Black: The Literary Salon – Love and Desire Bared | Launching Thursday 27 February 2020
Introducing Black: The Literary Salon – a quarterly celebration of the best in Black writing from across the world. Shifting the focus away from tokenistic representation, Black writing and writers will take centre stage, providing a platform from where they can probe more deeply into selected themes in a critical, joyous and fun way that both delight and stretch our minds.
Cassava Republic Press in partnership with A + F Creative have curated three salons featuring four voices all united by a potent theme that will be a springboard for stimulating conversation. These salons will be hosted at London’s Ace Hotel across 2020 and will provide a space dedicated to writers, readers and thinkers who are interested in and committed to uncompromising and unmediated spaces for the exploration of writing and ideas from the Black world.
Join us for the first of these salons Love and Desire Bared on February 27th, in keeping with the spirit of the month. Each writer will invite the audience to think about different forms of love and desire, and reveal the ways in which these concepts are explored in their writing. The writers confirmed for the first salon are:
Olumide Popoola, London-based Nigerian-German writer, speaker and performer, with a PhD in Creative Writing and recipient of the May Ayim Award (2004) in the category Poetry – the first Black German Literary Award. Her publications include essays, poetry, novellas and plays. Her debut novel When We Speak of Nothing was shortlisted for a Diva Literary Award, and was named one of the Guardian’s Best Books of 2017.
Irenosen Okojie, Nigerian British author whose debut novel ‘Butterfly Fish’ won a Betty Trask award and was shortlisted for an Edinburgh International First Book Award. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Observer, the Guardian, BBC and the Huffington Post amongst other publications. She was recently inducted as a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature as one of the Forty Under Forty initiative.
Diana Evans, Nigerian British former dancer, journalist, critic, lecturer and author, whose accolades include Orange Award for New Writers, British Book Awards deciBel Writer of the Year, shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book, the Commonwealth Best First Book and the Times/Southbank Show Breakthrough awards, and long listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her third novel, Ordinary People, which was a New Yorker, New Statesman and Financial Times book of the year, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction among others, and won the South Bank Sky Arts Award.
Thursday 28 May – Exploring Maleness, Masculinity and Selfhood
Thursday 24 September – Writing stories, Making Histories
For information on tickets and line-up announcements, follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook and visit the website HERE and sign up to the newsletter.
After nearly ten years in Nigeria, Cassava Republic Press – one of Africa’s leading publishers, has launched in the UK.
Our aim is to change how people think about African writing. We focus on bringing finely crafted, absorbing and nuanced narratives of every day stories to a wider audience. Launching Cassava Republic Press in the UK is an opportunity to introduce the diversity of writings coming out of Africa as well as the diaspora.
Cassava Republic Press publishes a range of fiction including Literary Fiction and Crime as well as children’s fiction, non-fiction and romance under the imprint Ankara Press.
The Africa Content Producers Conference 2020
Africa Re-branding Initiated – Content Producers in Africa to Converge in Accra Ghana
The Africa Chamber of Content Producers is a body set up to spark a movement of change by re-thinking, re-discovering and re-branding Africa’s outlook through the creation of positive and responsible contents to change the narrative of Africa by sharing true values, history, culture and heritage of Africa and her people.
Through shared inspiration to set Africa on the landscape of growth, development, and progress with contents that sustain and promote our way of life, the Africa chamber of content producers have been established to provide quality control systems for African contents including policy advocacy and promotion of audio-visual and literary contents of African origin globally.
The Africa Content Producer’s Conference 2020 have become necessary to build a network of Africans to connect brainstorm and share information on how to rethink, rediscover and rebrand Africa through Content.
The Africa Chamber of Content Producers modus operandi is in accordance with the Principles & objectives of the Charter for African Cultural Renaissance Part 1 Article 3 (f) & (h) and Part V Article 20 & 21 on the use of media in promoting Culture and guided by the constitutive act of the Africa Union.
With the fast pace of technological advancement, the speed of information transfer, the possibilities of altering or misrepresenting information about Africa, it has become important for Africa to establish an institution whose primary responsibility will be to support the production of genuine African contents and promote the dissemination of quality and responsible contents on Africa in order to preserve Africa’s way of life and support her development agenda.
According to the president of the chamber Mr. Benjamin Dwomoh-Doyen, the chamber has in place quality assurance strategies to ensure there is a quality control system for African contents including a marketing and distribution network designed to promote audio-visual and literary contents of Africa origin globally.
He said the rebranding of Africa is one of the biggest mind bugling projects for the next decade; the objective of the Africa Content Producers Conference 2020 is to bring together content creators across Africa to discuss and develop strategies that will re-brand Africa.
Mr. Benjamin Dwomoh Doyen further stated that documents were already in place for work to begin, he sighted documents from the Unesco African charter on cultural renaissance and the Africa Union’s plan of action on cultural and creative industries in Africa saying that the existence of this documents creates a blueprint and set out the road map for the chamber to initiate and achieve the Africa rebranding agenda.
He also mentioned that top on the list for the conference is the setting up of local chapters of the chamber of content producers in every African country to coordinate and drive the Africa re-branding agenda.
The chamber will be looking at identifying selfless and serious hardworking individuals’ attending the conference from different African countries to take up the challenge of working with the mother body to set up local chapters of the chamber in their respective countries, this he said is to ensure a well-coordinated and unified synchronization of the mission, vision, and objectives of the chamber.
The website for delegate’s registration and participation is now open to the public, the conference is open to content creators, creative directors and film producers, music directors and producers, authors of books, PR and branding companies, advertising agencies and anyone interested in being part of the movement to set a new agenda to reshape the destiny of Africa and change her fortunes.
To this end, the president of the chamber Mr. Benjamin Dwomoh-Doyen said the chamber is inviting all content producers across Africa and in the Diaspora to be part of this historic event, registration can be done on the chamber’s web portal at http://africacontentchamber.com/. The Portal for registration is open to the public from 30th January – 10th June 2020.
The conference will be held on the 20th of June 2020, the event will climax on the 21st of June with a heritage tour to Cape Coast Castle, Elmina Castle and the Kakum National Park all in the Central Region of Ghana with foreign delegates scheduled to depart from Ghana on the 22nd of June 2020.
Midem returns with African Music Forum.
Published under the Creative Commons Licence.
The 53rd edition of the international business music event Midem, which is set to take place in Cannes, France, from 2 to 5 June, will be preceded by a number of forums in Lagos, Nigeria and Cape Town, South Africa, on 25 and 28 February, 2020, respectively.
Nigerian musician Femi Kuti.
The Midem African Music Forum, which is now in its third edition, aims to support the development and globalisation of African music markets.
The one-day forums will feature a series of conferences, workshops and showcases with more than 400 industry professionals, including labels, streaming platforms, publishers and artists, among others.
This year, Midem has also partnered with Africa’s biggest music streaming platform Boomplay.
“Boomplay is building the most reliable and transparent music-ecosystem in Africa,” Boomplay Africa head of marketing Tosin Sorinola said.
“By partnering with Midem, which is the leading international event for the global music community, Midem Africa further strengthens Boomplay’s position as the leading light of the African music industry.”
Meanwhile, Femi Kuti and Maleek Berry were named Midem African Forum Ambassadors in 2019, while US-Senagalese musician Akon will be one of the keynote speakers at Midem in France.
Midem supports the global music ecosystem to exchange, create and forge relationships.
The four-day programme of conferences, competitions, networking events and live performances seek to enhance the relationship between people and music, transform audience engagement and form new business connections.
“I want to be able to open up the diversity with different artists from different cultures and parts of the world,” Akon said in a statement.
“What drives me the most is to do things people think are impossible or deem difficult. This will be my first time at Midem. I am looking forward to being in a space with individuals who are all looking to push the music and entertainment industry forward.”
Attendence to the Midem African Forums is by invitation only.
Learning culture through dance and music
Students at Sauk Valley Community College learned about different cultures Monday when African Soul International visited the school. Members of the group brought volunteers on stage to try their skills at a variety of dances that originated in Africa. The group teaches African cultures using a mix of dance and music to energize crowds and spark an interest in another culture.The group, in celebration of Black History Month was brought to the school through SVCC student activities.
SVCC student Dannae Cadenas of Amboy dances with Dr. Jewel Jackson of African Soul International. The artist collective used dance and music to teach participants about the African culture.
SVCC student Dannae Cadenas of Amboy dances with Dr. Jewel Jackson of African Soul International. The artist collective used dance and music to teach participants about the African culture.
African Soul International drummer Sanu Baraka starts the performance Monday afternoon at Sauk Valley Community College. In celebration of Black History Month, SVCC student actiities brought in the group to perform and teach traditional music and dance from Africa.
African Soul International drummer Sanu Baraka starts the performance Monday afternoon at Sauk Valley Community College. In celebration of Black History Month, SVCC student activities brought in the group to perform and teach traditional music and dance from Africa.
The star-studded Nigerian premiere of ‘Queen & Slim’
Industry’s crème de la crème joined Hollywood stars Melina Matsoukas and Daniel Kaluuya for the Nigerian premiere of ‘Queen and Slim’.
Daniel Kaluuya and Melina Matsoukas at the Nigerian premiere of ‘Queen and Slim’
Daniel Kaluuya and Melina Matsoukas at the Nigerian premiere of ‘Queen and Slim’
On Saturday, February 15, 2020, Nigerian celebrities joined award winning music video director, Melina Matsoukas and ‘Get Out’ star, Daniel Kaluuya at the Filmhouse Cinemas, IMAX Lekki for the Nigerian premiere of the director’s first feature film ‘Queen and Slim’.
The ‘All Black’ themed premiere set the ambiance for the evening of what was to become a spellbinding film experience. In attendance were the Hollywood stars, Dr Sid, Uti Nwachukwu, Osas Ighodaro, Latasha Ngwube, Mocheddah, Ozzy Agu and a host of others.
Shade Ladipo and Dr Sid [ Pulse]
On premiering ‘Queen and Slim’ in Nigeria, Kaluuya revealed that an African premiere of his movies has been a long time dream and Nigeria has been a dream come true.
Written by Emmy-award winning TV writer, Lena Waithe, ‘Queen and Slim’, is based on a black couple Queen ( Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) who become fugitives after Slim guns down a white policeman in self defense. It’s a tragic love story about black love and black excellence.
“Mama Drama” Release Movie Teaser
A brand new Nollywood movie, “Mama Drama” is coming to the cinemas from March 20, 2020, and it promises to be full of drama and laughter.
The movie features different dramas from an owambe versus Eze Indi Igbo mother-in-laws, besties turned worsties, who now have to fight over one child and who should have the final say?.
The cast of the movie includes Osas Ighodaro, Kehainde Bankole, Kunle Remi, Shaffy Bello, Kunle Remi, Femi Adebayo Salami, Opeyemi Aiyeola, Olive Emodi, Rekiya Atta.
Text excluding title courtesy Bellanaija.com
