Chimurenga Magazine launches new issue with appearances at two of world's biggest contemporary art events

Cape Town based publication of arts, culture and politics, from and about Africa and its Diasporas, Chimurenga Magazine launches its new issue, Chimurenga 11 - Conversations With Poets Who Refuse To Speak with live appearances at two of the world's biggest contemporary art events.

On Sunday 24 June 2007 the magazine will provide the incendiary musical mix at the Africa Remix opening at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Joubert Park, Johannesburg. Expect a renegade audio "Felasophy" session featuring Abrahamse's Jafrobeat Ensemble along with spoken word ranthologist Lesego Rampolokeng; powerhouse polyrhythmic drummer Kesivan Naidoo, Nigerian Afro-soul fusion trumpeter Olufemi Ogunkoya and urban conscious treknology, tricknology and tracknology courtesy of DJ Khenzero. From 20h30 till late.

Chimurenga will also be spreading its word at documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany this July. Taking place every 5 years, documenta is one of the world's most important exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. Chimurenga is one of 90 international magazines selected to contribute to this year's "documenta 12 magazines". Moreover Chimurenga will be in-house at documenta from 2 until 8 July with "House of Truth", an open-house autonomous zone that takes its name from the drinking pit where the makers of the infamous Drum magazine gathered nightly for informal seminars with Can Themba as resident deconstructor. At "House of Truth" fluids, bodies and burning minds coalesce to burning grooves courtesy of DJ Ntone.

Visitors to both events will be able to grab copies of the new Chimurenga. Titled Conversations With Poets Who Refuse To Speak, the latest instalment features a heady mix of words and images that give voice to silence. "So much has been said about speech: speaking up, speaking for oneself, not being allowed to speak, speaking for the other who'd rather speak for self, but very little is said about the virtue of silence," says editor Ntone Edjabe. "So much said about making oneself visible, but little said about mining the rich depths of absence. This issue is about silence, disappearing oneself as act. Though it's often one of abdication, could it be defiance, resistance even? - a challenging idea, in a culture where struggle about seeking exposure, giving voice, making visible and all that stuff..."

Inside you'll find everything from Iranian scholar Asef Bayat writing on the quiet encroachment of the ordinary, to an unsolicited rant from Cape Town-based writer Gael Reagon, serious Melodifius thunkish funk from acclaimed British writer Geoff Dyer, sharp travel discourse from South African poet, journalist, radio producer and activist Sandile Dikeni and American criminal and author, Jack Henri Abbott's words about life in the hole.

Also: Christopher Wise's search for African literary provocateur Yambo Oulogeum; Liesl Jobson on bad breasts; Anthony Joseph on the African origins of UFO; Che via Jay Cantor on el comandante's punitive silence; Achille Mbembe on the death of Um Nyobe; Suren Pillay on making pictures; Nwando Mbanugo to the little red hat of power; Eric Darton on what to say when its time to speak; Stacy Hardy on Julius Eastman's caged negratas; Conceição Evaristo on strange fruits; Neelika Jayawardane on Gitmo and Ed Pavlic on unannounced winners.

Images include Ralph Lemon's spaceship drawings, Mario Benjamin's unnamed ghosts, Goniwe minutes before he was gunned down, the Black Ark, drawings from the Ramallah Underground, and "Declensions in Blue", an essay on what silence looks like featuring images by David Hammons, Gordon Parks, Herve Youmbi and Moustapha Dime. The cover is "Sarkozy, Fanon and the jazz baroness", a remix of the cover art of Monk's Underground.

Chimurenga is available from book stores (such as Exclusive Books, South Africa), used-book dealers, cultural events, organisations, collectives and university campuses in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Swaziland, Botswana and Ghana, as well as Germany, the US, Britain and France. The magazine can also be ordered directly online from www.chimurenga.co.za