OjuOponIfa

DAY 1 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2008 7am: Exhibition already set up 9am : Formal Opening of CHILDREN FESTIVAL VISUAL REPRESENTATION FROM ‘THINGS FALL APART’ :Exhibition and comic Workshop. 10am : “My Encounter with the Book” by Funmi Iyanda 11am: “Green Graffiti” Workshop – Karo Akpokiere & Chukwuma Ngene “Green Tales” Workshop – Obari Gomba & Adeleke Adeyemi Theme: “Lagos on My Mind”- [Organized by LC3 in collaboration with CATE/CORA]. 11.30am: The Festival Tour (where kids and their teachers are taken round the grounds of the Fair). Children on duty at the festival last year 12 noon: YOUTH ON LITERACY Theme: WHAT DO THE YOUTH DESIRE TO READ (Panel Discussion on “Youth, Creativity and Development”) with established artists and active young people such as: •Mrs Nike Davies-Okundaye: (Director, Nike Centre for Arts and Culture) •Dr. Hope Eghagha: (Lecturer, Dept. of English, Unilag) •Odion Ogogo: (Director, Heritage Ceramics) •Tunde Abod...

Theme: Literacy and the Global Knowledge Society DATE: NOVEMBER 7-9, 2008 Key Literary Events Panel Discussions . Dialogues . Conversations . Arthouse Parties Details on www.lagosbookartfestival.com Physical; CORASECRETARIAT, 95 Bode Thomas Street, Suruletre, Lagos Contact; Toyin 08057622415; Jummai: 08023683651 Marketing Consultant: INSPIRO PRODUCTIONS c/o AYOOLA SADARE 08023044806; inspiro77@yahoo.co.uk Knowledge capacity of the people of Africa Preparations for the 10 th Lagos Book & Art Festival, scheduled for November 7 – 9, 2008 , began on the last day of the 9 th outing. The key goal of this edition, which is slated to hold in the spacious Exhibition Hall of Nigeria's National Theatre, right in the heart of the city, remains two fold: (1) To help improve the African human capacity through encounters with The Book and (2) to provide a site for the most informed, robust debates on the literature of the continent. In pursuit of the second objective for this edition we hav...

WORDSLAM Words are for the sage Of old but now on page We publish its message. WOW! Fantastic, Fabulous, Mindblowing... were some of the adjectives deployed by members of the distinguished audience of the old and the young -- that congregated satrurday July 5 in the Goethe Institut garden in Victoria Island-- to capture their impression of the proceedings at the first edition of the newly-birthed WORDSLAM. Under the misting cloud, they sat stubbornly and stuck with the artistes, defying the troublesome rains that kept disorganising the technical set-up (and eventually annihilated opportunity for a technical rehersal for the eventl) to flow with the flow of melody and rhythm of the poetic performances dished out by 10 specially selected artistes; and a score of unbilled budding and aspiring poets that featured in the programme. It was such a splendid evening of celebrating the essence of the WORD in the life of man; particularly, the very essentials of WORD expressed in poetic colours t...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Contemplating Sudan, praying for Ochalla and Kwoto Every time i think of the tragic song that Sudan has become, my mind goes to my dear friend, Stephen Ochalla, artistic director of Kwoto Dance Institut in Khartoum, who to escape the ethnic cleansing going on at home against the 'black' Sudanese had decided to spend time learning and teaching dance in Amsterdam. A deep ideologue, Ochalla and his institut had been active on the political stage, using his theatre to mount campaign against the decimation of Sudanese of his hue by an obvious 'arabite' political elite led by soon-to-be-fugitivised President Omar. When the scene was becoming too volatile and discomforting for his kind of activism -- recall what happened to Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and his theatre comrades in Kenya of the Jomo Kenyatta and later Arap Moi time -- Stephen Ochalla was lucky to be helped out by the Dutch government through The Netherlands embassy in Khartoum to go cool off in a...

Perhaps, it was that short conversation last week between Biyi Bandele and myself in the thick of the First Lagos International Jazz Festival that has brought me to this conundrum. Otherwise, why would I all of a sudden be filled with the thought of the late Hubert Adedeji Ogunde, 18 years after his passage to higher service on April 4, 1990. Last Sunday after a soak in the classic jazz menu flowing from the guitar-riddled jazz ensemble led by Bright Gain, I had strolled over to the corner where Makin Soyinka, Lemmy ‘Radio’, Jide Bello and Biyi Bandele were reveling. I hadn’t noticed Biyi minutes earlier when I saw the group trooped to the venue of the Inspiro-organised jazz fiesta at Studio 868 on Aboyade Cole Street, VI, Lagos. It must have been the missing dreadlocks, of course. Okay, I had been hinted earlier on Mama Pako’s blogsite that Biyi had indeed jettisoned the locks for a skin-scraped look – in protestation against certain iniquities in world affairs… it must be the tibeti...

(As published in The Guardian, April 5, 2008) By Cletus Nwachukwu THE entertainment world and indeed arts writer’s constituency woke up to the rude shock of the news of the death of the grand master of entertainment, Essien Ibanga Akpabio. The late Akpabio who traversed the entertainment landscape like a true colossus, thoroughly impacted the music industry with his numerous roles as musician and bandleader, entertainment manager, promoter and patron of the industry. Described as a great son of the Akpabio clan by His Excellency, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, Essien played immeasurable roles in the showbiz scene. And he helped to bring to the fore, the likes of Chris Okotie, Ras Kimono, Orits Wliki, Majek Fashek, Feladey, Victor Essiet of The Mandators fame, Onyeka Onwenu, Xty Essien, Alex O, Shina Peters and many others who ruled the waves in the 80s through the 90s. Akpabio was a handsome man whose elegant dress sense and taste for the good life rubbed off ...

Just got to read a tear-inducing obituary on page 61 of Punch today that Essien Akpabio, the stylish music and entertainment manager, promoter and patron of the late eighties through the nineties died on February 2, 2008. The announcement was made infact by the governor of Akwa Ibom himself, Godswill Akpabio- who described Essien as "a great son of the Akpabio clan". Essien Akpabio was a large, charascteristic and unmissable image in those very resourceful years of the entertainment scene when the like of Chris Okotie and his soulbrother, Obi, Peter k Falola, Berkely Jones, Emma Ogosi, Evi Edna Ogoli-Ogosi, Tony Okoroji, Funmi Adams, Lijadu sisters, Ras Kimomo, Oris Wiliki, Majek Fashek, Victor Essiet, Peterside Ottong, Onyeka Onwenu, Xty Essien, Uche Ibeto, Tina Afrika Oyibo Onwudiwe, Stela Monye, Bunmi Fajugbu, Mike Okri, Charley Boy, Alex O, Alex Xitto, Mustafa Amego, Chris Hanen, Feladeh, Pat Solo, Excempt E, Godwin Omabuwa, Gbubemi Amas, Frankie Lee, Andy Shurman, Victor...