Basements and Balconies

Join us for this celebration of South Africa’s literary scene in the heart of the City of Gold. Explore hidden gems of the city, both above and below ground, and witness some of South Africa’s finest literary talents.

Reading: Notes on Falling, by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen at Bridge Books | 10am - 10.45am

Thalia, adrift in a small university town in South Africa in the nineties, heads to New York to study photography and to pick up the faint trail left for her by someone she has never known. The city helps her to find her way as an artist, but it never quite provides the answers she is seeking. Only years later in Johannesburg is she able to make sense of who she is and what her work might mean.

Herbert Dhlomo Performance at James Findlay Collectible | 11.15am - 12.30pm

Herbert Dhlomo wrote poems and plays chronicling South Africa's rich past. Most of his work is long out of print. University of Pretoria students spent two years working with Bridge Books on a new edition of The Girl Who Killed to Save and Valley of a Thousand Hills, updated with contemporary line drawings by Mongezi Ncombo with an introduction by Fred Khumalo.

Thenjiwe Mswane reads from 'All Gomorrahs are the Same' | 1.15pm - 2pm

Thenjiwe reads from one of the three characters who animate a complex inter-generational conversation, in the basement of the Rand Club.

Slam Poetry by Bright Maluleka | 2.30pm - 3.15pm

Graphic Slam Poetry that portrays and expresses the experience of things, life and language by a human being in his absolute, pure, unconfined, and uncensored state.

Laila Manack reads from Sisters of the Circus at Johannesburg Culinary School | 4.30pm - 5pm

Trapeze-artist twins Kahina and Noor are one of a kind. Kidnapped from their home in India, they were sold to a travelling circus in Europe at four years old. Now it’s the Roaring Twenties, the girls are twenty-one, and they want to escape their circus trailer and abusive ringmaster and make their way to India to find their birth parents.

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu Q & A from The Quality of Mercy at African Penthouse | 5.30pm - 6.15pm

Glass of bubbly at a penthouse with sweeping views of the city for a reading and Q & A from the acclaimed Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu.

Here's the complete programme for Basements & Balconies - https://bridgebooks.co.za/blogs/book-events/basements-balconies-29th-october

*As the venues are basements and balconies of some old buildings, we do not suggest this event for people with mobility issues.