IN CELEBRATION of World Book and Copyright Day on April 23, both the Centre for African Studies (CAS) and the Centre for Extra-Mural Studies (CEMS) hosted poetry readings that boasted some of the best and foremost in the art in South Africa.

For its Imibongo Poetry Reading, the CAS invited Keith Gottschalk ("veteran Cape Town bachelor, political scientist, walking encyclopaedia and poet", according to the Mail & Guardian), Rustum Kozain of the Department of English Language and Literature, and Remi Raji (the Harry Oppenheimer Institute Visiting African Scholar). Also on the platform were the Centre for Creative Writing's Writer-in-Residence, Keorapetse 'Willie' Kgositsile, and Dianne Ferris of the University of the Western Cape. Ferris recited her "claim to fame" (as she described it), a poem that was read in the French parliament and led to the discussion to return the remains of Saartjie Baartman to South Africa.

Kozain and Kgositsile joined Ingrid de Kok, Antjie Krog and Petra Müller, among others, for the CEMS' World Book Day Public Readings the following day. This was held at the Centre for the Book in Cape Town.

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