The Joy of Reading

Tomorrow being the Friday the15th of November, I shall be hosting a program tagged "The Joy of Reading" during the Lagos Books and Arts Fair. From 3.30 till 5:30 a number of young, vibrant writers will  be celebrating the sheer joy of reading with me by reading excerpts of their favorite stories. Its going to be totally brilliant.

Below is a banquet of brilliance that will be set before you:

Tolu Talabi is an alumni of the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop
Has been published in Kalahari Review, 5x5 lit mag and is the fiction columnist for The Guardian's Sunday Magazine.

Adeola Opeyemi is a visual artist, a bibliophile and a writer. Her works have been published online and in print.

Poet and lyricist, Servio Gbadamosi works with young emerging writers across the country by creating multiple platforms to provide more visibility for their works and facilitates knowledge exchange between them and established culture-practitioners.

Pearl Osibu is a Nigerian writer from Cross River State. She is a Fashion designer and a writer/blogger. Her works have appeared on several publications, among which are Jetlife Magazine, Sentinel Nigeria E-zine, CharlesNoviaDaily, and on her blog (fifty shades of Me), which has been described as "fearless, brilliant and lunatic."

Others are Iweka Kingsley, who will be reading from his short story collection, Dappled Things, Kenetchi Uzochukwu, Femi Morgan and a host of others.

Honestly, you don't want to miss out on this.

LABAF 2013: BOOKS OF 2013

Like I said in my last post, I shall be hosting four authors during the book readings and panel discussion titled "Book of 2013". We will be looking at 2 books of poetry and two prose. Each book is unique in its own right.

Today I'm posting the profiles of two other panelists, Iquo D. Eke and Tade Ipadeola.

Iquo is a Writer, Performance poet and Actress who renders her words to the accompaniment of folklore, typically embellished with instruments such as drums, flute and /or strings.

She was born in January 1980, in Uyo, Nigeria, and was raised in Lagos.
She studied human resource management in the Lagos State University. Over the years Iquo has worked as a journalist, administrator and scriptwriter.

Her maiden collection of poems; Symphony of Becoming was published in 2013 and was long-listed for the 2013 NLNG prize for Literature.

She believes strongly in a continuous struggle for the betterment of her generation and nation, thus her work explores pain, social consciousness, passion, womanhood and the trials of the griots of this age.

Her past performances include amongst others:
 Macmillan Literary Night
 The Lagos Black Heritage Festival
 PLAY Poetry Festival
 Word Slam
 The Lagos Poetry Festival
 Poetry Potter
 Word and Sound

She has two children and lives in Lagos.

Tade Ipadeola, a Nigerian, was born in 1970. He has published three volumes of poetry – A Time of Signs (2000),The Rain Fardel (2005) and The Sahara Testaments (2012). He has also published short stories and essays. In 2009, he won the Delphic Laurel in poetry with his poem ‘Songbird’ in Jeju, South Korea and the NLNG Prize for Literature 2013.

Tade Ipadeola has also translated an important Yoruba novelist, Daniel Fagunwa, from his native Yoruba into English.

Tade Ipadeola is currently serving as the PEN (Nigeria Centre) President.

Tade lives in Ibadan where he practices law.

Venue: Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos
Date/Time: Saturday 16th November, 2013 by 4pm

Books of 2013 at LABAF

One of the panel discussions I'll be hosting is tagged The Books of 2013, on the panel are Tade Ipadeola, Igoni Barrett, Iquo Diana Eke and Sage Hassan. Below are the profiles of two people on the Panel, Igoni Barrett and Sage Hassan. We shall be discussing Igoni's 'Love is power or something like that' and Sage's 'Dream Maker'

A. Igoni Barrett is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, an Ebedi Writers Residency, and a Norman Mailer Fellowship, among others. His second book, Love Is Power, or Something Like That, was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

A poet, writer, thinker, teacher and author Sammy Sage Hassan is recognised as Nigeria's premier spoken word poet embracing the genre and bringing it to the attention of the art and music savvy populace in the mid 2000s.

He went ahead to perform hundreds of major non-poetry events like 2 Hip Hop World Award Shows, This Day Music Festival, Arts Alive's Speak The Mind In Jo'burg; he has performed near a hundred brand poems - poetry specifically created for companies and products from UniLever, Coca Cola, MTN, Celtel, NBL, Diageo etc. He has organised workshops and performances for schools and cultural organisations like British Council, Goethe Institut, Lekki British Int'l, Green Springs Int'l and more.

He has recorded and released 2 albums and 3 videos.

As a music executive he has worked with a lot of musicians like MI, Jesse Jagz, Ice Prince, Tosin Martins, Jagunlabi and a rash of upcoming artistes.

Lagos Books and Arts Festival

During this year's Lagos Books and Arts Festival I shall be hosting three events, two for adults and one for children.
The first of the events is titled The Joy of Reading, during which we'll be celebrating the sheer joy of reading.
For this year's joy of reading writers like Pearl Osibu, Tolu Talabi, Olubunmi Familoni, Adeola Opeyemi, Servio Gbadamosi, Kenetchi Uzochukwu and Femi Morgan will be in attendance to read portions of their favorite stories. The two hour event will be taking place on Friday the 15th of November, between 3 and 5pm.
The next event is a conversation amongst four of the most celebrated writers that has emerged this year on the Nigerian art scene. Three of them are poets, but one of the poets just wrote a book of prose(this is going to be so much fun!).
The writers are Igoni Barrett, Iquo Diana Eke, Tade Ipadeola and Sage Hassan. During the course of the week I shall be posting brief bios of the writers and short reviews of their books.
The event is titled Books of 2013 and will be held on Saturday the 16th of November between 4pm and 6pm.
The books will be available during the festival, the audience will have an opportunity to have their books signed and also have an interactive session with the writers.
The last event I'll be hosting is a spelling bee for children and it will be taking place on Sunday the 17th of November.
The Lagos Books and Arts Festival is an annual event that has been on for the past 15years and it is ALWAYS a fun time.
All events will be held at Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos Island.
You can follow @Labaf1 on twitter.
The hashtag #Diariesofabookfairslut documents my experiences at book fairs and authors.