#ALitFest18: Abuja Literary Society organises first ever literary festival

Abuja Literary Society launched the Abuja Literary and Arts Festival in July 2018 to commemorate its 20th year of existence.

Nigeria is establishing itself as a hub for African literature, with the emergence and success of Literary Festivals all around the country.

The annual success of the Ake Book and Arts Festival and the just concluded Abuja Literary and Arts Festival (ALitFest18) proves that Nigeria is slowly becoming a centre for book and art lovers all over Africa.

For almost 20 years, the Abuja Literary Society (ALS), founded by Victor Anoliefo, has brought together writers, aspiring writers, book-lovers, intellectuals, and generally anyone with an interest in the literary arts to relax, share ideas, and grow their craft in a creative atmosphere. The Literary Society gathers every Friday of the month, where activities such as open-mic poetry sessions, book readings, book discussions, literary workshops, take place.

To mark its 20th anniversary, ALS organized the first ever ALitFest18 which lasted a total of three days, from July 5-7 at the Abuja Exhibition Pavilion, Abuja, Nigeria.

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The festival, themed 'Nigeria to the world', featured book readings, panel discussions, masterclasses, poetry grand slam, nature hike, food fair, writing and arts competitions and lots more.

Nigeria to the world

Championed by young persons, the event was so named with an aim to showcase the best of Nigerian art and literature while analyzing the different sectors of the creative industry to better understand how to further it.

With the presence of major book vendors such as Roving Heights, Cassava republic, and Adam’s Pages, a festival bookstore was set up where fantastic books were sold, and at discount prices too. At the same time, a reading lounge was in place for book lovers to borrow, read and swap books.

A huge part of the festival was the art exhibition where I can draw Africa gave talented artists the chance to exhibit their beautiful art works.

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The festival also involved panel discussions around the different facets of Nigerian arts including theatre conversations, Spoken Word poetry as a career, adapting Nigerian literature to film, etc. The theme's panel in itself was a conversation on how to better tell the Nigerian story using the Arts. On the panel were young artists – musician Jon Ogah and Visual artist, Sen. Bernard Caron, alongside award winning Nigerian writer, Ukamaka Olisakwe.

There were also book readings from notable industry heavy weights such as Segun Adeniyi, with his bestselling book ‘Against the run of Play’, as well as Ayisha Osori and her ground breaking memoir, ‘Love does not win elections’. Both of them appeared on a scintillating panel where they discussed writing about politics, especially in the lead up to the general elections in less than 8 months.

 

For the aspiring writers, ALS, in conjunction with the British council for Arts and Culture, organized a poetry and prose masterclass, facilitated by famous poets, Dike Chukwumerije, Bash Amuneni and Su’eddie Agema. A Creative Hustle program was also organized to better expose the upstarts in the vagaries of the industry. This was anchored by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, the NLNG prize for prose fiction winner in 2016 for his book ‘Seasons of Crimson Blossoms’, as well as Anwuli Ojogwu, co-founder of Narrative Landscape, and Musa Ikhilor, the ALS Book Club anchor.

Other writers such as Layla Ali Othman, Othuke Ominiabohs, Demola Adeniran, Michael Afenfia were present to sign autographs as well as engage with fans, other writers and aspiring writers.

 

Notable bloggers such as Ono Bello, Noble Igwe and Eketi Edima Ette were also present to discuss blogging and share their rich founts of knowledge.

Attendees were also given the opportunity to cheer at the Poetry Grand Slam with contestants coming from as far as Maiduguri and Ibadan, to contest for the grand prize of N200,000 and a chance to represent Nigeria in an international Poetry competition in Chad.

The curtains were drawn on the festival with a fantastic performance by Dike Chukwumerije for his acclaimed theatre show, Made in Nigeria.

Hopefully, we get to see #ALitFest19!

from pulse.ng - Nigeria's entertainment & lifestyle platform online