As part of a year-long series of events to celebrate the life and illustrious career of the iconic actress and culture advocate, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett (MoN), the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), will stage the first of its ARTHOUSE Forum in 2021 on Sunday, March 7 in a hybrid live and virtual format.
With the theme: Women- Now that the Glass has been Shattered: What Next?, and produced in collaboration with the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), the ARTHOUSE Forum, is “the first in a series of four to be staged in the course of the year, according to the CORA Programme Directorate.
It will feature, among other activities: eminent women speakers, screening of a documentary film, “TAIWO AJAI-LYCETT — MATRIARCH of the ACT, musical performances, dance, drama, and spoken word.
The veteran actress, art activist and culture advocate, whose career has spanned over six decades, Mrs Ajai-Lycett was 80 on February 3rd, but the rising second wave of the pandemic pre-vented her constituency, the culture community, from rolling out the drum to celebrate an artist whose exemplary life and career have remained inspirational to several generations of practising artistes and culture producers.
The March 7 event is strategically positioned to coincide with the World Women’s Day on March 8 as well as the “International Women’s Month (March). To this end, the programme is designed as an all-women event, which means from planning to execution, it will be handled by carefully selected women, who are individually accomplished in their own field.
Eight remarkable Women leaders in the education and culture sectors speak for 10 minutes each on eight areas considered dear to Anty TAL’s life and career – the Arts, Environment, Education, Mentorship, Communication, Administration, Empowerment and Culture Activism.
Each speaker’s contribution will reflect on her lived experience(s) or in her field of operation/discipline. Essentially, the individual contribution will serve as a means of mentorship to the body of students and youths (not more than 30) that we expect to form the main audience.
CORA expects to professionally record each contribution to develop a document that it can use for advocacy and as mentorship tool for thousands of students and youths to whom it intends to screen the presentations in the course of the year and in the future.
The speakers are:
Lead: Mrs. Toki Mabogunje, President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industries, LCCI.
Acting – Joke Silva –– Actress
Production – Ifeoma Fafunwa – Theatre Director/Producer
Environment – Sola Alamutu — Environmental/Girl Child Activist
Education – Noma Shodipo – Educationist/ Social Activist
Mentorship – Sandra Obiago – Curator/Communication Activist
Art & Litt — Nkechi Nwosu-Igbo – Poet/Visual Artist
Empowerment — Iyabo Aboaba –Administrator/Art Manager
Culture Advocacy – Chinwe Uwatse – Art/Culture Activist
Goodwill remarks:
Bolanle Austen-Peters (CORA)
Lara Akinshola (NANTAP)
Performances:
Yinka Davies
Ranti Ihimoyan
Ayeola Mabiaku
Producer:
Kennii Ekundayo, art curator/culture producer
ADMITTANCE
Meeting ID: 838 2078 7819
Passcode: CORAforum
Venue:
The ace culture production site, Freedom Park by Broad Street, Lagos Island will host the live event with limited number of guests while others will join by zoom, YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms, according to the CORA.
About the theme:
The theme: Women- Now that the Glass has been Shattered: What Next? is taken from a comment from an extended interview that the CORA documentary team had with Mrs Ajai-Lycett, in which she duly acknowledged that many more women have since assumed important and critical offices and status in the Nigerian corporate and political space, but it is not clear what the next move is, first, to consolidate such positions and expand the reach; and two, to use their attainment to lift other women, advance the cause of women in the polity, and as well set a solid template for the redress of the various injustices done to the Girl-child.
Why the celebration:
The CORA programme directorate said it reasons that “no other female personae within our socio-cultural life deserves to be fully celebrated as Anty Ajai-Lycett. Aside from being an actress of international repute, she is a culture advocate and mentor extraordinaire, who insists that our country and society can be rescued from its current trajectory of socio-political tragedy through the instrumentality of culture and education to set room for the reorientation of our young ones. In particular, we intend to set her exemplary life as the best template for the Girl-child and young women as they wade through the odds set on their path by a system that appears unbothered about their future.”
The year-long celebration
“The Committee for Relevant Art, where Mrs Ajai-Lycett serves as a Board member, had, in November last year, announced that it was dedicating the entirety of its 2021 programme season to celebrating the woman who is easily revered as an icon of the Nigerian stage and screen.
“A sequence of events was set up to usher her into her new age, but due to the spread of the second wave of the pandemic, many of the events were postponed or cancelled altogether,” said CORA Program Chair, Jahman Anikulapo.
The directorate said there will be a quarterly event staged in “Real-Tual” (Live and Virtual) in the 2021 season. Each of the events will focus on a particular aspect of the society where the celebrant has a deep interest or has made her mark in near six decades of engagement. The first session on March 7 is focusing on CULTURE AND EDUCATION. The June edition will be on the PUBLIC SECTOR (politics & governance), and the September on FAMILY & VALUES REORI-ENTATION. The final event, which will be the finale will be staged during the CORA prime project, the Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF, and this will bring together the various strands of the other three phases,” stated Anikulapo.
The CORA ARTHOUSE Forum is a periodic session of exploration into fast-breaking development in the arts and culture sector of Nigeria. It is set up as an agenda-setting forum for those who administer culture in Nigeria. From the Forum, they could test the pulse of the arts and culture community. It is usually arranged around a landmark event in the life and career of personalities in the culture sector.
Full Covid-19 protocols as well as the Lagos State Government guidelines about non-medical guidelines to be strictly observed.
ZOOM PROTOCOLS
Topic: Arthouse Forum for Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett @80
Time: Mar 7, 2021 02:00 PM West Central Africa
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83820787819?pwd=cjN1eXg1cnh0TGpsaEJpTXdVQnVudz09
Meeting ID: 838 2078 7819
Passcode: CORAforum
