We were delighted to host the launch of Fred de Vries’s latest book Blues for the White Man on Saturday.
If you missed the live event, here’s a recording of Fred and Richard Haslop’s animated conversation on issues both musical and political, information about Fred’s upcoming masterclass, and what to do to win a one-on-one writing mentoring session with Fred.
Buy the book and win a one-on-one virtual writing session with Fred
Post a photo of your copy of Blues for the White Man (either the actual book or the Kindle version) on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter
Use the hashtags #BluesfortheWhiteMan and #AllAboutWriting.
Deadline midnight 31 July
The session can be about travel writing, writing about music, creative non-fiction, or any writing issues you might be having with a current project.
Non-fiction Masterclass with Fred de Vries
Join Fred to learn more about the nitty gritty of the writing process – from research to writing to editing.
Date: 24 July
Where: Live via Zoom
Time:
UK time 10h00 to 12h00
South African time (GMT+2) 11h00 to 13h00
About Blues for the White Man
It started with a question about the blues: what makes the music of the downtrodden black man so alluring to white middle-class ears? And that’s where it gets interesting. Because blues is more than a musical genre: it’s a cultural phenomenon that spans several centuries on both sides of the Atlantic, from slavery to Black Lives Matter, from Jan van Riebeeck to Fees Must Fall, from Robert Johnson to Abdullah Ibrahim.
Travelling to Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta, De Vries speaks to musicians, Black Lives Matter activists and Trump supporters. He continues the conversation in South Africa, interviewing student protesters, white farmers and political thought-leaders to develop an understanding of white supremacy and black anger, white fear and black pain.
A fascinating, insightful journey through time and space, Blues for the White Man is a celebration of multiculturalism and a plea for white people to do some ‘second line dancing’ for a change.
