(As published in ARTSVILLE, a column by Toyin Akinosho in The Guardian, Oct. 31)
Publishers’ Forum Prefaces LABAF 2010
THE 12th Lagos Book And Art Festival, scheduled for November 2010, will open with a Publishers Forum, according to the organizers. “The Publishers’ Forum is to provide a concentrated space for key publishers in Nigeria to collectively appraise their current operations within the context of the challenges facing their industry”, according to the Festival spokesman Ayo Arigbabu. “It is a ‘focus group’ or a strategy session where the facilitator(s) serve as umpires in a series of brainstorming sessions. The forum is targeted at principals of publishing houses who seek to grow their market and are willing to engage in creative thinking towards identifying strategies that can make this possible for them whether within a collective or through their individual operations”. The expectation is that “cogent strategies would emerge from the session which are immediately implementable or could be built upon in future”. Arigbabu explains that the forum should aid the publishers in collectively identifying key steps that can be taken as individual businesses or as a collective to improve their bottom line”. In his own words: “CORA (the orgainisers), sees itself as a midwife to the different facets of the creative industries in Nigeria. Therefore what we hope to achieve through the publisher’s forum is to provide a platform for Nigerian publishers to collectively brainstorm on how to improve their business”. Within the four hours marked up for the business forum, participants to add value to their businesses through critical feedback on their processes, input on the most challenging areas they have to deal with and useful networking”.
Saro Wiwa Play Premieres On November
To mark the 15th anniversary of the murder of Ken Saro Wiwa, the Niger Delta rights activist, Wole Oguntokun is directing Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo’s new play, The Killing Swamp, for performance as the November 2010 edition of Theatre @Terra. The world premiere of the play is at 3pm on November 7 at Terra Kulture, the Cultural Centre on Victoria Island. It will run again at 6pm and continue at the same venue every Sunday (3pm and 6pm) throughout November 2010. Saro Wiwa was killed by the Nigerian state on November 10, 1995. “It so happens that the 12th Lagos Book and Art Festival opens on November 11, 2010, so the organizers, Committee For Relevant Art (CORA) decided it was fitting that a play based on the murder be staged to honour the memory of the man who put the main agendum in the National Conversation on the table”, according to CORA spokesman, Ayo Arigbabu . “Oguntokun, who has run Theatre @ Terra for three years, is a card carrying member of CORA”. The Killing Swamp, featuring four characters: Kenule, Asabe, Major and Sergeant, takes place at a fresh clearing in a bush outside a prison where a noose dangles from a large tree. The play imagines what happened during Saro Wiwa’s last moments. The lead character, Kenule, a strong-willed, short, intense, self-confident writer in his fifties, is more in control of the situation than his captors. The production is delivered with the support of Terra Kulture, Renegade Theatre and Laspapi Productions.
Ezeigbo Presides Over Folklore In Literature
Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, professor of English at the University of Lagos, will be moderating panel discussion, centering around the presence or absence of folklore influences contemporary literature, staged drama and film. Texts to discuss include The Adventures of a Sugarcane Man: Femi Osofisan’s adaptation of Fagunwa’s Ireke Onibudo, Praying Mantis By Andre Brink, The Hiden Star, by Kabelo Sello Duiker, Allah Is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Korouma. The discussants include Molara Wood, arts editor of NEXT newspapers, Toni Kan, author of the hugely popular collection of short stories, Nights Of the Creaking Bed and Lukman Sanusi, Children Theatre producer and Vice Chairman ANA Lagos. The discussion is the main event at the 81st Art Stampede, which rounds up the three day Lagos Book and Art Festival at the National theatre on November 14, 2010.
Akinosho is Secretary General of CORA and Coordinator LABAF 2010)
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