Music journalism is quickly becoming a dying art in mainstream media outlets in South Africa, with the country’s newspaper and online news platform shredding away their sections of art, dance, film and live performance reviews. The conversation of new music and reflecting on the past of South African music, has now unfortunately moved on to the peripheries of the blogosphere and independent online world. An unfortunate situation persists in a country rich in the current vibrancy, where new movements of music in jazz, South African hip-hop and cultural variations of music in the country remain under-documented. Bringing back this conversation of relationship between music and the written world is the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, by hosting a public reading and panel discussion led by art journalist, Percy Mabandu. This will take place a few days before the main festival in Cape Town, South Africa.
To look at the relationship between the arts and journalism, and where this industry finds itself in contemporary South Africa we earlier speak to:
• Percy Mabandu, art writers and journalist.
• Fiona Lloyd, South African journalist
• Peter McKenzie - who heads up the photo journalism course - has also confirmed. He can be contacted on