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This is your chance to meet author Yusuf Daniels, author of the novel still making waves called Living Coloured. The very first Cape Flats Book Festival will be hosted in Mitchells Plain from August 31 until September 1. The festival aims to uplift a community through the wonder of literature and spoken word.

Made possible by a local non-profit organisation called Read to Rise, the festival will showcase a myriad of publishers, booksellers, authors, illustrators, and other literacy NGOs to engage the imaginations of both children and adults alike.

“The Book Festival hopes to create excitement on the Cape Flats about reading through positive engagement with books. The festival will be held over the weekend leading up to National Book Week from September 2 to 8,” the NGO said in a statement.

According to Read to Rise’s chairperson Athol Williams, hosting the festival will be like planting a tree in the desert.

“From the outside, this may look like a pointless endeavour because trees don’t grow in a desert, but those who look to the Cape Flats in hope know that this is not a desert, that there are hidden lakes and gushing rivers that may not be seen but are there nonetheless,” he said.

More than 40 authors will speak to audiences over the two-day festival, and there will also be various prizes up for grabs to entice bibliophiles.
Some of the authors who will host talks include:
– Fatima and Gadija Sydow, authors of book Kaap, Kerrie en Koesisters
– Yusuf Daniels, who is the author of Living Coloured
– Menziwa Tsholoba, author of In and Out of Robben Island
– Ryland Fisher, journalist and author of Race
The festival will take place at West End Primary School on Merrydale Avenue, Lentegeur, Mitchells Plain. It will run from 9am to 7pm on August 31, and from 10am to 5pm on September 1.

Picture: Pixabay

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Lucinda is a hard news writer who occasionally dabbles in lifestyle writing, and recent journalism graduate. She is a proud intersectional feminist, and is passionate about actively creating a world which is free of discrimination and inequality.