The Forge
The Forge is a collectively run cultural and political space in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, operating at the corner of De Korte and Reserve Streets in the middle of the largest student district on the African continent. It describes itself as a Pan-African, progressive, Left organization, and its programming reflects that orientation across every room: theatre productions, film screenings, public lectures, workshops, poetry sessions, book launches, and musical performances all take place under the same roof. Entrance to events is free. The space is accessible to trade unions, community groups, social movements, and broadly aligned organizations that need a venue outside the commercial mainstream.
The Forge works in close collaboration with its immediate neighbor, The Commune bookshop and café, and together the two spaces anchor a strip of Braamfontein that functions as an informal left hub near the University of the Witwatersrand and Johannesburg University. The Forge takes the heavier programming load: its theatre, gallery, performance area, and auditorium are designed specifically for political and cultural work. Regular series include Anti-Fascist Friday public lectures, which have brought together trade unionists, solidarity activists, and movement intellectuals to address anti-imperialism, anti-fascism, and popular struggle. Events in late 2025 covered Palestinian solidarity, the ceasefire in Gaza, Venezuelan sovereignty, and the crisis in public healthcare.
The space is explicitly non-sectarian in terms of which left organizations it will host, while maintaining a clear political orientation rooted in Pan-Africanism, socialism, and feminism. That combination makes it one of the more active convergence points for Johannesburg’s organizing left, connecting university-adjacent activist culture with trade union and community movement work happening across the city and the region.
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