ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Literature category.

PRESS RELEASE: ARTMOSPHERE MARCH 15, 2014

ARTMOSPHERE is the leading monthly platform for the revival of a vibrant reading culture and the promotion of creative expressions in literature, music and the arts amongst Nigeria’s teeming youth population. 

Curated by WriteHouse Collective since July 2011, ARTMOSPHERE has consistently incorporated the classic ideals of artistic erudition with the innovations of performance practice and contemporary culture. The event offers an eclectic mix of creative dexterity from leading and emerging culture practitioners in Nigeria. Book readings, poetry performances, panel discussions, music and art exhibitions are creatively fused together to make each edition a memory to be relished.

The March edition of ARTMOSPHERE will play host to renowned writer and publisher, africanwriting.com, Chuma Nwokolo. Chuma Nwokolo will read from his new collection of short stories, How to Spell Naija and also discuss the creative process, governance, political as well as social issues alongside five emerging writers. There will also be book signings and music performances by D’Jazz Band at the event.

The event will take place from 3PM to 6PM on Saturday, March 15, 2014. Additional information about the event, together with details about how to get to the venue at the NuStreams Conference & Culture Centre, KM 110, Iyaganku Road, off Alalubosa GRA, Ibadan are available on our fan page: www.facebook.com/writehouseng.

1394061812789GUEST OF THE MONTH: CHUMA NWOKOLO 

Chuma Nwokolo is one of Nigeria’s most prolific writers working in the short story subgenre. A lawyer and satirist, Chuma was writer-in-residence at the Ashmoleon Museum, Oxford, United Kingdom between 2005 and 2007 and is currently the publisher of African Writing Magazine. His published collections include, One More Tale for the Road (2003), Diaries of a Dead African (2003), Ghost of Sani Abacha (2012) and How to Spell Naija in 100 Stories (2013). In 2006, he released a poetry collection titled Memories of Stone. He is the inaugural editor for the Nigerian Writers Series, a publishing project promoted by the Association of Nigerian Authors and endowed by the Niger State Government.

PRESS RELEASE: ARTMOSPHERE MARCH 15, 2014 was published on March 12th, 2014, with the tags , , , under the Art, Literature, News category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Etisalat Reads in Lagos

WP_20140222_004WP_20140222_009WP_20140222_012WP_20140222_017WP_20140222_019WP_20140222_027WP_20140222_028WP_20140222_013WP_20140222_020WP_20140222_010Here are pictures from the Etisalat-organized event at the Freedom Park, Lagos Island, on Saturday, to introduce to the Nigerian (and global audience) the shortlisted writers for the inaugural Etisalat Literature Prize. The shortlisted writers were NoViolet Bulawayo, author of We Need New Names (2013); Yewande Omotosho, author of  Bomboy (2011); and Karen Jennings, author of Finding Soutbek (2012).

The winner of the prize, declared yesterday, February 23rd, was NoViolet Bulawayo. She was presented the check of £15,000. She will also be attending The Etisalat Fellowship at the prestigious University of East Anglia, mentored by Professor Giles Foden, author of the Last King of Scotland.

Other people in these shots are Ayodele Olofintuade, Ayodele Morocco-Clarke, Lola Shoneyin, Victor Ehikhamenor, Ama Ata Aidoo, Toni Kan, Femi Morgan, and Kole Omotosho, among many others.

Etisalat Reads in Lagos was published on February 24th, 2014, with the tags , , , under the Art, Literature category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Poem for a Newborn Child*

Love peeps through the screen, many miles away
In rough, rumbled, beats of a new toddler’s heart;
Dark, with restless tiny fingers gripping winter’s tray.

Weird happy tingling pokes of a creation complete.
Commenced with many yells, and now another start:
New breath into a complex palette and dizzying street.

Eniafe, the one we wanted; the stylish, fanciful guest;
And his father’s edge in repose; art in blood of new hues.
His mother’s rock chiseled in the dreams of harvest.

The world will not end. Not now, for the fresh terrain,
and tomorrow, nods to better selves and better views.
Here is a new earth, embodied, like a bitty human grain.

He is here, bouncing. He is here, bouncing. He is here.
He is here. He is here, bouncing. He is here, bouncing.

___

* Born Febrary 14, at around 4.23pm, in Minneapolis Minnesota. Mother and son are doing okay

Poem for a Newborn Child* was published on February 16th, 2014, with the tags , , , under the Art, Literature category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Two Writers on Sexuality and Morality

Lola Shoneyin (Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives) and Toni Kan (Nights of the Creaking Bed) will, on February 15, head a public discussion on writing sex, sexuality, and morality. Find the details below:

12701_10151963897808131_184968217_n

Two Writers on Sexuality and Morality was published on February 4th, 2014, with the tags , , , , under the Art, Literature, News category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

We Must Free Our Imagination

For those who haven’t been following the matter (or who didn’t know there was any matter to begin with), the coming out of Kenyan-born writer Binyavanga Wainaina as gay added a personal and human dimension to the culture wars brewing currently on the continent on the wings of religious fervour, bigotry, and intolerance on the one side, and that of freedom, compassion, and inclusiveness on the other.

In this six-part YouTube video series, recorded and released after the coming out declaration was made, the author makes a case for the expansion of the imagination – beyond the limits of the boxes imposed by colonialism, religion, and our own cultural myopia.

Must watch.

Also: Here, a recommended read, from Think Africa Press

 

We Must Free Our Imagination was published on January 30th, 2014, with the tags , , under the Literature, News, Opinion, Soliloquy category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.