OjuOponIfa

See Me, See You... Africa From Fresh Lenses IT was a day to remember recently at the Nike Art Gallery, Lekki Lagos; as it hosted AFRICA: See You, See Me, an exhibition of over 200 pictures, featuring an array of renowned photographers from the older generation to those of the contemporary period. The touring exhibition — a section of which featured on the sidelines of the recently concluded Lagos Black Heritage Festival under the theme NAIJA ITALIA — provided a platform for African photographers and the peers from other parts of the world to put in perspective the images of an emerging continent. The pictures optimistically captured the rich and diverse social, political and cultural  lives of Africans, with many at the event enthusing that black peoples were no longer objects of misrepresentative imaging as was the case during the colonial period. Africans, it was the consensus, have now turned the curve, and have forced the world of photography to take them as subjects worthy o...

The 3rd Lagos Black Heritage Festival, LBHF, presents  A NIGHT OF POETS , featuring 16 Nigerian and 16 Italian Poets in a public reading and performances under the thematic framework: BLACK MEDITERRANEAN: THE NIGERIAN-ITALIA CONNECTIONS Date:  TUESDAY April 3, 2012 Time:  7pm Venue:  Food’s Court, Freedom Park ,               Broad Street, Lagos The poetic dialogue will be captured in a collaborative anthology — already underway — on the theme of MIGRATIONS: poems by 15 Italian/Italo-African poets North of the Mediterranean, and 15 Africans south. This Coffee-table collection will be published in time for the Festival in an illustrated bi-lingual edition. The public reading on TUESDAY night will provide a poetic fiesta as Italian and Nigerian contributors perform their own lines, punctuated by vintage Italian and Nigerian music snatches. The cross-generational Ni...