The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) presents:
intersect
12-13.02.2016, University of Cape Town’s Hiddingh Campus
intersect is a two-day symposium comprising talks, performances, a film screening, and discussion panels. The event will bring academia and the creative arts together to interrogate the intersecting themes of race, gender, class and sexual identity.
The forcible separation of struggles in South Africa has often led to singular readings of race, gender, class and sexual identity. As a result, intersectionality has emerged at the forefront of contemporary discourse. Some intersections have been viewed as divisive, while others are seen as productive and rich. How do we press on with these discourses without delegitimising or deprioritising the struggle for equality on any of these issues?
At intersect, speakers, performers and artists will offer a range of perspectives and formulations for approaching this topic. Through this interdisciplinary approach, it is hoped that space for dialogue and discussion may ensue. The event features:
- Keynote addresses by: academic and author, Pumla Gqola; poet, short story writer and novelist, Mandla Langa; academic,Kopano Ratele, and founder and editor of Vanguard Magazine, Panashe Chigumadzi
- Performances by: spoken-word poet, Koleka Putuma; dancer and choreographer, Sibonakaliso Ndaba, and performance artist, Sethembile Msezane
- A screening of Khalo Matabane’s documentary, Nelson Mandela: The Myth & Me, followed by a panel discussion.
For the full programme, please visit: www.gipca.uct.ac.za
intersect takes place at the Hiddingh Hall, University of Cape Town Hiddingh Campus, 31 – 37 Orange Street, Gardens Cape Town 8001 from 17:30 – 22:15 on Friday 12 February, and from 9:00 – 13:30 on Saturday 13 February 2016.
Refreshments will be served, no booking is necessary and all are welcome.
For more information contact the GIPCA office on +27 21 650 7156 or sam.saevitzon@uct.ac.za
About intersect’s speakers and performers:
Zimbabwean-born and South African-based writer, Panashe Chigumadzi, is the Founder and Editor of Vanguard Magazine – a womanist platform for young black women coming of age in post-apartheid South Africa. Her debut novel Sweet Medicine, was published in 2015 to critical acclaim. Chigumadzi is currently studying towards a Masters in African Literature at Wits.
Pumla Dineo Gqola is Professor in the Department of African Literature at Wits University. She is the author of What is Slavery to Me? Postcolonial/Slave memory in Post-apartheid South Africa (2010) and A Renegade Called Simphiwe (2013), and editor of Regarding Winnie: Feminism, race and nation in global representations of Winnie Madikizela Mandela. Her latest book, Rape: A South African Nightmare, was published in 2015.
Mandla Langa is an award-winning poet, short-story writer and novelist. In 2007, Langa received the National Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for his literary and journalistic contribution to democracy. His published works include Tenderness of Blood (1987), The Memory of Stones (2000) and The Lost Colours of the Chameleon (2008). The Texture of Shadows, his latest novel, was published in 2014.
Khalo Matabane is an award-winning director, writer, and producer whose filmography has brought him national and international acclaim. In addition to Nelson Mandela: The Myth & Me (2013), his films about South Africa include State of Violence (2010), Love in the Time of Sickness (2002), Young Lions (1999), The Waiters (1997) and Two Decades Still (1996). Matabane has been invited to workshops and festivals around the world.
Sethembile Msezane is a Cape Town-based artist, born in KwaZulu-Natal, bred in Joburg and currently pursuing her MFA degree at UCT. Her work addresses the absence of the black female body in the monumentalisation of public spaces. In 2015, Msezane performed at the removal of the Cecil John Rhodes statue at UCT, at the Vrystaat Kunstefees Festival and at Infecting the City.
Sibonakaliso Ndaba worked with Jazzart Dance Theatre in Cape Town as a performer, dancer and teacher, and thereafter as Artistic Director of the Phenduka Dance Theatre where she developed a reputation for her unique blend of contemporary and African dance. Ndaba has choreographed for performance companies nationally and internationally. Her awards include the KwaZulu-Natal Dance Link award for Best Choreographer, the Playhouse Company award for Women in the Arts, and the Daimler Chrysler award for South African Choreography.
Koleka Putuma is a Performance Poet, Arts Facilitator and Theatre Practitioner. She is a resident poet of the collective Lingua Franca, and co-founder of the newly formed theatre companies, Velvet Spine and The Papercut Collective. Putuma was crowned South Africa’s first national slam champion in 2014. She has been named One of Africa’s top 10 poets by Badilisha, and one of the young pioneers who took South Africa by storm in 2015 by the Sunday Times.
Kopano Ratele is Professor in the Institute for Social and Health Sciences at the University of South Africa. Best known for his work on men and masculinity – specifically in relation to violence, race, and sexualities – he has published a number of books, scholarly essays and research papers on a range of psychological, cultural and social topics. Ratele is past president of the Psychological Society of South Africa, and the incumbent chair of the board of Sonke Gender Justice Network.
About GIPCA: GIPCA is an interdisciplinary institute in UCT’s Humanities Faculty that facilitates new collaborative research projects, particularly in the Creative and Performing Arts. Interdisciplinarity and Public Spheres are key themes of the Institute, and projects are imbued with innovation, collaboration and a dialogue with urbanism and community. GIPCA was launched in December 2008 with a grant from the Gordon Foundation, and continues its work as a result of a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
