Open Book Festival Live Recordings

In this episode Wale Lawal, Athambile Masola and Moray Rhoda speak to Sue Nyamnjoh about meaning making in the age of AI.

Open Book Festival is an annual literary event in Cape Town featuring panelists from all over the writing and publishing spheres. It is a place where writers and audiences are brought together and meaningful discussions are made possible.This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

In this episode Veruska De Vita, Traci Kwaai and Malika Ndlovu speak to Zolani Mahola about the work of reclaiming ancestral and intimate connections to our rivers and oceans.

Open Book Festival is an annual literary event in Cape Town featuring panelists from all over the writing and publishing spheres. It is a place where writers and audiences are brought together and meaningful discussions are made possible.This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

In this episode Sven Axelrad, Lebo Mazibuko and Ntombifuthi Nkabinde speak to Lufefe Boss about working through the trauma left by problematic parents.

Open Book Festival is an annual literary event in Cape Town featuring panelists from all over the writing and publishing spheres. It is a place where writers and audiences are brought together and meaningful discussions are made possible.This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

In this episode Maneo Mohale speaks to literary icon, Tsitsi Dangarembga, about bearing witness to complex states of Black girlhood in her powerful world-bending Tambudzai and Nyasha trilogy (Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not, This Mournable Body).

Open Book Festival is an annual literary event in Cape Town featuring panelists from all over the writing and publishing spheres. It is a place where writers and audiences are brought together and meaningful discussions are made possible.This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

In this episode Foluso Agbaje, Pumla Dineo Gqola, Goretti Kyomuhendo and Athambile Masola speak to Mbali Sikakana about writing feminist histories, and filling in the gaps in the official archives.

Open Book Festival is an annual literary event in Cape Town featuring panelists from all over the writing and publishing spheres. It is a place where writers and audiences are brought together and meaningful discussions are made possible. This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

In this episode Siphokazi Jonas and Vusumzi Ngxande speak to Vuyo Koyana about reclaiming a spiritual inheritance and returning to the heart/core of Isintu.

Open Book Festival is an annual literary event in Cape Town featuring panelists from all over the writing and publishing spheres. It is a place where writers and audiences are brought together and meaningful discussions are made possible.This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

In this episode, Nkgopoleng Moloi, Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal and Lwando Scott speak to Rebecca Davis about the safety of queer people on our continent and in our cities.

Open Book Festival is an annual literary event in Cape Town featuring panelists from all over the writing and publishing spheres. It is a place where writers and audiences are brought together and meaningful discussions are made possible.This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

In this episode Cape Town’s premier poetry slam proudly presents the Slam City Showcase!A celebration of new talent, lyrical grit, and poetic brilliance in different African languages. Each month, the city’s boldest voices battle it out for the grand prize and the coveted title of Slam City Champion. From every slam, a Top 5 emerges; poets whose performances moved both judges and audiences alike. This showcase brings together those powerful voices: the ones who’ve been slamming for their lives, month after month.The Slam City Showcase is a testament to how the intensity of slam poetry cultivates discipline, dedication, and camaraderie. Join us as we shine a spotlight on Cape Town’s community of poets who are living, writing, and igniting the mic. Featuring: Mfundi the Poet, Gali Gali, Riyo, Rea Mmethi, Mtunzikazi Ngozana, Ntsako Layn, Vusumzi Mpofu and InzimaMusicians: Chosi and Mishy KopeHosted by Thapelo Tharaga and Zizipho Bam.

Open Book Festival is an annual literary event in Cape Town featuring panelists from all over the writing and publishing spheres. It is a place where writers and audiences are brought together and meaningful discussions are made possible.This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

Better Late is where the country’s most brilliant, bewildering, and occasionally unhinged creatives - Yaaseen Barnes and Callum Hitchcock - band together on the set of a Late Night TV show to get to the bottom of whatever the hell is going on at the Open Book Festival.Joining them for conversations that matter are two very special guests, who you may recognise if you have been anywhere with internet access in the last few years — Settle down, brother! It’s not Grok — it’s Dan Corder and Céline Tshika.

Open Book Festival is an annual literary event in Cape Town featuring panelists from all over the writing and publishing spheres. It is a place where writers and audiences are brought together and meaningful discussions are made possible.This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival. The festival is made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.