The Arts-Muse Fair

The news of the death of Prof Atukwei Okai, which came to us in Nigeria on the 13 th of July,2018, while we were celebrating the 84 th Birthday of Wole Soyinka, one of our literary icons and a   great friend of Atukwei Okai, was a rude dampener of our spirit. We in Nigeria under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) knew so well the life-long labour of Atukwei Okai in uniting African writers in the Continent and in the Diaspora and building bridges of cultural understanding across Africa as the ubiquitous and indefatigable Secretary- General of the Pan-African Writers’ Association (PAWA). Prof. Atukwei Okai was to African literature of his age and time what Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah was to African politics and liberation struggle. He epitomized the Pan-African spirit in literature and PAWA, under his eagle-vision, became a place where strategic linkages were built among writers across Africa and in the Black Diaspora. The many conferences and grand activi

The sixth edition of Ake Arts and Book Festival will take place for the first time in Lagos from October 24 to 27, 2018. This would mark a shift away from its traditional grounds of Abeokuta, Ogun state where the past five editions held.    The theme for this year is  Fantastical Futures . Events and conversations at the festival will focus largely on a re-imagined African future. Ake Arts and Book Festival is a five-day cultural immersion. As is always the case, Ake Arts and Book Festival aims to showcase the very best of contemporary African literature, poetry, music, art, film and theatre. Ake Festival 2018 will feature book chats, art exhibition, a stage play, an in-depth interview, school visits, stimulating panel discussions, film and documentary screenings, a musical concert and a night of poetry performance. Book-lovers and visitors are guaranteed to be thrilled by a range of affordable books at the festival's Bookstore.

Preparations are on to hold the maiden edition of African Indigenous Languages Film festival in Kano from October 23 to 27, 2018. The film exhibition is being organized to promote African films and its diverse cultures in the global market. According to  DailyTrust , the film festival would afford stakeholders in the movie industry in West Africa a platform to brainstorm and share ideas on emerging trends in the film-making business. The five-day event would aims to create a platform for repackaging narratives about Africa as woven by international media outlets for global consumption, and to also position African films into a formidable tool that can promote Africa, Africans and everything about Africa to the global community. The festival would promote city of Kano and the rich Hausa culture as guests and participants would be taken on a tour Kano city to enable them feel the rich cultural heritage of the city and appreciate the tourism potentials of the state.

With another EID just around the corner, Ghareeb Institute announces the 2018 version of its annual EID Reads, themed: Adha 2018. What is the Eid READS all about?  The EID Reads is an initiative through which the best of Islamic poems and short stories (flash fiction) are gathered and posted in batches on a host of websites over the four days of Eid, and on the long run- gathered into an anthology of modern Islamic poetry and collection of short stories. Prior to this year's event, the theme had been strictly restricted to: EID related topics, but in order to open the door to more participants and writers who already have an alluring piece on the shelf, but which does not relate to Eid, the theme is being made an unrestricted one.  What do participants gain?  With the copious number of websites (up to twenty local and international websites, and 3 social media) set to publish the pieces, each participant will be afforded the chance to have his writing showcased

Organizers have announced a list of fourteen photographers selected to participate in a three-day Native Creative Lab scheduled to hold in Lagos from August 9, 2018.   On the list are eight Nigerians, two South Africans, a Yemeni, an Indian, a Malagasy, and a Congolese. Female participants have dominated the list of successful applicants with nine female photographers against four males.  Native , in collaboration with the  African Artists’ Foundation, Blink  and  the International Women’s Media Foundation , are joint organizers of the Creative Lab conceived to celebrate local, regional and international visual heritages and train photographers on ways of  breaking colonial straitjacket in telling personal visual stories. Organizers received over 50 applications from photographers working on the African continent out of which the following 14   visual storytellers   were selected. Jonathan Chambalin  (Nigeria) Barry

It has been hard for me to find the right words to say. Since I learnt that he left us, it has been like a terrible bout of muteness, because Atukwei was (was!) not just another friend. Along with the great poet, Kofi Anyidoho, he was one of the two people in Ghana who became my virtual siblings, in the course of more than two-and-a-half decades now of restless wandering, and who have made Accra more than a welcome place, but always a warm home for me. On the phone I would call out, “How are you, my Brother?” And he would gleefully reply, “How are you, my Uncle?” So perhaps it was just logical then that Kofi should be the first person to give me the news. One afternoon, on the 13th of July precisely, his email arrived with the bleak announcement: “Big Big Wahala ooo, This Earth My Brother! Atukwei Okai, Organ Grinder to God and Mankind, is now an Ancestor, from This Morning!” From Kofi, it could not be a prank. Yet the 13th of July, for most of us in the arts, is normally a d

For the first time, Nigerians will have the privilege of witnessing a Reggae Music Festival, not in Jamaica, the spiritual root of Rastafarians, but in Awka, the Anambra State capital. Between September 29 and October 1, 2018, a national Reggae Music Festival would hold Awka which the   organizers said they aim to use Raggae Music as a tool to preach and promote peace, unity and love and eradicate xenophobic attacks among African countries. The festival would provide a platform   to educate youth on the risks of teenage pregnancy and substance abuse. Late Reggae icon, Bob Marley and wife Rita Marley. Photo: Gettyimages   Envisioned and put together by Prince Emeka Ojukwu, the founder of Music Africa Awake,   the event would feature Jamaicans, Nigerians and other world celebrated stars. The three day festival, themed “Music As A Business” and “How to Collect their Royalties”, would draw guest speakers and representatives from music and Copyright organizations, to educa