…so we keep printing

Lephephe is a quaterly experiment in the distribution of printed material. It is inspired by similar intiatives such as Ba re e ne re Literature Festival, Rutanang Book Fair, Abantu Book Festival, Tjo!Storyfest and the Jozi Book Fair. It aims to foster and nurture the age-old appreciation of cultural production and specifically art, literature, food and music.

Lephepe is also a space for workshops, conversations, performances and launches. And and and, we will create an environment for print/books/records swaps!

The reading/archive room will be located on the first floor, in the Keleketla! Library space hosted by Lot Kafesu. In this room you are welcome to relax and explore our historical and current material ranging from Staffrider, Medu newsletters to Public[a]ction, Chimurenga and many others. We have in our care zines and educational material from South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and Ecuador as well as publications on cultural work from Zimbabwe, Senegal and Maseru. Membership processes are in place – everyone is encouraged to join and loan some of the material. Unfortunately a majority of the material is for on-site references only, for now.

Entrance is free throughout the day, and there will be food and drinks for sale alongside books, zines, art prints, t-shirts, cassettes, CD’s and records. At 7pm we introduce the live performance stage with poetry, DJ sets and the vocal museum project Ntyilo Ntyilo by Masello Motana.

Venue: Keleketla! Library @ King Kong

6 Verwey Street, Troyeville, Johannesburg

Doors open at 10 am

25 November 2017

R30 entry from 7pm

Lephephe is children-friendly, anti-racist and anti-sexist. Unfortunately we do not have facilities for the physically disabled and we are located at a multi-storey building.

Special thanks to King Kong building.
Now, in no particular order, please welcome the members of the first gathering:

Your co-hosts:

 

Title In Transgression

Title in Transgression is a group of four artists working collectively, as well as collaboratively, consisting of Simnikiwe Buhlungu (b. 1995), Dineo Diphofa (b. 1995), Malebona Maphutse (b.1994) and Boitumelo Motau (b.1995). Formed in a time of frustration with disillusionment of social and cultural instabilities both in the art world[s] as well as how each artist navigates and locates their narrative within a larger societal framework, Title in Transgression seeks to creatively address these slippages and frustrations through numerous artistic platforms and engagements. Conversations concerning narratives, historical points of reference, cultural production and their respective lived experience inform both their collective as well as their individual practices. Although only established in 2016, the members of Title in Transgression have already begun engaging in numerous projects including:  ‘76 Non-Monument’ in 2016, a T-shirt printing initiative (with titles: Aluta Continua; Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense; Who Polices The Police?) in 2016, In Loving Memory of Title In Transgression at NGO (Nothing gets Organised) in 2016, a sound-based installation at NIROX in 2017 and a window residency at Room Gallery titled #BhekaInTransgression in 2017, a creative research-based podcast residency with Johannesburg-based collective Rera Letsema titled Proclamation in 2017 and as part of the show WE WON’T MOVE  by Sikhumbuzo Makandula at the 2017 Joburg Fringe VideoArt! presentation. Letter Project (working Title) is to be the next installment in the collective’s artistic practice.

Material

Title in Transgression will be bringing in T-shirts, bags, zines and collaborative work with DGI studios. We will have our own stall displaying the above items.

Session

We might have a conversation with DGI about our collaboration. Simnikiwe Buhlungu will provide a DJ set. 

Contact 

titleintransg@gmail.com

Instagram: @titleintransgression

Facebook: Title In Transgression

 

Keleketla! Library

Keleketla! Library is a platform for collaborative, experimental, projects. We strive to transform space into a place where multiple narratives can exist and/to challenge dominant narratives.

Keleketla! is a SePedi/Northern Sotho word that is a response to the beginning of a story, something that you say back to the storyteller’s “Once upon a time.” It is an acknowledgment, a consent that “I am here, willing to listen to your story with active participation.” The project began in 2008.

Material

Poster: K!Words Conversation map made with Francis Burger (2013)

A1+ folded to A4+, Litho printed (pictured above)

Book: 58 Years to the Treason Trial (2014)

200 x 250 mm/112 pages, Litho printed (pictured above)

Postcards:  Joburg artist’s work on posters

A6, varius artists, silkscreen printed

Contact

admin@keleketla.org

http://www.keleketla.org

Keleketla! Library on Facebook, Instagram and Soundcloud

Twitter: @DrillHallArts

 

Special performance

Ntyilo Ntyilo – A Vocal Museum by Masello Motana

 

Contact

Facebook Page: Masello Motana page

Facebook Group: Ntyilo Ntyilo – A Vocal Museum

Ntyilo Ntyilo at Lephephe 1 is made possible with the generousity of: Milisuthando Bongela, Joseph Gaylard, Gabi Ngcobo, Khwezi Gule, Rangoato Hlasane, Lekgetho Makola, Molemo Moiloa and Stevenson Gallery. An ephemeral Stokvel – We give thanks.

Extended Family Tree – Some of the Lephephe 1 participants

Chimurenga

Material

Publications/Posters and tees

Contact 

Facebook: Chimurenga

Twitter: @Chimurenga_SA

Instagram: @chimurenga_sa

Mixcloud: Chimurenga

Youtube: Chimurenga Magazine

 

Rera Letsema

Material

Zines

Session

Podcast recording: theme? 

Contact 

Reraletsema@gmail.com

@reraletsema on all social media platforms

 

Danger Gevaar Ingozi studio (DGI studio)

Material

T-shirts and tote bag collabs with Title in Transgression, some prints, and a small series of zines.

Contact 

DGI instagram: @dgi.studio

Facebook: Danger Gevaar Ingozi Studio

 

Tse’liso Monaheng

Material

Tse’liso Monaheng will present an exhibit of posters with text; questions around South African hip hop which people regularly ask, such as “Did All These Rappers Really Go Gold?”. The style of the Chimurenga poster series. These will be exhibited alongside A2-sized prints of notable South African rap artists.

Session

In conversation with Sipho Gongxeka.

Contact 

 

Sipho Gongxeka

Session

Slide show of ongoing photographic work. The importance of a body of work in a physical book.

In conversation with Tse’liso Monaheng.

Contact

Siphogongxeka16@gmail.com

IG: Sipho_gongxeka

Mokete Storytelling Festival

Hosted by Charmza Literary Club, a literary home for FS Authors and creators

Material

Ke ne ke le kae? Children series available in 5 languages; Setswana, Sesotho, English, Afrikaans and IsiXhosa.

Session

Storytelling, Read out Loud and Indigenous games.

Times: Every 2 hours, to be announced on the day.

Contact

FB: Charmaine Kolwane Mrwebi

 

Mbali Dhlamini

Material

A visual presentation of the indigo research project in a form of book and documentation process. Please see link to the exhibition in Senegal as a reference.

http://cargocollective.com/mbalidhlamini/The-Importance-of-Indigenous-Knowledge-in-Futurism

Contact 

Facebook: Mbali Dhlamini

Instagram: @imbalidhlamini “Mbali Dhlamini”

 

Wazi M Kunene

Material

Deluge In Swarga. A photographic poetry anthology that looks into mental anguish, the struggle to overcome your make and makers.

Session

If performance is possible or not, I will have two panelists, who will be uncovering the text and photography featured in the anthology, poetry as a scene/industry, collaborations, mental sickness in the art industry.

Contact

073 514 4600

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook @WaziMKunene

 

Tumelo Moleleki

 

 

Material

Self-published books (fiction and non-fiction).

Session

A talk about the importance of literature in our indigenous languages as well as a reflection on my journey as an independent author and the challenges that comes with being self-published.

Contact

Reubexg@gmail.com,

0728316749

@molelekitumelo (twitter and instagram)

@BooksbyTMoleleki (facebook page)

 

Dani O’Neill

Material & Session

A full screening of the film, followed by an open style discussion and dialogue between artist and audience concerning the film.

Work Title: STALE.

Collective/Artist Name: Dani O’Neill

Length: 10min 41sec

Year: 2017

Cry.

Cry.

Cry over spilt milk.

Murky. Milky tears.

Always sniff the box before you drink it.

STALE is a short glitch documentary that tries to interrogate and problematise the neo-apartheid white male agenda in South Africa. Fragility, expiry dates, white bread crumbs and stale narratives: It’s a navigation of conversation, cultural identity, personhood and privilege. STALE tries to locate the intimacy of the “post-democratic” white lies used reproduce to preserve selfhood, the insecurities of white South Africa and male fragilities through the story of memories, dreams, childhood and image language.

__

‘A visual exposing of full cream tears,

sniff the box before you take a sip.’

Contact 

instagram: @buu.jinn

                       Facebook: Bujin Buujee (private facebook)

                       Email: danidani.oneill@gmail.com

                       Phone: 0784556008

 

Talya Lubinsky

Session: A story which is to be told over seven days

The starting point for the work is an audio recording from an interview, conducted earlier this year with Ruth Weiss, a German Jewish immigrant to South Africa in 1937, who went on to become a journalist who covered anti colonial struggles throughout the continent, from the 1960’s onwards.

Many of her stories were published in the German, British and Swiss press (she wrote in German and English). Weiss was reporting back to Europe, that which was being done to dismantle their power in Africa.

One story she relayed during the interview was about a ceremony she was taken to in Nigeria, in which an Ebo griot (Weiss’ wording) would tell a story over a seven-day period.  Each griot was given the care of one particular story that he would have to tell in exactly the same words every time he told it. She describes that although she couldn’t understand the language, the dancing and music were enough to convey the story beyond words. The story was then re-told to her in English by a friend after the ceremony. This anecdote evokes questions around who gets to tell a story, in what words, and in what language. In whose voice are things translated and reported?

I will be listening to this interview throughout the day and using the words to making something that tells a story on seven pages. Because I’ll be working on the piece and playing the interview during the day, I hope to engage with others and involve them in the process.

Contact

talya.lubinsky@gmail.com / 0829292895 / http://talyalubinsky.wixsite.com

 

The Trantraal Brothers and Koni Benson

Material

‘Crossroads’: The six part comic book series

Part I: Crossroads: I Live Where I Like, (Cape Town: Isotope Media, 2014).

Part II: Crossroads: I Took Out The Loud Hailer, (Cape Town: Isotope Media, 2014).

Part III:  Crossroads: Imfuduso, (Cape Town: Isotope Media, 2014).

Part IV: Crossroads: Witdoeke, (Cape Town: Isotope Media, 2015).

Part V: Crossroads: The Mothers of Crossroads, (Cape Town: Isotope Media, 2016).

Part VI: Crossroads: The Women’s Power Group,(Cape Town: Isotope Media, 2017).

Contact 

konibenson@gmail.com or crossroadscontinues@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/trantraal/

https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2015-10-26-comic-book-history-of-a-forgotten-struggle

https://www.urbanafrica.net/urban-voices/10754/

http://crossroads-project.eu.pn/

 

Pussy on a Plinth

Material/session

Pussy on a Plinth (aka POP) is our collective’s name. We are a collective of 11 womxn artists (formed at the Wits School of Arts, WSOA, during our 3rd year studies). Our work intersects issues/topics of blackwomxnhood and politics concerning power, institution, mental health, the representation and treatment of the female body and decolonial language practices.

We are organising a zine jam situated at our stall/table where people can address a specific topic and contribute to the zine archive collection. Paper will be supplied.

Contact

email: pxssyonaplinth@gmail.com

wordpress: https://pussyonaplinth.wordpress.com/author/pussyonaplinth/

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pxssyonaplinth/

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pxssyonaplinth/

 

Mthabisi Sithole

Black Letter Media

Material

We will be hosting a stall, mainly stocked with our titles, including both fiction and poetry. Our latest release is an anthology of short fiction from all over the continent, “The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story, vol. 3”.

Contact 

Address, 8 hillside road, parktown, johannesburg / contact 0114804993 / email info@blackletterm.com / website, www.blackletterm.com / online shop / www.blackletterm.com/shop, facebook, @BlackLetterMedia

Word Up

Material

Poetry books, CDs, as well as branded merchandise from various spoken

word artists (across the country) affiliated to Word Up.

Session

Poetry performance by Sabelo Soko.

Contact 

https://web.facebook.com/wordupwednesday/

@sabelosoko (twitter)

074 834 2892/ 079 449 2409

 

Pathways to Free Education

Material

Pathways to Free Education is a publication series which brings together voices that offer critical reflections on issues within our communities & struggles in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. It is intended and has been used as a resource for popular education sessions with activists from different spaces. The Pathways collective’s vision is to continue using the pamphlets as a resource for revolutionary action and to gain support for mass distribution. These are the pamphlets we have published so far: Vol I: Pathways to Free Education, Vol II: Strategy & Tactics and Vol III: Third World Education and Social Welfare Programmes

Session

Under construction!

Contact

Email: briankamanzi@gmail.com

FB page: fb.me/pathways2freeeducation

Messenger: m.me/pathways2freeeducation

 

Nadia Laila Myburgh

 

Material

I will be bringing a zine/ mini publication that I’ve made titled AF(RE)KAANS.

This publication serves as an act of reclamation of the history of a language of creole birth; a history long overlooked and overdue.

Contact

nadiamyburgh3@gmail.com

Instagram: @nadia_lailam

Tumblr:  https://artisnadialaila.tumblr.com/

STUDIOSTUDIO (Naadira Patel)

 

Public[a]ction Collective

Material

Broadsheet of national student publication

Session

Public[a]ction as process

Background of the publication; key ideas driving the project; process.

Space to engage with the publication and workshop some of the issues raised.

Contact

Leigh-Ann Naidoo – Lnaidoo10@yahoo.com – 0720237271

Asher Gamedze – kingasher11@yahoo.com – 0715489919

 

Neo Mahlasela

Material

‘PLEASE MIND THE GAP BETWEEN THE SOUND AND BRAIN WAVES’

Neo Mahlasela is an artist/musician from South Africa whose work currently focuses on aurally induced altered states and music therapy.

In this installation he explores how modern technology may be utilised in investigating basic forms of therapy that benefit all persons dealing with the underlying physical and psychological issues, resulting from the use of digital media on a daily basis.  

The interactive instrument is based on the musical bow, an ancient African instrument, which was also applied as a tool in a form of vibration therapy by traditional healers.Using vibrational rhythmic entertainment and solfeggio frequencies, one can engage in a brief experience of self healing which may stimulate over time, a more balanced mental, emotional and physical state.

Session

WORKSHOP

The plan for the workshop is based on a work I began developing last year which involved digitizing an ancient instrument which now uses sine waves and vibration to induce mental states of relaxation for therapeutic and meditative results.

The idea is to present the instrument to audience, inviting them to interact with it and giving feedback that can be printed, published and given as educational material.

~The workshop would begin with a brief introduction to sine waves, how they are generated and why the mind responds to them the way it does, the instrument being used and why it was been chosen.

~The main frame is the interactions which would be guided by myself playing the instrument and having the listener respond on paper by writing or drawing anything that comes to mind, sort of synthesizing or assimilating an indeterminate reaction as in EEG tests and lie detectors.

~After these guided interactions people would then be invited to play by themselves gaging their own vibrational attunement and what frequencies affect them the most.

~ All gathered responses I would then compile in series of zines which also have visual and written information on the scale of frequencies used and how they are beneficial to human evolution, particularly brain development.

Koketso Potsane

African literature and music promoter/distributor

Rampolokeng’s third novel Bird-Monk Seding is a stark picture of life in a rural township two decades into SA’s democracy. Listening and observing in the streets and taverns, Bavino Sekete, often feeling desperate himself, is thrown back to his own violent childhood in Soweto. To get through, he turns to his pantheon of jazz innovators and radical writers.

 

 

ESTÚDIO 5 (PT) STUDIO 5 (ENG)

Material

PHOTOGRAPHY:

Material for our exhibition, GAIA COMCRETO made in Maputo, we are going to bring some of the photos in A1 size.

CONCRETE OBJECTS:

Set of handcrafted objects of everyday use as ashtrays, essay insurers and multipurpose objects.

ZINES:

Architecture photography content and complementar texts.

PRINTS (to be announced):

Contact   

  Facebook: eca5arq – estúdio cinco arquitectos

  0603373311

 +258823590115

 +258824170074

 

Godisamang Masudubele and Zinhle Gule

Session

We will be updating this post as more participants submit material, including food and snacks providers.