Posts in category arts

African writers in the diaspora have consistently garnered awards for their works, telling stories that are beautiful and touching. Yaa Gyasi, a Ghanaian born writer recently won the American Book Awards for her novel Homegoing.

“Irrespective of whether you write blog posts, long form or short articles, once you start producing text content for your newspaper or editorial staff on a regular basis, you’re already a step closer to non-fiction. You can already write a book! You are all writers already, you just need to be given a better outlook on what’s already before your eyes.”

Nigerian reggae artist Patoranking has become the first African to perform at the Reggae Sumfest Festival, the largest concert festival in Jamaica. The Nigerian artist who is currently a judge in The Voice Nigeria is living true to the testimony of his first album God Over Everything.

Award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor is a writer of color joining the blockbuster fantasy franchises as HBO is developing a series adaptation of her post-apocalyptic Africa novel “Who Fears Death”. We look forward to the addition of an African voice and perspective to the blockbuster fantasy franchises.

Vanessa Kingori; the youngest and first female publisher of British GQ and the first black publisher in Condé Nast UK’s 100-year history; was recognized with an MBE in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honors List 2016.

The Caine Prize for African Writing, described as Africa’s leading literary award this year went to Bushra al-Fadil for his short story entitled “The Story of the Girl Whose Birds Flew Away”, translated by Max Shmookler, published in The Book of Khartoum – A City in Short Fiction (Comma Press, UK. 2016).

The Kaduna Book and Arts Festival (#KABAFEST) in northern #Nigeria kicked off yesterday despite a number of online attacks and prodding to boycott the event. The festival, which has been announced would be an annual event will run from the 5th to the 8th of July, 2017. Sudanese writer and the first Caine Prize winner Leila Aboulela will headline the festival while other writer like Dami Ajayi, Toni Kan, Titilope Sonuga, Efe Paul Azino, Kadaria Ahmed among others will be joined by HRH Lamido Sanusi Lamido and Matthew Kukah for various panel discussions. The festival is in its first edition and it has seen a massive turnout.

Grahamstown, South Africa is the place to be today and in the coming few days if you want to experience the gloriousness of African arts and cultures. The National Arts Festival will run for 11 days and is full of promising musical acts, plays, performances, dance, theatre, comedy, various exhibitions, lectures, literary events and academic discussions. Get there if you can.

The Grenfell Tower fire is definitely a tragedy, which has taken the lives of many people including emerging and talented Gambian artist Khadija Saye. The tragedy has claimed 79 people so far, among them Khadija and her mother who lived on the 20th floor of the building. Khadija’s work is currently exhibited at the Venice Biennale and had attracted a number of top gallery directors. Her death at the age of 24 is a painful loss considering how she portrayed the Wolof culture in her works.

The Nigeria International Book Fair (NIBF) is a week-long hub for publishers, booksellers, writers, schoolchildren and booklovers alike. However, this celebration cannot mask the fact that there are structural problems in the Nigerian publishing infrastructure that go beyond the printing of books.