Conversation #9: Polo Moji & Laura Nkola-Wenz (Cape Town, South Africa), Open Book Festival 2023 (English)
Release Date: 10/29/2023
Foreignness and Friendship
Conversation with Khanyisile Mbongwa is the chief curator of the in Oude Libertas, Rubert Museum and Stellenbosch University Museum in Stellenbosch, an hours drive from Cape Town. Here she is in a conversation with Morten Ranum telling about her background and discussing the role of the curator. The conversation took place Thursday 20th of February - the day after the opening of the Stellenbosch Triennale - in Oude Libertas. Photo: The opening of Stellenbosch Triennale in Oude Libertas, Wednesday 19th of February. Published by , Monday 3rd of March, 2025.
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Conversation with Kobus Moolman In this conversation Morten Ranum meet Kobus Moolman. Three years ago Morten Ranum published . They meet in Cape Town for the first time, and Kobus Moolman had just the day before launched his new poetry collection “Fall Risk”. We enter into their conversation halfway because they were so eargerly engaged into conversation from the first mimute that Morten Ranum only half an hour later remember to switch on the recording device. The conversation took place Friday 21st of February 2025 in The Electric in Canterbury Street in District Six in Cape Town....
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Sæson VII, 3 - Episode 35 Der er ridser i vinylen, når det kommer til vores betragtninger om moderne kunst.. Endnu engang oplever vi at tekstil og design står øverst på dagsordenen – en bekræftelse af at håndværket og det taktile manifesterer sin position i den moderne kunsts centrum, men spørgsmålet er, hvad det betyder. Verden lader til at befinde sig i et vakuum. Mennesket er forvirret. Vi er nået til en grænse, men der er ikke noget nyt land at betræde – intet nyt spørgsmål at stille. Tekstil synes at være fastholdt i sin sans for det funktionelle. Der er...
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Season VII, 2 - Episode 34 Morten Ranum has submitted an essay with the title “The Lost Rrecording of Uhuru Phalafala” to in South Africa. In this podcast you can listen to him reading it. The title is somewhat a weird one. As the title reveals this was not the purpose. His intention was to have a recording of the and publish it as a conversation podcast, only very lightly edited to keep it as close as possible to the live situation maintaining the raw and fresh atmosphere of the unpolished. As usual very rarely things turn out to be as they have been planned. Nothing we do is smooth,...
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Sæson VII, 1 - Episode 33 Indhold: 00:00 Intro 02:38 Abstrakt 03:58 Kunsten at have en samtale 13:28 Dag I 14:53 26:08 Dag II 30:00 Dag III 34:20 The Lost Recording of 38:52 Johannesburg 44:15 Søndag på Bagsværd Sø 47:45 Outro Det var meningen, at udsendelsen skulle handle om, hvad en samtale er, og hvordan en samtale mellem mennesker kan blive en rigtig samtale, åbenhjertig og virkelig. Vi vil forsøge på at nærmere os samtalens kunst, men ikke på den måde, som det egentlig var planlagt. Intet er, hvad det giver sig ud for at være. Vi har været til , ligesom vi...
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Conversation with Karen Jennings We present a conversation between Karen Jennings and Morten Ranum. Karen Jennings is based in Cape Town. She has published several novels. . The conversation with Karen Jennings took place in during Open Book Festival on Sunday 8th of September, 2024. Published by , Wednesday 25th of September, 2024.
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Conversation with Shubnum Khan During we meet the Durban based South African author Shubnum Khan for a conversation about writing, literature and her most recent novel . The conversation with Shubnum Khan took place in during the festival on Friday 6th of September, 2024. Published by , Tuesday 24th of September, 2024.
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Conversation with Mazen Maarouf In 2019 Morten Ranum participated in the festival Louisiana Literature in Louisiana Museum in Humlebæk north of Copenhagen and had a conversation with the Palestinian author Mazen Maaarouf. Maarouf lives in Reykjavik , Island. His collection of short stories "Vittigheder til krigere" had just been published in Danish translation by Epilog. The conversation with Mazen Maarouf took place in the hallway of Rungstedgaard Hotel on Saturday 24th of August, 2024. We publish the conversation to celebrate the annual literature festival in Louisiana Museum....
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Conversation with Rodrigo Hasbún In 2018 Morten Ranum participated in the festival LitertureXchange in Aarhus and had a conversation with the Bolivian author Rodrigo Hasbún. . Morten Ranum wrote a review of Hasbüns book published by Globalnyt in 2018. After the conversation we bring the review. . In a previous podcast featuring the Angolan author José Agualusa we also bring a reportage article from an event in the festival in 2018, where Rodrigo Hasbún is discussing “The Right to Write” with the José Agualusa. The conversation with Rodrigo Hasbún took place in Dokk1 at Aarhus Habour...
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Conversation with José Eduardo Agualusa Our longtime and loyal member of staff Morten Ranum always participated in the festival LitertureXchange in Aarhus, but in the recent years he seems to have taken a break from the festival. Maybe it is time to go back to the middle Jutland provincial town, but until further notice we will bring a conversation with the Angolan author José Agualusa from 2018, who participated in the festival in 2018. . In 2018 Morten Ranum wrote . After the conversation we bring the review together with a reportage article from an event in the festival in 2018, where In...
info_outlineMapping Literary Cities - or the return of geography
During Open Book Festival in September 2023 in Cape Town we had a conversation about the cross disciplinary “African Literary Cities Project” with Polo Moji and Laura Nkola-Wenz from African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town.
For a general reportage from the festival in Cape Town we recommend listening to a previous episode of our radio show.
In the conversation they are referring to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and questioning the network critically. After the conversation with Laura and Polo we introduce Thando Mgqolozana (founder of the Abantu Book Festival in Durban), who has a slightly different perspective on the UNESCO Network.
Laura Nkoal-Wenz is a human geographer and lecturer in Critical Urbanism, while Polo Moji arrives from the literary field and is a senior lecturer in English Literature.
Toward the very end of the podcast there is a section on saying thank you, which is NOT part of or connected to the above mentioned conversation on literary cities. In this section we also reflect on race and the future - by mentioning Thandiwe Ntshinga's book about South Africas Unfinished Work on Race. It has been brought to our attention that the fact we air out the title of her book has been interpreted as offensive language - altthough it is NOT our language, but a reference to a title of a book published in South Africa. It has never been our intention to offend anyone or cause damage, therefor this paragraph has been added to the podcast description as clarification on November 14th, 2023, after the publication of the original podcast.
WARNING: The section in question is from minute 36:00 - 38:30.
Published by Foreignness and Friendship, Sunday 29th of October, 2023