Author encourages reading
Lusanda Zokufa
The Windybrow Arts Centre recently hosted author Rosie Motene to reactivate the space and intensify the centre’s commitment of bringing the culture of reading back to Hillbrow.
The reading lounge for adults will be augmented with more books, one of them the best-selling Reclaiming the Soil by Motene.
Motene presented her bestseller and helped unpack the challenges of inspiring reading in under-resourced areas.
Co -founder of Madibookeng, an interactive book initiative, Smangele Mathebula facilitated the Speed Booking session, an activity that will be frequently held at the arts centre next year.
The concept is inspired by the model of speed dating, but in this case, participants will talk about their books and at the end of the session hopefully exchange books.
Windybrow Arts Centre head Keitu Gwangwa said: “Increasing access to books for the Hillbrow community will encourage parents and children to read, thus improving and enriching their vocabulary and knowledge.”
The Windybrow Arts centre houses two reading lounges for children and adults. It has books from all over the continent and children’s books in every South African language.
In a partnership between the Market Theatre Foundation and Exclusive Books two reading rooms were launched at the Windybrow Arts Centre as a hub for the advancement of Pan-African literature on July 18, 2017. In 2018 the partnership was awarded the BASA Awards in the in-kind sponsorship category.
