The Arts-Muse Fair

There is no one secret to reading a poem, but the closest I know is to think of it as a journey. Where are the thoughts, the sounds, and the feelings coming from, and where do they land? ‘Each word is a step on the road’, Patsy Rodenburg (who is a voice coach at the British National Theatre) often tells student actors. To give words to an audience,   she says, you have to feel the “journey of thought” in them and the shape they take. “Try walking”, she tells the student-actor, ‘the journey of the poem’.  In life, too, poems and journeys go together. Both move. Both take a bit of time and effort. Both let you reflect on other things as you go on. Both can upset and surprise you. There may be boring moments or moments that seem boring at the time, but afterwards, you realise they were crucial. Both give you new windows on the world and take you out of yourself, but let you go deeper into yourself at the same time. They get you to new places. So what is the journey of reading a poem? Ther

 Libretto Publishers is calling for submissions to the Libretto African Anthology for Nonfiction/Essay Prize. Submissions of creative nonfiction by published and unpublished writers of African descent will be the focus of this first edition of the Prize. The anthology will be published in both print and digital formats.  Guidelines Eligibility : Only writers of African descent living within and outside the African continent are eligible to participate.  Format : Each contributor is expected to submit a single entry of no more than 2500 words.  Each submission must be previously unpublished and the original work of the contributor. Each submission must be written in English, using the Times New Roman font, 1.5 spacing on Microsoft .doc or .docx format. Document should not including any identification as the judges will be reading blind.  Submissions should be sent through our submissions portal, https://librettong.com/submission-guidelines.  In the body of the submission box, put the pr

The Hausa International Book and Arts Festival, HIBAF, put together by Open Arts, is set to hold in Kaduna from the 21st to the 23rd of October, 2021. The new and exciting festival will welcome guests like Balaraba Ramat, Ado Gidan Dabino, Prof. Asabe Kabir, Prof. Ibrahim Malumfashi, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Ismail Bala, Hakeem Baba- Ahmed, BM Dzukogi and many others. Panels and discussions will highlight Hausa Literature; writings, spoken words, poetry, films, and even matters of security in Northern Nigeria. According to the Curator, Sada Malumfashi, HIBAF was created out of the “need to provide adequate representation for the booming Hausa literary field in the global conversation about books and literature” When asked about his vision for the festival, Malumfashi replied that his hope was for HIBAF to serve as a “melting point for the celebration of language in Northern Nigeria and across Africa” He added that he hoped that the festival will re-affirm the literary merit of writers in

  The 33 year old musician released a new track this Friday. It did not exactly make us cry, but it did remind us of a few things that we could relate to. 'There's no gold in this river that I have been washing my hands in' That's how we have been hustling and sometimes looking fly but we swear that Sapa is not letting us shine o. Everywhere is very hard 'There ain't no room for us to change when we are both so deeply stuck in our ways' That's how election is coming, but youths are moaning on twitter while our fore-fathers are doing small small campaign. 'Go easy on me, baby' With Pandemic, plus this country, plus the way price of food is growing, abeg if you see us, squeeze small something in our hands. Abeg.

  Just For Words Arts Initiative invites spoken word poets all over Nigeria to participate in the Minna Poetry Slam 2021 and win N50,000 in cash prize.   Minna Poetry Slam 2021 consists of three rounds covering three themes. Participants will be eliminated from each round up until the final round, where the judges will pick a winner for the prize. Each participant is expected to have poems for each round. The poems must be written and performed by the original author. THEMES AND TIME LIMITS Round 1: Rape — 1 minute Round 2: Violence — 2 minutes Round 3: Mental Health — 3 minutes There are only 20 slots for participants this year. Apply now and get shortlisted. Registration for the slam is for a fee of N1,000. Payment confirms registration. Minna Poetry Slam 2021 will be judged by a panel of individual judges. For participation, send a message via any of our social media handles, email or the WhatsApp numbers below, with your full name and formal intention to parti

  Sir Eriata Oribhabor is a Nigerian poet, essayist, editor, social commentator, literary activist and publisher at Something for Everybody Ventures (SFEV) . He is a prolific writer who ranks amongst Nigeria's most published contemporary authors. B orn and raised in Warri, Nigeria, he has a degree in Political Science from the University of Abuja. His job as a federal Government employee has seen him traverse Warri, Kaduna, Abuja, and Lagos where he currently resides. He is a former Chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Abuja Chapter, and President, Poets in Nigeria (PIN) Initiative, a platform that works with committed poets to render countless services to society via poetry. With many PIN Connect Centres spread across Nigeria, Poets in Nigeria Initiative is arguably the foremost Art body promoting poetry in Nigeria today.  In this maiden edition of Artist Handprint, we bring to you the list of titles that have his name etched on them as the writer, editor, and co-

  "We are Creatures of our own inventions.   Possibly, we are inventions of our past, and of our times possibly even of some mad dream in the mind of fate, But in the end, we are our own Inventions. That is our tragedy and our hardest fate."  - Julia Cleaver Smith from the novel MORNING GLORY " Not to Resign to Fate is Madness" - Ola Rotimi. "A glowing nimbus of light surrounded the area where I sat, against a huge tangerine ball of a setting sun. A booming, black and red thunder-head of sound cuts across the air from the Northern zone to the South, ruling the night with a majestic zest. Calls so long and loud resonated and rumbled through the earth and bounced on the moon, roaring back in rage to the earth. Then they softened and fall, mournful and low, grieving for the pain of the evil of the night. It was an awesome night in Jos, 1999. No clouds sailed the skies. A white cumulus built on the horizon seeking a late good rain to soak the land. The gras