Pieter-Dirk Uys opens new Artfluence Festival

Satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys will open the new Artfluence Human Rights Festival.

Satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys will open the new Artfluence Human Rights Festival.

Published Apr 24, 2021

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Durban - Playwright, satirist, and activist Pieter-Dirk Uys will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural Artfluence Human Rights Festival, which runs from May 5 to 8.

Presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in partnership with the Embassy of the Netherlands, the festival focuses on arts, the Constitution and democracy, while its theme is “Voices of Hope, Courage and Resilience“.

Uys has worked in the performing arts sector since the early sixties, and during the turbulent 1970s and 1980s he was no stranger to the apartheid era’s censor board. His defiant voice against state censorship is articulated in more than 20 plays and over 30 revues and one-man shows performed in South Africa and abroad.

“For more than four decades, Uys has been a powerful voice of courage, hope and resilience. His voice for justice continues to resonate with the same force,” said Ismail Mahomed, the director of the Centre for Creative Arts.

Since 2000, Uys has travelled around South Africa with a free Aids-awareness show called For Facts Sake!, visiting more than 1.5 million schoolchildren.

Uys will deliver the address on May 5 at 3pm, after which the Artfluence Human Rights Champion will be announced. The festival is free and can be watched at www.facebook.com/artfluencefest and www.youtube.com/centreforcreativearts.

The full programme will be announced next week.

The Independent on Saturday

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