Black Business Quarterly: The Johannesburg Literary District
People fall in love with Jozi for different reasons. For Griffin Shea, American Journalist, bibliophile and proprietor of Bridge Books on Marshall Street, it has been an affair of the heart that has seen him change his career and dedicate his time and energy to uplifting the inner city and, above all, the people who make a living from supplying the city’s avid readers with the reading material that they treasure.
Among other things, he started a walking tour taking curious tourists around what is now known as the Johannesburg Literary District, meeting dealers and learning about the seemingly chaotic but actually tremendously productive milieu they share with thousands of Jozi’s other denizens. The walk proved exceptionally popular and the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) recently included the tour in its Jozi Walks programme. Thanks to Shea, the Literary District is firmly on the map.
Radio France International (RFI):
Afrique du Sud: à Johannesburg, la fermeture prolongée de la principale bibliothèque suscite le dépit
En Afrique du Sud, la fermeture prolongée de la Johannesburg City Library suscite dépit et incompréhension. La principale bibliothèque de la métropole conserve en effet ses portes fermées depuis mai 2021 pour des travaux sur une durée indéfinie.
South African Booksellers Open Up Sales in Defiance of Lockdown
JOHANNESBURG – For bookseller and writer Griffin Shea, South Africa’s 35-day total lockdown made for a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month.
How a pandemic took the book industry online
Reading as resistance: bookshops keeping free speech alive
US journalist turned bookseller enjoys new chapter in South Africa
Bringing Jozi to book: inner city literature trade is booming
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Bringing Jozi to book: inner city literature trade is booming
Judging by the number of used-book sellers in Joburg, tech has not yet vanquished print, and the city even contemplates a literary precinct, writes Claire Keeton, who joined a tour of booksellers’ haunts
The Cut-throat World of the Joburg Street Book Trade
The book thieves came late on a Sunday evening. This was not wholly unexpected as…
The Best Walking Tours of Johannesburg Downtown
An area long seen as too dangerous to visit and walk around, downtown Johannesburg, dating back to 1886, is seeing more and more tour buses and groups of tourists wandering around, catching a glimpse of the history and the gorgeous old buildings like Corner House, the Rand Club, the 1935 main library and the Barbican. Often those tours are being led by one of the following groups:
Marshalltown’s secret book caverns are a bibliophile’s dream
The precinct’s literary heritage is experiencing a revival with pop-up stores and vendor stalls doing roaring trade.
#MyJoburg by Griffin Shea
The best way to get to know Joburg is to hang out with an insider. In our Ask a Local series we chat to some of our favourite Joburg city people to get the lowdown on what makes Joburg unique. This week independent bookshop owner GRIFFIN SHEA shares his Joburg with us.
The Book Review
SAFM | LIFE HAPPENS
2. How we fight for our lives by Saeed Jones,
3. A spy in time by Imraan Coovadia,
4. American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
Guest: Griffin Shea – Owner of Bridge Books
The Covid-19 lockdown wrote the end of the story for many businesses
SAFM | THE JET SET BREAKFAST
The Covid-19 lockdown wrote the end of the story for many businesses, but for sec-ond-hand bookstores it is said to be the start of a promising new chapter.
GUEST: GRIFFIN SHEA – Author of The Golden Rhino and Founder of Bridge Books Sellers of new and second-hand books with a focus on African literature with stores in Maboneng, Commissioner street & online.
JOBURG’S LITERARY HISTORY – ENCA
A group of people gather in Johannesburg to learn about the city centre’s literary history. The Johannesburg Literary District tour includes a stop at the Rand Club, the Pedestrian Market and the City Library. Courtesy #Dstv403