Jozi Book Fair Guest Authors
- Wits University
Award-winning artists Kemang Wa Lehulere and Mohale Mashigo are special guests at the 2016 Jozi Book Fair, co-hosted by Khanya College and Wits University
The pair are fitting ambassadors for the Fair, themed Youth Rising in recognition of the renewed energy from the youth to shape South Africa. Youth Rising also speaks to the core objective of the Jozi Book Fair (JBF), which is to build a reading culture in South Africa with emphasis on the youth and children. The work of Wa Lehulere and Mashigo speaks volumes about their quest to become change agents and the power of youth.
Kemang Wa Lehulere
Wa Lehulere was born in 1984 in Gugulethu, Cape Town. He holds a BA Fine Arts degree from Wits University (2011).
He is the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2015 and the winner of the Deutsche Bank’s new "Artist of the Year"2017. He has steadily built his career holding solo exhibitions in Gasworks, London (2015), at the Lombard Freid Projects, New York (2013), and his work has featured in Chicago, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Berlin. His work has earned him the Inaugural Spier Contemporary Award (2007), MTN New Contemporaries Award (2010), Tollman Award for Visual Arts (2012), 15th Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel in Switzerland (2013), and the First International Tiberius Art Award Dresden (2014).
His self-titled monograph, Kemang Wa Lehulere (2015) was published to coincide with the Standard Bank Young Artist Award and traces his work from 2005 to 2015. The book is interspersed with a collection of his images, drawings, performances, videos and installations, and a collection of his letters with his friend and curator, Khwezi Gule.
Wa Lehulere is the co-founder of the Gugulective, an artist-led collective based in Cape Town, and a founding member of the Centre for Historical Re-enactments in Johannesburg.
Mohale Mashigo
Mashigo was born in Mapetla, Soweto in 1983. She is a multi-disciplinary storyteller who loves exploring the unknown.
She is a writer and a musician with two SAMRO Wawela awards for her songwriting compositions. She won the Best Creative Album and the Best Female Composer/co-composer.
Mashigo performs under the name Black Porcelain and, with no label or high budget ‘marketing machine’, Black Porcelain’s music was featured on the playlists of radio stations in 36 countries. Mashigo’s career in music began when she was a singing waitress.
Her book, The Yearning, is already making an impact. The novel is about personal strength, courage, pain and love, and traverses both traditional and modern society. Mashigo started writing s in high school. She is passionate about promoting reading and writing at schools.
Both guests are not only talented, but committed to promoting education and the arts to youth. The JBF believes that the guests will inspire many youth and the public to read the word and the world, says Maria van Driel, Director of the Jozi Book Fair.
The Wits Science Stadium, traditionally a venue for statistics and formulas will be transformed into a creative space filled with words, poetry, theatre and the sounds of jazz and heated debates.
The programme offers 150 events ranging from book launches (across SA languages) to poetry, jazz, theatre and films, debates and workshops. More than 30 exhibitors including small and independent publishers will attend the Fair and offer diverse books and locally relevant books.
In 2015 the Fair attracted over 6000 visitors. The Fair is free and open to all.