LAGOS THROUGH BERLIN'S TELESCOPE

By Aderemi Adegbite

 

Aderemi Adegbite with a renowned Artist during an exposition in Berlin

On the current scene, one will realize that all hope is not lost with the Lagos State government involvement in visual, moving and literary arts, be it at individual or corporate levels. The twelve million population state hypothetically has sixty galleries, which only two third of them function as it were. But it is welcoming that the government is currently commissioning Memorials and Parks in spaces like Muri Okunola Park along Ozumba Mbadiwe on the Victoria Island, Prof. Ayodele Awoyokun Park at Onike roundabout in Yaba and lots more. 

As a member of the delegates that were sent to Berlin - Germany, by the Goethe Institut on the 2009 Visiting Programme, Lagos as my state of residence and birth was constantly on my mind throughout my stay. My mind was always beclouded by the contrast of the two cities. 

Things work, despite the reality that BERLIN—in less than a hundred years, has survived two major world wars, famine, division of state (West and East), and reunification - fall of Berlin Wall, the loss and regaining of status as the capital of German. It’s been a turbulent century, but remarkably, the city is still in one piece. The political undertone cannot be deemphasized though, while it is not for the tourists to be able to decipher it as the cultural landscape of the city is laced with century’s aesthetics of their struggles and victories.     

Memorials are built in strategic spaces as documentation of history of the state, never underplayed the volatility of the stories behind them. The Jewish Memorial and Museum, is one such documentation that imprints the magnanimity of injustice done on the Jewish Community during the cold war. And in no way was the museum intended to instigate any form of violence, but a tourist’s with the history.    

Andrea Ruf, an art historian and an archeologist, who was our escort and instructor during the programme secured meetings with culture workers both at the private and government levels. And we were made to know the reason why the city has remain a tourists’ attraction in the recent times. The historical mystique with municipal support for the arts and the six hundred art galleries with the Museum Island recently acclaimed by UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites were only testimonies. Apart from the government support for the arts, there are foundations and associations that fund arts and literary projects in Berlin.

With less than four million inhabitants, Berlin was rated as the cheapest city in the whole of Germany and the government is yet to be satisfied about the condition of leaving in her state. This remains one of the several reasons why artistes from different parts of the world migrate to the city yearly.

To compare, the cost of living in Lagos is on the high side and incentives in whatever forms are not given to artistes by the Culture Ministry and other culture arms of the government both at the local and federal levels. There is no public fund instituted by either corporate individuals or private corporate institutions in this historical city with quantum of teeming artistes who yearly seek for foreign funds for the exploitation of their creative intuition. There is no doubt that Lagos is the Nigerian’s Art City, just as Istanbul is to Germany.

But remissness of the government on the state and its inhabitants has made the city lost many of her finest artistes to arts supporting cities in the world. Canada, New York, Munich, Los Angeles, Berlin, Amsterdam, London and Paris are few of the cities where musicians, artists, writers, arts promoters/managers and curators who should take Nigerian arts to the international frontier flee to year in year out.  

If twenty years is enough for Berlin with man power and intellectual capacity deployed to the aesthetic of arts and its history in spite of the odds, less than that should be enough for Lagos to get on her feet. As a state with rich history, particularly during the slave trade, tourists should be beaming in Lagos like the ray of sun light. But some of the slave ports have been sold to churches, shrewd foreign businessmen and the rest left without protection.

Powering Christmas-lights with generating sets during Christmas celebration will only take Lagos many steps backwards not a step forward, when Delft University students in Netherland,  are celebrating more than 600 days of space exploration, after the successful launch of their Milk Carton-sized satellite. Technicians and artistes are now collaborating around the world to bring out new forms of art installations and develop new means of technology for the performing arts. The synergy between arts and technologies abroad is on the high side.

Although, the green grass and plant a tree projects are in line with the global warming agenda and recreation spaces which also incorporate memorials and parks are good innovations. But the status and public art pieces are not telling stories because signatures of renowned artists are not on them. The mega-city project should revive the vibrant history for Lagos and create a new one out of the existing ones, not just a project for it sake. For instant, if the artist that created the Eyo statue at Adeniji Adele roundabout collaborated with an arty technician, the piece will be a site of attraction not just an art piece for it sake as it were.

There are internationally acclaimed artists and curators that are based in Lagos whose names and integrity could be employed to give a face to the beautification of memorials and parks process. Bruce Onabrakpeya, Kolade Oshinawo, Mufu Onifade, the originator of Araism and their contemporary are much around. Works of the dead artists are well protected and preserved by friends, relatives and collectors. Lagos state government should tap into these names to give those statuses face and life of their own so as to attract tourists’ attention to the state. The must be a valid story to each public art piece and reference.  

The road networks must be perfected to ease movement around the state. Electricity and security are some other major players in the tourism business. We the resources on ground, Lagos is capable of putting her name on the map of tourist’s favourite city in Africa. 

The Valentine Session of POETRY POTTER - 34

 

 We have decided to go

With the winds

This month.

This session of Poetry Potter

Will celebrate with the theme:

'Love in the Winds'

Come with your couple

And celebrate with us,

It's going to be funfare.

The State of Nigerian Literature: A Cursory Glance

By Odili Ujubuonu

A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE NLNG’s “DIALOGUE WITH WRITERS” ON WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 3RD 2009 AT THE NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, LAGOS.

A people without a literature is a people without life. Not life in the sense of existence but life in the sense of experiencing humanisitic sensibilities that trump everything else. Nigerians cannot be described as people lacking life. We have a vibrant lifestyle. One full of vim and verve. We express ourselves freely everywhere we are. We cry out tears when we should and sometimes laugh out tears when we shouldn’t. We live in words and we live in bright colours. Proverbs dance on our tongues and our world is poetry lived. This is the state of our life. If you look around us here in this hall we are not dressed in one drab colour for we are not a mono fashion country. Wherever we are colours follow us in styles that are as distinct as we are. This is the state of our life. How then do we translate this state of life into our literature and how do we get our literature back into our lives? How do we complete that cycle of beauty which literature and life when cojoined, confer on a people? We will attempt an answer to these, my brothers and sisters, in the next few pages.

Serious writing is going on. New and brilliant writers appear yearly on the scene. Old writers keep getting better. Scholars spend time studying the literary production of our people. Our numerous universities are studying our works. Literary readings, book presentations, reading promotions and book treks are taking different shapes now more than any other period in our life. In fact, we presently have more literary Awards than any other period in Nigerian history. Apart from these traditional means, we have advanced to the new media in promoting ourselves and our works. Many writers now host their own websites. Virtually all the young writers have blogs of their own and are active in social networks like, yahoogroups, facebook, twitter et al. In a nutshell, writers of previous generations never had it so good. We have every opportunity to become world class writers from the silent corners of our lairs. This is the state of Nigerian literature.

Then what is the problem? How can we have all these and say that our mute button is pressed down? Why are the loud speakers not working? Why are our books not popular in Nigerian living rooms, in public places and the general market. Why is it easier to buy our books in bookshops found in Victoria Island than we would in Ojuelegba or your local shop in Ejigbo? Why is it easier for hawkers to present to you pirated copies of the bible than they would The Last of the Strong Ones and or Under the Brown Rusted Roof?

The problem can be located in four major areas of our Book life. One is our kind of writing. Two is our kind of publishing, three is our kind of distribution and four is our kind of selves.

The very nature of our colonial experience foisted our post colonial literature on the stimuli of the colonial state, and lately on the pull of globalisation. We hardly write for our national audience. We write to sate the thirst of what Jeyifo calls the ‘deterritorialised audience.’ It does not matter if the subject of writing hardly interests our own nationals. Related to this is the fact that Literature for some of us must be ‘committed’. It should be the instrument of the vanguard of the proletariat. One that must be used as a means of correcting our ailing order. It must carry the pains and conditions of the society it exists in. It must in a nutshell, be an extension of our journalistic passion. Great ideas. Fantastic classroom dicta.

So who is our audience? Are they not the same people who experience what we experience, the same people who have read, one way or the other, the subject of our tale from newspapers? Our books gradually begin to sound like the political columns of our newspapers. What happens to the escapist function of the novel? What happens to the celebration of the beauty of language, life, light and love of poetry. What happens to humanity and what happens to the alternative, the greener other-sidedness of our life? Is political commitment the only engagement our senses experience? The answer is no. There is love, there is crime, there is human nature and there is the real colourful, and exciting life of Nigerians. There is even football, ugba and more.

But wait. I must confess that in recent times some new writers are exploring these paths and it counts heavily in favour of their success. Look at the works of Jude Dibia, Toni Kan, Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Kaine Agary and recently Ahmed Maiwada’s Musdoki. These writers have chosen to bring fresh tales that stir our sensibilities. The question is will these same writers not be accused of writing flesh and wine literature? Will they not be forced to go back to doing what we know how to do best - our kind of writing? But let us be truthful to ourselves. Is our kind of writing not a child of our kind of publishing?

The problem with publishing has been like a cliche in recent times. In different fora practitioners have identified the problem of our literature with the kind of publishing we inherited from our kind of history. What kind of publishing? What kind of history? A cynic may ask. It was part of the colonial agenda. The industry was set up to publish for colonial schools. It was never meant to serve the pleasure of the reading public. After all, they believed we could not read. They left entertainment publishing to the so-called Onitsha market literature. Those grand old pamphleteerers made their money. The publishing houses in Nigeria became mere cyclostyling agencies of the colonial publishing houses of Europe. They published books by British writers and in some merciful cases, adapted them by adding dots of Nigerian huts and names. When writers were published, their books were mainly for the use of schools. The publishing malaria then became kwashiokor when in early 1990s the Nigerian economy collapsed. The major houses either sold off and left or shifted their operations to greener pastures. What was left were houses who were willing to do for writers the same thing a Shomolu printer would do for anyone. Bring ya book, pay me money, I go publish am for you. That is the state of Nigerian literature. The consequence of this is a motley of badly edited and sometimes badly printed books.

In summary, no proper publishing structure exists to carry the weight of our literature. The few Nigerians who invested in publishing afterwards inherited nothing. They have to build new structures from the scratch. They do this with shoestring budgets. Here, I must mention the exceptional efforts of Kraftbooks, Farafina, Lantern and Cassava Republic. These houses with all their challenges have been able to keep the publishing industry alive. This lack of structure is more evident in the distribution network in Nigeria. 

I stand to be challenged if I declare in this forum that there is no book distribution network in Nigeria. What we have are a set of unco-ordinated bookshops, few wholesalers and Publishing houses who send reps about town with carload of books to bribe school teachers to force children to buy their books. Imagine a country of one hundred and fifty million people with half of the population assumed to be literate yet we cannot sell upto 150,000 copies of some of our best selling authors. This happens because of a disconnect between active writing and active buying of books. That is why I say the mute button is pressed down. That is the state of Nigerian literature.

Finally, writers are part of the problem. Our kind of selves. Yes! Our kind of selves. What have you done for Nigerian literature? What have I, Odili Ujubuonu, done? I will answer “nothing.” Some may be quick to exonerate themselves by saying that they have contributed by writing good stories and poems read by people and studied by scholars. Thanks . But that is not enough. We must begin what our founding fathers did. They did not wait for the government or publishing houses to recommend their books. They created a vibrant critical industry - reading, reviewing and criticising works of their peers. We are too self conscious. Too Self worshipping. I am good; the other is bad. I am an award winner; the other is just starting. My language is wonderful; the other writes trite. We have become the centre of our own world so much so that when critics tell us a bit of what we truly are, we become incensed. We like critics that tell us what we want to hear but condemn those that hit us as hard as we have abused the beautiful art of literature. That is also the state of Nigerian literature.

Can we get better than we are now? I think we can. One step towards this is calling to mind where we are and where we are heading. We must in the words of Chinua Achebe discover where the rain started beating us in order to know when and where to ask for an umbrella. Creating this forum for us to talk about our state is a progressive lever towards achieving this. For over five years now Nigeria LNG Limited has intervened. Writers have been drawn out of their quiet corners and placed at the centre of national attention through The Nigeria Prize for Literature. The prize has also stimulated interest in all the genres of literature thereby opening a dialogue box between Scholarship and writing. Sometimes, this relationship has been challenging and, most times, it has been exciting but, at all times, it has been engaging.

Finally, I believe that NLNG, by now, has recorded some successes sponsoring The Nigerian Prize for Literature. A greater joy, however, will be theirs and ours if we all, this evening, take more than a cursory glance at the state of Nigerian literature. It calls for pause and reflection.

Thank you my dear colleagues.

'On Independence and the Ambivalence of Promise'

8 February to 6 March, 2010

Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos
9, McEwen Street,
Sabo, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria
http://www.ccalagos.org

CCA, Lagos is pleased to present On Independence and the Ambivalence of Promise, a year-long programme that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Independence of seventeen African countries including Nigeria. The intellectual and conceptual underpinning of the project questions the limits of postcolonial critical thinking and ideas. Furthermore, it considers dreams, realities and possibilities for full independence that have engaged people and communities across languages, cultures and regions. The project attempts to engender new methods of reflecting on the economic, cultural and socio-political concerns of the present as well as questioning one's relationship to the larger totality. This provides a platform on which artists and cultural practitioners can explore new ways of engaging and articulating the conditions of our contemporaneity.

Programme
Under the principle theme of On Independence and the Ambivalence of Promise, CCA, Lagos starts this landmark year with an ambitious international art photography residency programme that explores the ever-evolving aesthetic, conceptual and technical potential of art photography. Over an intensive 30-day period, the residency deemphasizes hierarchy in order to promote a profound level of dialogue and exchange among its participants. Artists will take part in lectures, seminars, portfolio reviews, and group critiques – in addition to pursuing independent and collaborative artistic projects.

Over the course of thirty days the residency will feature experienced local and international artists, critics, and curators including: Akinbode Akinbiyi (Nigeria/Germany); Miriam Backström (Sweden); Giovanni Carmini (Switzerland); Tam Fiofori (Nigeria); Marja Helander (Finland); Jide Adeniyi Jones (Nigeria); Heta Kuchka (Finland); Simon Njami (Cameroon); Senam Okudzeto (Ghana/Switzerland); Phillipe Pirotte (Belgium/Switzerland); Rosangela Renno (Brazil); Carrie Schneider (USA); Mats Stjernstedt (Sweden); Daniella Wennberg (Norway).

Among the participating artists are Aderemi Adegbite, Nduwhite Ahanonu, Lucy Azubuike, Ndidi Dike, Chidinma Nnorom, Richardson Ovbiebo, Adeniyi Odeleye, Folarin Shasanya and Uche Okpa-Iroha, William West from Nigeria; and their counterparts Landry Mbassi (Cameroon), Sabelo Mlangeni (South Africa) and Mauro Pinto (Mozambique).

Project conceived and developed for the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos by Aura Seikkula, independent curator, Helsinki, and Bisi Silva, director/curator, CCA, Lagos Project Co-ordinated by Antawan I. Byrd, 09-10 US Fulbright Fellow/curatorial assistant, CCA, Lagos

CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, LAGOS is an independent non-profit visual art organisation founded in December 2007 to provide a platform for the development, presentation, and discussion of contemporary visual art and culture. CCA, Lagos supports the intellectual and critical development of different art and cultural practices through talks, seminars, publications, workshops and exhibitions. In addition it encourages and promotes the professionalisation of artistic and curatorial practices in Nigeria and West Africa by collaborating with national and international artists, curators, writers, theorists and organizations.

CCA, Lagos gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Nordic Culture Point, the Finnish Fund for Art Exchange, and AECID through the Embassy of Spain in Nigeria. Further support from Ministry of Culture, Brazil, ProHelvetia, Office for Contemporary Art Norway, the Kunsthalle Bern, the Swedish Institute and the Public Affairs Department of the US Embassy, Lagos, Nigeria. In partnership with PictureWorksExtra, Nigeria and FrameshopExtra, Nigeria.

For further information please contact:
Antawan Byrd
antawan@ccalagos.org
+234 702 836 7106

The Importance of Midpoint Corrections

By Michael Kaiser

The President - J F Kennedy Center

 
January represents the midpoint in the season for many United States arts organizations. By this point, many of us know whether the year is progressing as we had expected when we developed the budget for the year.
 
For too many of us, the news this season isn't good. A major grant may have been lost, a production may have died at the box office, or a project went wildly over budget. For most organizations, at least one element of the fundraising campaign is not meeting target. At this rate, many arts organizations are headed for a serious deficit for the fiscal year.
So what do we do? 


One thing we cannot do is 'hope' that things get better. They rarely do by themselves.
Too many arts managers simply accept the fact that this season is not going well and believe that next year will be better. (And a good percentage of these managers base next year's budget on this year's budget, rather than this year's actual results; this makes next year's budget even more difficult to achieve.) These managers are often so busy planning for next year they forget that there is work to be done to salvage this year. 


This month we must split our focus. Of course we must plan for the season ahead, develop our subscription brochures and finish (start?) our budget for next season. 


But we must also change course midstream for this season if the results are not good enough. We must cut budgets and accelerate the search for new contributions and new audience members. If we wait until spring, it will be too late to make meaningful budget cuts and to implement revenue-enhancement programs. 


Because I talk publically so often about not cutting programming or marketing in the face of fiscal challenges, some people believe that I don't cut budgets at all. This is, of course, untrue, as my staff will readily attest. Virtually every year, somewhere from December to February, I cut the budget if I see that revenue is not what we had expected or costs have gotten out of control.
We cannot wait for our boards to demand cuts; we have to make them ourselves. 


I, personally, cannot sleep when I have not figured out how to balance my budget. This is not a happy way to live but it is a healthy one for the organizations I manage. 


Curled from the Art Management Home - Blog

POETRY POETRY @ 4

THE HISTORY OF POETRY POTTER

This unique platform was created for poets, storytellers, folksingers, folk-dancers, artists, theatre practitioners, art promoters/managers, culture workers and arts journalists, to display their creative ingenuity, at no cost.

The platform which was created in January 28, 2006, is wholly youth-centred and does not alienate adults who are regarded as the reservoir of wisdom from which the younger generation must drink. Today, Poetry Potter - a monthly event - has won quite the hearts of arts and literary enthusiasts.

1st POETRY/SPOKEN WORD RED CARPET in Nigeria, if not in AFRICA.

This in an initiative taken from the entrepreneur perspective of the Creative Industry, it attempts to spur the business of poetry/spoken-word in Nigeria and Africa, and as well make the genre as lucrative (business wise) as its sister genre, music. We hope introducing some social elements into the promotion of poetry will push it a bit forward from its current point. And we promise to do this consistently with integrity.

In staying put to the orgnisation's core focus, which is “adding values to arts, and literature in Nigeria and Africa at large," we decide embark on a three months shows of poetry starting with Red-Carpet interview and picture of the audience because we believe that poetry/spoken-word is in everything called entertainment. And the business aspect of this genre in the Nigerian and African oral literature (orature) is essential for its promotion and income generation too.

Because of the fact that poets and the lovers of spoken-word are generally seen as literati/elites, therefore poetry/spoken-word is not really selling in Nigeria and for that reason, as promotion of arts: Poetry/Spoken-word, Folktale, Folklore, Folksongs, Rap, Dance, and Drama, is a basic factor in our organisational objective.

This we were able to achieve between August and October 2009 with the collaboration of two companies: HEV/Snap Pictures and Capricorn Tents and More.

POETRY POTTER YOUTH FORUM

In October 2009, Poetry Potter, as a moving/literary arts (poetry/spoken word) platform was chosen to be part of the maiden edition of the would-be yearly festival, sponsored by GTBank Plc; Produced and Directed Ben Tomoloju. 

At the GTBank Poetry Festival, Kowry Kreations Media, created the platform to discuss the theme: "Poetry - its genesis and future in the Nigeria literary arts scene," during the POETRY POTTER Youth Forum segment.

The renowned poet, Odia Ofeimun, took the youth, who were the major in participants, through the genesis of poetry, root of poetry in Nigeria and Africa, while Sage Has.son, the Nigerian spoken-word exponent tackled the present phase of poetry which is "Hip-Poetry."

During the Interview Segment, Odia Ofeimun submitted that the only way forward for poetry and spoken words was to start documenting them in books and provide more platforms for further discussion. The Poet, who wrote the “Poet Lied,” argued that New Media documentation (CD, Tape, mp3 format etc) of thoughts in lines and stanzas would make no poet out of anybody that is in the business of poetry and spoken word entertainment.  

With this project, POETRY POTTER Youth Forum, we decide to publish a poetry collection of Sage Has.son, which we hope the foreword will be written by Odia Ofeimun. This we will present during the second edition of GTBank Poetry Festival in 2010. 

REVIEW – POETRY POTTER  MONTHLY GUEST ARTISTES

Since inception, a section of the project - Guest Artistes of the Month - which is meant for mentoring creative minded youths, has hosted prominent personalities both young and old. These personalities include:

Segun Adefila - Theatre Director/Choreographer of Crown Troupe of Africa

Steve James - Theatre Director/Choreographer of Ivory Ambassador Dance Company

Jude Orhorha - An actor of immense presence in the theatre and motion picture industry   

Folu Agoi - Former Chairman of ANA, Lagos and author of many books                      

Ayodele Arigbabu - The Publisher of DADA Books, also a writer, journalist and author

Toni Kan - Author, journalist and essayist

Chief Yemi Adeyemi - An actor popularly known as “Pa Suara”

Odia Ofeimun - A renowned Poet, Literary/Political Activist and author of many books

Dr. Ahmed Yerima  - Former Director of National Troupe/ Ntaional Theatre of Nigeria

Tolu Ogunlesi - Writer, journalist and essayist, author of many books

Dayo Liadi - Dancer/Dance Instructor/Choreographer of Ijodee Dance Company

Mufu Onifade - The originator of Araism, a new theory of painting in Africa.

Kaine Agary - The winner of NLNG Prize for Literature 2008

Jude Dibia - An award winning author, also an aviation expert

Wole Oguntokun - Playwright/Theatre Director/Producer of “Theatre @ Terra”

Enefiok Udo-Obon - An athlete medalist  and author of  the "Silver Liners"

Denrele Edun - Soundcity TV Presenter

Mirian Travis - Librarian, Arts/Literary enthusiast. African-American

Lesley Carter - A renowned African-American dancer and Choreographer

Tosun Buknor - Writer/Journalist/Radio/TV Presenter

Dayo Liadi - A renowned dancer

Chris Ihidero - Writer/Editor/ Film Director         

Sage Has.son - A spoken word exponent

Yinka Davis - A musician of high repute

Red Strat - The organizers of The Future Awards – Chude, Adebola and Emilia

Terry DaRapman - A renowned rap artiste

Lilian Amah - An actress and film Producer

El Nukoya - An award winning author of Nine Lives

Plus One - A new and promising music group

Felyne - A Nigerian-American female rap artiste                     

Wizkid - A new hip-hop singer in the Nigerian music scene

O.C Ukeje - The winner of Amstel Maltal Box Office 2 –AMBO2

Also, Taiye Olaniyi, FRC, the Assistant Public Relations Officer of NIPOST, Bose Afolayan and Rasheed Otun, both lecturers in the English and Creative Arts departments from the University of Lagos respectively, have presented papers in our Quarterly Workshops/Paper/Drama presentation.

Soyinka meets Shakespeare at Poetry Potter

By Ireyimika Oyegbami

January 6, 2010
Next Newspaper

It was an eager crowd that gathered for the last Poetry Potter, which held on Saturday, December 27, at its usual venue, the Rotunda Hall, National Library, Yaba, Lagos. The monthly art event was the last for 2009 and the organisers chose to celebrate this fact by tagging it ‘The Wine Party'.

This probably informed the abundance of rich wines which people had brought along as requested by the organisers. It was also poet Jumoke Verrisimo's birthday; Verrisimo was all smiles as she received birthday wishes from some of those at the event.

Seun Ajayi, who emceed the event was brisk in calling performing poets to the podium; perhaps in a bid to make up for lost time as the event started an hour behind schedule.

THE SONGS

Cornerstone, a regular, was the first to perform. Performing to the accompaniment of a properly tuned guitar, the reggae musician sang ‘Don't wanna be here again', which he composed after watching a distraught woman who had been raped during the Odi crisis narrate her ordeal at the Oputa Panel. The fact that the woman has yet to get justice informed the song. Cornerstone's second song, ‘I don't wanna wait in vain' wasn't any more cheerful, though.

Kafayat Quadri's song ‘Mo wo'oke mo wo'isale' was a lesson on being grateful despite perceived shortfalls in life. She obliged someone in the audience who asked for her ‘Wanna be free'. Awoko, the songbird, thrilled the audience with his amazing voice and guitar. He also sang two songs, ‘Lekeleke' and ‘Oro Ife'. Chinyelo Onwubuya performed ‘Sugar' and ‘Zombies' while Bob did a spoken word performance titled ‘Revolution'.

SOYINKA MEETS SHAKESPEARE

Next was the cast of ‘Soyinka in the eyes of Shakespeare', a play directed by Lekan Balogun. They entertained with a juxtaposition of the major characters in Shakespeare's play ‘Macbeth' and Wole Soyinka's ‘Death and the King's Horseman'. The performance was well-staged and held the audiences' attention for well over an hour.

It was a funny moment when Lady Macbeth, who set out to seduce the King's Horseman sharply corrects his pronunciation of perfume after she is rejected by the man who responds to her amorous advances by lamenting, "If only you knew what brought me this far." Macbeth, who is held in the same mansion as the King's Horseman by the comedian, Bilkins, causes a ripple of laughter when at a point he replies, "Man is not meant to be hungry all the time", to Bilkins' admonition that man does not live by bread alone. The costumes were of the Elizabethan era. Macbeth's tormentor, Malcolm's paper dagger, somehow undermined the seriousness of the latter's supposed anger.

The crowd certainly enjoyed the performance and rewarded the cast and crew with loud ovation.

Soon after, the wine cocks popped and rich wine flowed into the cups, and with it exuberance and cheer from the lovers of poetry and art. Ade Bantu, Segun Adefila, and Kolade Arogundade, a lecturer from the University of Cape Town were some of those at the event.