical music gets the spotlight next Wednesday when celebrated flautist Liesl Stoltz presents a programme of contemporary South African flute work.
Forming part of Gipca’s Music in the City Concert Series, the initiative aims to provide an opportunity to showcase more of the classical genre through its promotion of the South African flute repertoire, and by offering classical music connoisseurs a wide range of contributions from local composers.
The concert will feature works by South African composers Bongani Ndodana Breen, Roelof Temmingh, Peter Klatzow, Stefans Grové, Hendrik Hofmeyr, and Paul Hanmer – performed by Stoltz, with esteemed musicians Francois du Toit (piano), Albie van Schalkwyk (piano), Frank Mallows (marimba), Peter Martens (cello) and Magdalene Minnaar (soprano).
It’s all about World Peace Day next Thursday when Gipca, along with hundreds of art institutions, celebrate with the screening of 21 films of artists depicting the subject of peace.
Films4peace to celebrate World Peace Day – an international UN day – is curated by Mark Coetzee, and is an annual short film commission by Puma.Peace.
The live screenings will coincide with their online release at major museums globally to public urban spaces, and educational institutions and youth leadership conferences.
The films include 35mm live action, experimental animation and fine art. They are 30- to 90-seconds long and not language-specific. These art films will be released online on World Peace Day (September 21) on a dedicated films4peace website, through social networking and video-sharing sites and blogs, among others.
In association with the UCT Centre for Creative Writing and as part of Open Book Cape Town, Booker Prize-winning author Kiran Desai will present a reading of her work, followed by a discussion.
The daughter of author Anita Desai, Kiran’s creative writing first sparked attention in 1997 when she was published in the New Yorker and Mirrorwork, in an anthology of 50 years of Indian writing.
Her other well-known literature includes The Inheritance of Loss – set in the mid-1980s in a Himalayan village.
That book bagged her awards ranging from the Man Booker Prize for Fiction to the National Book Critics’ Circle Fiction Award, among many others.
• All events will take place at Hiddingh Hall, UCT Hiddingh Campus, Orange Street, and are free. No booking is necessary. For more information visit [email protected]