This episode is the first in a three-part series featuring conversations between Rangoato Hlasane and Rubén Gaztambide-Fernandez.
Rangoato Hlasane (Ra) from the Keleketla! Library and Rubén Gaztambide-Fernandez discuss how YPAR plays out in marginalized geographies, and specifically, in Ra’s context of the Joubert Park neighbourhood in Johannesburg, South Africa. In this episode, they will discuss Keleketla!, a library and media arts project co-founded by Ra that was formerly based at Johannesburg’s historic Drill Hall (2008-2015) and is now based at King Kong, also in Johannesburg. King Kong is a multidisciplinary arts space and concert venue. The Drill Hall is the site where Nelson Mandela and 156 prominent freedom fighters were tried for treason in 1956.
Ra and Ruben discuss the role of place and identity in the emergence of resistant creative spaces, the ways that young people come together and create their own spaces to engage in the arts, and the significance of spaces like the historic Drill Hill as being the site where young people imagine and create programming for themselves.
Rangoato Hlasane is a cultural worker, selector, educator and co-founder of Keleketla! Library in Johannesburg. He holds a Master’s degree in Visual Art from the University of Johannesburg and teaches at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he is a PhD candidate in African Literature. He 'selects' music to expand his research into the social, political, spiritual and economic significance of African oralities, sonic and musicking practices.
This episode was hosted and directed by Naima Raza, produced by Ruben Gaztambide-Fernandez and Sarah Switzer, and supported by Youth Research Lab Research Assistants, Andrea Vela Alarcon and Madeleine Ross.