The 28th Lagos Book & Art Festival (LABAF) will run from November 16 to 22 in Lagos and online, opening with a ceremony marking 35 years of the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), the group behind the festival.
The theme is “REPAIR: The Workover Starts, Now.”
The opening ceremony is at 5pm on November 16 at Esther’s Revenge, Freedom Park. Chief Kayode Aderinokun, chairman of CORA’s trustees, will give the welcome address, and Secretary-General Toyin Akinosho will speak on the organisation’s journey. Testimonies, poetry, dance and a performance by The Africana Band will follow. CORA was founded on June 2, 1991.
A daily #CORALiterarySeason 3.0 session at noon will celebrate playwright and poet Femi Osofisan at 80. Discussions will cover his essays, poetry, plays and novellas, including Morountodun, Ireke and Best of Times. Filmmaker Tunde Kelani will present Maami on November 17 and Cordelia on November 18, with Osofisan as guest of honour.
Friday’s programme moves to JRandle Centre, Onikan, where poet and lawyer Tade Ipadeola will deliver the festival keynote at 2pm. Symposiums will discuss development and governance. The Ken Saro-Wiwa Prize for Book Review winners will be unveiled at 6:30pm, with the award presented by Ogaga Ifowodo, winner of the $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature 2026. Nigeria LNG sponsors the prize.
Book readings run through the week under the BookTrek and Joy of Reading series. A Publishers’ Forum on November 19 will examine how artificial intelligence affects the book trade, and an AI workshop on November 21 will be held virtually and at Freedom Park.
Other events include a November 17 presentation of “The Artpreneurs,” Oji Onoko’s book on Nigerian studio artists, and an exhibition by the Cartoonist Network Association of Nigeria. A November 19 screening will feature “The Marked,” a documentary directed by Amah ThankGod.
Other activities include youth poetry contests under the Kayode Aderinokun Poetry Prize, art workshops marking 40 years of Wole Soyinka’s Nobel Prize, and a Green Festival for secondary school students.
Stage productions include No More the Wasted Breed, a response to Soyinka’s The Strong Breed, on November 20, and The Return of Brother Jero on November 21. A festival jazz concert on November 20 will mark the anniversaries of the Lagos Jazz Society (10 years), Naijazz (25) and CORA (35).
The festival closes on November 22 with a performance by artist Jelili Atiku at 4pm and a discussion on the creative industries under the incoming political dispensation. The date and theme for the next edition, LABAF 29.0, will be unveiled at the 8pm closing ceremony at the Food Court.