3CT’s first salon of the quarter will engage Loren Kruger’s new book, Imagining the Edgy City: Writing, Performing and Building Johannesburg. The ‘edgy city’ in Kruger’s formulation refers not only to persistent boundaries between the haves and have-nots but also to the cosmopolitan diversity and innovation that has emerged from South Africa’s largest city. Drawing upon a wide range of sources including fiction, film, architecture, performance and urban practices (like trading and parades), the author examines how Johannesburg negotiates tensions between incivility (political repression, urban neglect, rising crime) and innovation (flourishing art, drama, fiction, photography and architecture) and thereby invites comparison with other modern conurbations such as Dakar, Bogatá, Chicago and Paris.
