I’m afraid I have a confession to make, dear reader. I’ve passed over to the dark side and it doesn’t bother me for one second. The lovely Snapdragon gave me a Kindle for Christmas. I’m a changed man. Until now, I have clung to traditional books with white knuckles. And why not: there is no substitute for the smell of a new book, the creaking sound a book makes when you open it for the first time. I used to be rather outspoken about the subject: “I read real books,” I told everybody who wanted to hear. “A digital book on an e-reader is simply not a book. It feels like work.” Well, it is a real ..read more

A Hong Kong man was sentenced to jail on Friday after importing “seditious” children’s books that portrayed the city’s democracy supporters as sheep defending their village from wolves. Following massive democracy protests in the Chinese city in 2019, authorities have revived a colonial-era sedition offence to jail dozens of residents, which critics have decried as political suppression. ALSO READ: Library books should not have ‘unhealthy ideas’ – Hong Kong leader Finance company worker Kurt Leung, 38, was sentenced to four months in prison after he pleaded guilty to “importing seditious publi ..read more

Aptly titled The Race to be Myself is Caster Semenya’s soon to be released memoir that the athlete announced yesterday to her fans. “It will be a simultaneous release in the US, UK and SA. It is my hope that by finally telling my truth, I will inspire others to be bold, unafraid and most importantly to love and accept themselves as they are,” said Semenya in an Instagram post. “This is my offering from me to you. You can pre-order my book at your favourite bookseller today in the US and the UK… SA pre-order date will be shared soon. Stay winning, love Mokgadi.” View this post on Instagram A ..read more

The Economic Freedom Fighters’ Leruo play is on a national tour and one of its stops was the South African State Theatre (SAST) on Sunday, 14 May, which attracted a slew of fighters draped in the red colours of the political party that celebrates its 10 year anniversary this year. No conflict of interest Speaking to The Citizen about the play being staged at the theatre in Tshwane, Artistic Director Aubrey Sekhabi says there’s nothing odd about the EFF’s anniversary being celebrated at the SAST. “There is nothing strange about a theatre hosting or presenting an artistic production, irrespectiv ..read more

Art galleries and art fairs tend to be intimidating for the average Joe on the street. The daunting feeling stems from people often thinking that art is for a certain type of person or that there isn’t art they can afford. Open Studios Joburg is bridging the gap between the creator and the consumer of art, by making art accessible through its festival in the inner city. The event takes place on the last weekend of May for two days, and will see art lovers going to the various art studios in the CBD to view works by Joburg-based artists. The studios include the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, Lil ..read more

“It’s humbling to be given this award as most of my work has been about culture and history,” Gregory Maqoma shared to The Citizen. The award was presented to Maqoma by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in recognition of his work, which advances respect for human dignity, advocates for human rights and celebrates the human spirit. “There are social things we still battle with as a society. The prejudice on the LGBTQI+, the killing of women and children. It’s things I can’t turn a blind eye to,” explains the artist. Maqoma, an acclaimed creative who has a slew of p ..read more

Seeing representations of male nudity in Western art is nothing new, but how the nude male figure is represented has changed over the centuries. Especially when it comes to penis size. Male genitalia in art has increased considerably in both width and length since the Renaissance, according to a new international study. The study in question was carried out by a team of researchers and urologists based in the UK and Turkey. Male genitalia They studied how the representation of male genitalia in Western art has evolved by analyzing 160 paintings by a hundred artists from 21 countries around the ..read more

Woza Albert! is a play that sheds light on the struggles faced by black South Africans during apartheid-era South Africa. The play, written by South African theatre veterans Dr Mbongeni Ngema, Percy Mtwa, and Barney Simon in 1981, uses a two-hander performance style to delve into the lives of a wide range of characters, highlighting the injustices of the pass laws that restricted movement for black South Africans. By depicting Jesus Christ’s return to South Africa during apartheid, the production raises questions about how he would have responded to the cruelty of the time. ALSO READ: Educatin ..read more

Changes made to best-selling children’s author Roald Dahl have sparked mixed reactions. Dahl’s Publisher, Puffin, a subsidiary of Penguin Books, apparently in collaboration with children’s books organisation Inclusive Minds, reworded current editions of some of Dahl’s most popular stories. Words matter According to a report by The Guardian, words like ‘fat’ and ‘ugly’ have since been removed from the stories: For example, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Augustus Gloop is now “enormous” instead of “enormously fat”. ALSO READ: How to become a published author While Mrs Twit from In The Twits ..read more

Time is relative, according to Einstein. And the rate at which is passes depends on your frame of reference. At Herman Lamprecht’s Reliable Clocks shop in Benoni, time stands still, it tick-tocks and it gongs. And he is in love with his timekeepers. It started off as a hobby for the former avionics engineer over two decades ago when he inherited a broken grandfather clock. “It stood around not working for years, and then one Saturday afternoon I walked past it and decided maybe I can fix it.” The bug bit after tinkering with the mechanisms of time, and he ..read more