Plays during the Culture and Resistance Conference
- ZA MEDU MEDU-5-5.5-5.5.2
- Item
- July 1982
Photo of plays during the Culture and Resistance Conference taken by Mike Kahn.
Medu Art Ensemble
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Plays during the Culture and Resistance Conference
Photo of plays during the Culture and Resistance Conference taken by Mike Kahn.
Medu Art Ensemble
Relevance and Commitment: Apprentices of Freedom
Nadine Gordimer writes this insightful paper on the key concepts of "relevance" and "commitment" in relation to black and white writers. She argues that black writers write from their communities and have daily lives which are embedded within relevant contexts. So too, their commitment to black liberation is innate. She suggests that white writers ought to break out of white value systems and a false consciousness to create relevant art and to openly admit that their experience as being white is of a different order to being black. These are the imperatives which both black and white writers face. The whole aim of art, in its attainment of truth and essence, requires the white writer to attain a true consciousness so that both black and white writers may work for the same end.
Medu Art Ensemble
Role of Culture in the Process of Liberation
Culture and liberation are intimately related. Life, according to the authors, is a process of struggle to reach higher levels of civilisation, a process in which art is deeply embedded. The struggle against Apartheid and different forms of colonial violence is one which is intertwined with culture and artistic expression. Even once equality is reached within society, a further cross-pollination of cultural ideas and forms will occur leading to a richer, popular and more universal culture.
Medu Art Ensemble
Role of the Black Writer in South African History
The black writer holds a key position in liberating South Africa. Richard Rive believes that black writers personalise individual experience and that this plays a role in showing what society was, what it is and what it is heading towards. Rive argues that black writers owe allegiance to their own writing, their society and to their humanity.
Medu Art Ensemble
What is a progressive song? In this paper entitled "Song and Struggle", Muff Andersson argues that musicians (primarily lyrical musicians) should write songs that "keep the cogs of the struggle moving on". This can be done through writing progressive songs or ensuring that a communities' consciousness is reflected in a song and its ideas.
Medu Art Ensemble
Strategies for an Independent Radical Cinema
Keya Tomaselli proposes strategies for independent and radical cinema to grow in South Africa, especially considering the oppressive context of Apartheid. He argues for "Ter Cinema", a radical tradition of filmmaking which would create films for the oppressed majority. Tomaselli critiques a range of films and proposes new directions for filmmaking, starting with more engaged and radical film departments in universities. He reflects that cinema has often been called the "dream factory" and that "dreams are to be found in all levels of filmmaking, including those productions which set out to challenge the status quo".
Medu Art Ensemble
Information page given to conference delegates giving details of the rules, meal arrangements, venues and a map of the conference site.
Medu Art Ensemble