ERIC Miyeni, the actor, radio personality and author, has come up with a journal of essays and photographs depicting French society.
ERIC Miyeni, the actor, radio personality and author, has come up with a journal of essays and photographs depicting French society.
The journal will be launched today in Parkhurst, northern Johannesburg.
Called A Letter from Paris, the publication is poised to cause some interest in Johannesburg's intellectual circles given the author's background as a polemicist.
This journal follows Miyeni's visit to Paris in 2007, accompanied by his trusty pen and camera, where he spent two weeks keenly observing the city's architecture, its history, its people and culture.
"The result of this journey is an accomplished collection of essays and black and white photographs that are quirky, often poignant, quite astute, really fun and truly different in their take on the subject," says publisher Pan Macmillan.
"For once the tables are turned in a positive way: an African is observing instead of being observed, and passing comment instead of being commented on."
Miyeni was in the news recently when he left SAFm acrimoniously last year as a talk show host - for the second time in six years - having had a stint there in 2003.
He has also been in the news over the past three years for having authored two highly acclaimed books, O'mandingo! The Only Black at a Dinner Party, a critique of black high achievers' attitude when it comes to opening doors in corporate South Africa to fellow blacks.
This time around, through these black and white pictures, he dissects French society, getting deep into its psyche through incisive essays and photographs, showing the French in different situations.
If anything, Miyeni, through A Letter from Paris, has just demonstrated his resourcefulness as a multi-talented artist. He has worked in advertising, on radio and on TV as an actor.
He is a poet with a poetry collection to prove his worth, and is a published essayist.
He has been a feature of Johannesburg's coffee society, adding to its vibrancy as a vigorous debater on a number of issues ranging from politics, arts and culture to sport.
It is these skills of creating dialogue that he used to capture French society through word and picture in the two weeks that he spent there.
Miyeni has visited France before, but this was his first time to Paris.
"The French invited me as one of the opinion makers in the country after having published my book O'mandingo! The Only Black at a Dinner Party ," he said on Kaya FM this week.
The launch of the journal takes place at 6pm, at Cow Artworks, 5 The Cobbles, 4th Avenue, Parkhurst.
AN AFRICAN POET LOOKS AT PARISIANS
ERIC Miyeni, the actor, radio personality and author, has come up with a journal of essays and photographs depicting French society.
ERIC Miyeni, the actor, radio personality and author, has come up with a journal of essays and photographs depicting French society.
The journal will be launched today in Parkhurst, northern Johannesburg.
Called A Letter from Paris, the publication is poised to cause some interest in Johannesburg's intellectual circles given the author's background as a polemicist.
This journal follows Miyeni's visit to Paris in 2007, accompanied by his trusty pen and camera, where he spent two weeks keenly observing the city's architecture, its history, its people and culture.
"The result of this journey is an accomplished collection of essays and black and white photographs that are quirky, often poignant, quite astute, really fun and truly different in their take on the subject," says publisher Pan Macmillan.
"For once the tables are turned in a positive way: an African is observing instead of being observed, and passing comment instead of being commented on."
Miyeni was in the news recently when he left SAFm acrimoniously last year as a talk show host - for the second time in six years - having had a stint there in 2003.
He has also been in the news over the past three years for having authored two highly acclaimed books, O'mandingo! The Only Black at a Dinner Party, a critique of black high achievers' attitude when it comes to opening doors in corporate South Africa to fellow blacks.
This time around, through these black and white pictures, he dissects French society, getting deep into its psyche through incisive essays and photographs, showing the French in different situations.
If anything, Miyeni, through A Letter from Paris, has just demonstrated his resourcefulness as a multi-talented artist. He has worked in advertising, on radio and on TV as an actor.
He is a poet with a poetry collection to prove his worth, and is a published essayist.
He has been a feature of Johannesburg's coffee society, adding to its vibrancy as a vigorous debater on a number of issues ranging from politics, arts and culture to sport.
It is these skills of creating dialogue that he used to capture French society through word and picture in the two weeks that he spent there.
Miyeni has visited France before, but this was his first time to Paris.
"The French invited me as one of the opinion makers in the country after having published my book O'mandingo! The Only Black at a Dinner Party ," he said on Kaya FM this week.
The launch of the journal takes place at 6pm, at Cow Artworks, 5 The Cobbles, 4th Avenue, Parkhurst.
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