Cultural policies and cultural activism: the South African experience

Mike van Graan is Executive Director of the African Arts Institute [AFAI] in Cape Town, and is the former Secretary General of the Arterial Network. Mike currently serves as a UNESCO Technical Expert on the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and has played numerous roles in South Africa's cultural sector. To many, he is best known as a playwright. He has received a number of awards for his plays including the Fleur du Cap Best New Script Award for Nag, Generaal (Night, General) in 2008; Brothers in Blood, a Market Theatre production that won the Naledi Theatre Award for Best New Play in 2009; and a Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award for Rainbow Scars in 2013, a play that was programmed as part of the Afrovibes Festival and toured the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in 2014. Mike was also appointed the inaugural Festival Playwright at the National Arts Festival in South Africa in 2013, where four of his works were showcased, including a new piece, Writer's Block. Keywords: post-apartheid; cultural diversity; cultural politics; freedom; activism.