Monday, August 29, 2016

Three Writers Set for Lagos Reading

Three Writers Set for Artmosphere Lagos Reading

Artmosphere, one of Nigeria’s leading culture, literature and arts events will be hosting three poets in the city of Lagos. The event will involve poetry readings and conversations from the myriad themes written by the poets. Poets, Peter Akinlabi, winner of the Sentinel Quarterly Poetry Competition and author of the Akashic chapbook, A Pagan Place, Niran Okewole, winner of the Muson Prize for Poetry and author of The Hate Artist, and Femi Morgan, arts curator and author of Renegade. The Artmosphere Lagos event is in collaboration with Khalam editions, an imprint of an avant-garde publishing house, Khalam Publishers. It is scheduled for 2PM on Saturday, 3rd of September, 2016 at the Patabah Bookstore, Shop B 18, Adeniran Ogunsanya Shopping Mall, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria. 

Artmosphere has chosen these three poets for their philosophic disposition to persona, racial and global discourses, for their penchant to write outside the orientation of the popular style and artistic crafting. The book parley will be a gathering of Lagos residents and individuals who are interested in open conversations about art, social, political and cosmopolitan issues that affect our lives. 
Artmosphere has curated literature, arts and culture events in Ibadan for the past five years. It has hosted writers, poets, philosophers, social and culture activists in the country, like Niyi Osundare, Tanure Ojaide, Sam Omatseye, Victor Ehikhamenor, Tunde Adegbola, Efe Paul Azino, Aiye Ola Mabiaku, Jumoke Verissimo, Funmi Aluko, Ifeoluwa Adeniyi, Saddiq Dzukogi, Ahmed Maiwada, amongst others. It has also organized the Writer’s Notable Series, occasional readings in honour of exceptional writers and creative mentors in Nigeria, which hosted Tade Ipadeola in Lagos, in 2013. Artmosphere Lagos will offer the Lagos public the arts, culture and literature conversations that has become a staple in the city of Ibadan

Profiles 

Peter Akinlabi 
Peter Akinlabi lives and works in Ilorin. His poems have been published Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Sentinel Quaterly, Sentinel Nigeria, elsewhere lit.org, and Saraba magazine. He was shortlisted for the Brunel Poetry Prize instituted by the University of Brunel, UK, he won the Sentinel Quarterly Poetry Competition in 2009 and the Okigbo Prize for Poetry in 2001. He is a festival guest at the forthcoming Lagos International Poetry Festival 2016.    
Akinlabi’s chapbook, A Pagan Place is part of the Akashic Books’ Chapbook set, which showcases Eight New Generation African Poets edited by Chris Ubani and Kwame Davis in 2015. SarabaMag’s review of the chapbook notes that ‘There is the telescoping metaphors. This is writing in geometric progression. Metaphors illuminating metaphors in a dizzying journey into a maze of symbols. Metonyms do not story too far from which they are stripped…’

Niran Okewole 

Niran Okewole is a poet, playwright and psychiatrist. He won the Muson Festival Poetry Prize in 2002 and 2003, and the Sawuboma MusicJam/Berlin International Poetry Festival in 2008. His poems have appeared in several publications, such as Farafina, Lyrikline.org, African Writing, African Writers.org, Mindfire Review. His first collection of poems, Logarhythms was published in 2005, and his recent work, The Hate Artist, was published in 2015. Okewole was festival guest at the Ake Arts and Book Festival. He is also a festival guest at the forthcoming Lagos International Poetry Festival 2016.  He lives in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
A Review of Niran Okewole’s The Hate Artist on Medium.com said ‘The mind of Niran Okewole is a mobile library of new stories and old ones, his craft is unhindered by rules of watered-down simplification that has become the new order of Nigerian poetry.The Hate Artist  reinvents  and engages cultural knowledge, history and sociopolitical evolutions in the world.  The Hate Artist also codifies simple but important events with new faces playing out old roles without knowing it’. Niran Okewole’s works are published by Khalam Editions, an imprint of Khalam Publishers.

Femi Morgan 

Femi Morgan lives in perpetual transit between Lagos and Ibadan. He is an arts curator and a creative director at a content management firm. He was longlisted for the Poetry Prize in 2015 and nominated for the 2015 Writivism Poetry Workshop in Uganda. His works have been featured in Eureka Street, African Writer, Sentinel Nigeria, Jalada.org, Ink Sweat and Tears and Saraba Magazine. He is the author of the poetry chapbook, Silent Drummings published in 2008, created and co-edited the Sankofa Poetry Chapbook in 2015. 
Renegade is his first collection of Poetry. Renegade is published digitally by Baron’s Café and published in print by Khalam Editions, an imprint of Khalam Publishers. Stephanie Shonekan, music scholar at the University of Missouri, USA, describes Renegade as ‘surprising morsels of imagery and symbolism. He uses words, metaphors and phrasing that paints pictures of realism and fantasy. His references swing widely from the local to the global, from Sango to Skype, and from bitter leaf Soup to Oprah’.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Excuse Me! Let the Conversations Begin, on March 16



ARTMOSPHERE #3, March, 2013 Edition: Conversations  
Artmosphere, your favourite platform for the promotion of creative expressions in literature, music and the arts in Nigeria has been waxing stronger since its inception. The monthly event is organized by WriteHouse Collective, a creative enterprise, culture and arts firm with the support of Ibridge Hub, a collaborative space for people with great ideas to meet, learn and work and a growing league of literary and culture enthusiasts across South-West Nigeria.

In this Book-culture and Lifestyle edition, we consider literature as a vehicle for Conversations. Conversations are meant to stir questions, to challenge preconceived cultures and to create new and civil nuances. The March edition of Artmosphere is tagged Conversations. 

Conversations will play host a crème of writers, Victor Ehikamenor, visual artist, creative communicator and author of Excuse Me, Emmanuel Iduma, literary and technology radical and author of Farad, Emmanuel Uweru Okoh, author of celebrated debut poetry collection, Gardens and Caves, and Kayode Taiwo Olla, author of debut novel, Sprouting Again. 

What does fiction, fictiveness and literature hope to achieve in the social, political and cultural landscape of a nation? This will be the crux of our discourse in this edition. There will also be Poetry, Spoken Word and Music presentations from a longlist of emerging voices.

The March edition of Artmosphere tagged “Conversations” holds on Saturday, March 16, 2013.

Venue: NuStreams Conference and Culture Centre, KM 110 Abeokuta road, off Alalubosa G.R.A., Ibadan.
TIME: 3pm to 6pm


Guests of the Month

Victor Ehikhamenor
Victor Ehikhamenor was born in Nigeria. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Washington Post, AGNI Magazine, Wasafiri, The Literary Magazine, Per Contra and Elsewhere. He is also a news media designer, visual artist and photographer whose art has been widely exhibited internationally. His artworks and photography have been used for many notable book, magazine and journal covers. 

Ehikhamenor graduated from Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma with a B.A. degree in English and Literary Studies. He holds a M.Sc. and a MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. He is the author of the acclaimed widely-outsized portraiture of a nation, Excuse Me

Emmanuel Iduma
Emmanuel Iduma works mainly as a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and has won awards and received recognition in each genre. Emmanuel is the co-founder of Iroko Publishing, which has published Saraba as an electronic magazine since 2009.

In 2011, Emmanuel participated in the Invisible Borders Trans-African Photography Initiative, a road trip from Lagos to Ethiopia aimed at creating photographic and written material that addresses Africa from a more individualistic viewpoint. His debut novel, Farad has been widely likened to Plutarch Lives, as the narrator pieces together shades of personalities, events into a coordinated web of fatalistic accidents. He is working on a second novel. 

Emmanuel Uweru Okoh
Emmanuel Uweru Okoh is a Nigeria- based writer and author of Gardens and Caves, a poetry collection. His works have been published in NEXT, Saraba Magazine, and Sentinel Nigeria. His works had also featured in Naijastories.com, ITCH Magazine and Mad Hatters’ Review of Iceland. Emmanuel lives and works in Lagos.

Kayode Taiwo Olla
Kayode Taiwo Olla is a graduate of English and Literary studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State. During his undergraduate years, He played active roles in both religious and literary spheres. He was known for his dramatic poetry within and outside the university campus. He also served as Editor in charge of productions, at the Association of Nigerian Authors, Obafemi Awolowo University Chapter.

Taiwo Olla has evolved by also writing prose. His debut novel, Sprouting Again (2011) was published by Syncterface Media, a publishing house with operations in London. His first collection of poems will soon be published.  


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

TherapyHouse, one cool and helpful blog blog I have been reading



Imagine, I have become less conscious of other blogs after I stumbled on TherapyHouse. As a Nigerian blogger and creative I get into a lot of stress issues. When I am done for the day, I take a second list at my checklist and I say " can we have a 24 hour night time"-never.

I fall on my bed like a log of wood-I am stressed, extremely and mentally stressed after the days job.

Whenever I wake up, I get up with flicks of uncoordinated dreams.

I have been going to online sites trying to connect with stress management ideas that have a Nigerian in mind. Luckily, I found Therapyhouse  and I am just glad. I have been following their posts religiously and I think they are pretty good.
What they do is to provide stress management info for you,create awareness about the things professionals, sportsmen, house wives, should avoid or employ in order to live a healthier physical health.

I took a small leap to meet the blogger, Tinu Aremu-she is a consultant physiotherapist and a down to earth lover of children with physical challenges. What baffles me most is that she is just up to no good with simple expressions-she takes you as a brother almost immediately,and that really put my nerves in order as I approached her.

One thing I left with is that she told me that a lot of physical challenges faced by adults when they retire is as a result of their lifestyle, and series of mental and bodily stress.

I asked her how she helps manage the stress of consulting, whether she works hard and plays hard like the rest of us. She said that she spends quality time with children with challenges. She said they are a very creative bunch, very boisterous and ready to learn.  

I am having a field day with online and offline therapy with Tinu now. Isn't that cool?

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

"Loving Life" Artmosphere's Presents FEB Edition




Artmosphere February, 2013 Edition: Loving Life 

It’s the second edition of Artmosphere, the quintessential music, poetry, performance and arts event in Nigeria. This edition is made possible by WriteHouse Collective, a creative enterprise, culture and arts firm, and Ibridge Hub, a place for people with great ideas to meet, learn and work. It is a creative and collaborative environment where young entrepreneurs and innovators in the city of Ibadan can bring their ideas to reality.
This edition of the monthly Book Culture and Lifestyle event suits the season of love but presents love in a multifaceted and dynamic way. No wonder the February edition is tagged “Loving Life”. The curator, ‘Femi Morgan, notes “Love is the stretch of words, insufficient for describing Life, yet Love brings forth life. Love is not despair, it is giving and forgiving. It is faith and grace; it is pleasant prejudice and subtle worship. Love means different things to different people.” 

The February edition of Artmosphere tagged “Loving Life” holds on Saturday, February 16, 2013
Venue: NuStreams Conference Centre, KM 110 Abeokuta road, Alalubosa GRA Extension, Ibadan.
TIME: 3pm to 6pm

This edition plays host to Tade Ipadeola, renowned poet and winner of the Delphic Laurel in Poetry 2009, an award known as the enigmatic Olympic prize for poets around the world. The event will also feature Servio Gbadamosi, spoken word poet, lyricist and entrepreneur, and Michael Azusa, spoken word poet from the University of Ibadan, amongst others. 

Kent Oxygen, and Michael Obot, seasoned alternative music acts will also be at “Loving Life” to spice the event with love songs and the nostalgic songs of the oldies. 

At “Loving Life”, we will be officially unveiling the electronic versions of Tade Ipadeola’s new literary offering, The Sahara Testament. The collection of poetry will be available and compactable to the Ipad, Nook, Kindle and e-reading public in Nigeria. WriteHouse Collective has acquired the authority to make it available in Nigeria, in order to ensure that Nigerians can purchase the book without any foreign exchange hassles. Ipadeola wrote The Sahara Testament over the space of seven years. During his writing, he challenged his muse by getting acquainted with the culture, arts, life and living of peoples across the Sahara desert. This collection promises to become a definitive work of literature that transcends language and race.  


Tade Ipadeola 
Tade Ipadeola, a Nigerian, was born in 1970. He has published two volumes of poetry-A Time of Signs (2000) and The Rain Fardel (2005). He has also published short stories and essays. In 2009, he won the Delphic Laurel in poetry with his poem “Songbird” in Jeju, South Korea. His third volume of poetry, The Sahara Testaments-a sequence of 1000 quatrains on the Sahara is his latest work.
Tade Ipadeola is currently serving as the PEN (Nigeria Centre) President.
Tade lives in Ibadan where he practices law. 

                                                      Michael Asuzu 

Michael Asuzu is a spoken word poet and student of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ibadan. Michael believes in demystifying and making poetry accessible to a wider audience. He brings his words to life by infusing the foundational elements of pop and hip hop culture into his poetry performances.



  Servio Gbadamosi
Servio Gbadamosi is a spoken word artiste, lyricist and creative entrepreneur. He has earned his corporate experience as Human Resource personnel, Art organizer and as a Social Media executive. He is currently the Managing Partner/Head of Research and Development at WriteHouse Collective. His poems have appeared in different national dailies and in Crossroads, an anthology of poems chosen from across Africa and the diaspora in memory of Christopher Okigbo.  He is the unpublished author of the viral collection, A Tributary in Servitude. He will be performing a medley and some poems from his upcoming collection of love poems. 


Music Acts

Kent Oxygen 
Hassan Kehinde Daniel, Kent Oxygen is an African folk and Jazz artist. He is a lyrically rich, comedic and inspiring songwriter. The graduate of Computer Science and Statistics from University of Nigeria, Nssuka, is fecund in the use the acoustic guitar, piano and drums. Kent Oxygen started his career in the 90’s where he rose as music director at his church. 

OluMichael  
Micheal Obot AKA Olumicheal is a song writer and singer. He reaches out to his audience using the soul genre. 
Obot is a graduate of Accountancy but he prefers the music counts of the piano. He is currently working on his album, and has already recorded singles such as “Show Me Love”, “Only You Can Make Your Dreams Come True”, “Aiye Ole”, “Eledumare”, and more

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Time Lines; Artmosphere, music, poetry and arts event in January.




Artmosphere Jan Edition; Time Lines
WriteHouse Collective, a creative enterprise, culture and arts firm convenes the January edition of Artmosphere, the quintessential music, poetry, performance and arts event in Nigeria.  The monthly Book Culture and Lifestyle event, is here with its January edition, tagged “Time Lines.” This month’s event is scheduled for the 19th of January at ibridgehub, Nustreams Conference Centre, KM 110 Abeokuta RD, Alalubosa GRA Ext, Ibadan. The leading music, poetry and arts event will is slated for Saturday, 19th of January, 2013, time is 2.00pm-6.00pm.


Artmosphere; Time Lines will play host to Funmi Aluko, prolific womanist poet and internationally acclaimed writer, Atilola Morounfolu, spoken word artiste, creative entrepreneur and author of Antonyms of a Mirage. The event will also feature Nwachukwu Egbunnike, editor, blogger   and author of Dyed Thoughts, and Rasaq Malik Gbolahan, home grown poet. There will beautiful music performances, and free books for early comers.
Time Lines will also play host to the announcement of winners of the creative writing prize in prose, poetry and drama categories. Creative Alliance, a firm with a shared philosophy of promoting literature and literariness announced its’ writing competition mid last year through several art platforms and radio programmes in different parts of the country.  

‘Funmi Aluko

Olufunmi Aluko is a relentless writer who has made her presence felt as a member of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Women Writers of Nigeria and as the current Treasurer of Pen Essays and Novelists, Nigeria Centre.
Aluko has cut her teeth as a journalist with stints at the Comet Newspaper (now The Nation), Sun Newspaper and National Interest Newspaper. Her interest in deep social malaise has seen her work as a social worker with a couple of Non-Government Organisations before coordinating her own. Pathway Initiatives is an NGO concerned with the aspirations and the challenges of venerable children.
She has had her poems published in several Newspapers, Art Journals and Anthologies in Nigeria. Some of this anthologies and publications are Lagos of the Poets – An anthology on the city of Lagos, Ashes and Diamond, Confluence - (ANA Anthologies), A Melody of Stones – (A 2003 publication of PEN Nigeria Centre),Wings of dawn – A publication of The British ,Council Nigeria and Women Writers of Nigeria (WRITA), Position International Arts Review amongst others.  
Aluko has participated in the Poetry segments of Black Heritage Festival and the Play, Laughter, Arts and You (PLAY)2009 and 2010 editions.

Atilola Moronfolu
Atilola Moronfolu is a multi-faceted entrepreneur and one of Nigeria’s grand Spoken word artists.  Moronfolu has performed in popular spoken word events like Word Up, Unchained voices, and reads regularly at the US Consulate literary program, Read it Loud.
Moronfolu’s writings can be found on the blog www.hattylolla.com ,other blogs and other youtube links from which she puts Nigeria on the map. She also edits books for fellow writers and bloggers and gets them ready for publishing. 
A graduate of University of Lagos, she studied Computer Engineering. She became one of the youngest in her set as she gained admission at the age 21.   She started consulting with PricewaterhouseCoopers and won the PwC Experience Community Champion award for the year 2011, and the Most Different and Unusual staff of the year 2011.
Moronfolu left PWC to pursue her creative writing passions. She is the author of the author of Antonyms of a Mirage, the now popularly trending collection of Drama, Prose, and Poetry in Nigeria. She is work on a full-length novel.

Nwachukwu Egbunike
Egbunike transcends from the sciences to the arts-a brilliant writer and essayist. He is the author of Dyed Thoughts, a blunt, satirical and critical book of conversation on the country. He studied Medical Laboratory Sciences (specializing in Hematology and Medical Microbiology) in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; and later Communication and Language Arts in the University of Ibadan, respectively.
Born in Enugu, Nwachukwu was a member of Orient Literary Club. In 1997, his poem “Help” was published in Okike: an African Journal of New Writing, (Number 37, June, p 73). From 1996 to 1997, he was a cub-reporter in the Enugu Bureau of National Light and Spokesman. He briefly studied German in Goethe Institute Lagos. He was formerly Commissioning Editor in Spectrum Books and an intern in the features desk of the Nigerian Tribune – all in Ibadan.
His essays have been published in the Guardian, ThisDay, Vivantes Viva, Buisnessday, Evans School Supplement and the Nigerian Tribune respectively. On the blogosphere he has written posts for Fast Editions, Mercatornet, Nigeria Plus and Nigeria Village Square respectively. In 2011 his peer-reviewed book chapter “New Media and Health Communication: Communication Strategies in Malaria Control in Nigeria” featured in Wachanga Ndirangu D (ed), Cultural Identity and New Communication Technologies: Political, Ethnic and Ideological Implications (Hershey PA: IGI Global, USA, pp 197-212).
Nwachukwu has been blogging in Feathers Project since 2006.  In 2011, he became an author with Global Voices (an international community of bloggers). He is currently the Executive Editor of Feathers and Ink, Ibadan.

Rasaq Malik Gbolahan
Rasaq Malik Gbolahan, is a student of the English literature, University of Ibadan. He writes poetry. His poems have been published in the Sun, Blueprint Newspaper and several literary pages.
His poems have been lauded by WriteHouse Collective as ' new flashes of a brilliant voice' Rasaq believes we can change the world through words.


Remember
Artmosphere: Time Lines holds on Saturday, 19th January, 2012.
VENUE: ibridgehub, Nustreams Conference Centre, KM 110 Abeokuta RD, Alalubosa GRA Ext, Ibadan.
TIME: 2.00pm-6.00pm

For more information contact, Femi 08181880563| Servio 08061139735
It’s an avenue to connect, enjoy, relax with lots of music and art performances.
Free books for early comers
This event is powered by iBridge Hub | Creative Alliance | WriteHouse Collective

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Artmosphere's City of Words

Artmosphere, a monthly poetry, music and arts events will play host to Hyginus Ekwazi, Ayo Olofintuade, Babatunde Ogunseinde and Dtone in its march edition. The march edition according to the organisers "is a special" tagged City of Words (A tribute to the City (Ibadan) that has produced so many literary giants and the intellectual headquarters of Nigeria).
City of Words is slated for the 31st of March 2012, at Cafe Chrysalis, 23 Ilaro Street, Old Bodija(Behind 411 Club), Ibadan. Hyginus Ekwazi is scholar at the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan. He is a film critic and the author of the Award winning children novella,I Have Miles to Walk Before I Sleep, winner of the ANA Cadbury Prize 2010.He has won the Association of Nigerian Authors’ Poetry prize with almost all of his four poetry collectionsDr. Ekwuazi’s poetry collections are Love Apart (2007); Dawn into Moonlight (2008); The Monkey’s Eyes (2009); and That Other Country (2010). He is a famous critic of the Nollywood Movie Industry.Hyginus was also managing at the Nigerian Film Coporation in 1998. He has also written innumerable papers on the Nigerian and African film, one of such is in the Africa Media Review Vol. 5 No. 2.1991 ©African Council for Communication Education Towards the Decolonization of the African Film by Hyginus Ekwuazi* Ayodele Olofintuade is one of Nigeria's creative writers. She is the author of Eno's Story, a children's story book that was shortlisted for the NNLG Prize for Fiction in 2011. She is also a creative Writing teacher, an editor and a reviewer at the Daily Times NG. Ayodele has several works in progress one of which is a sci-fi novel. Dtone Martins is an alternative and Jazz artiste ( A live Performing Artiste) who has been in the music scene for sometime now. He is referred to in some Lagos circles as the progenitor of modern love songs spiced with tradition. Babatunde Ogunseinde is an alternative music act who has performed in different literary events across the country. He has also perfromed alongside Beautiful Nubia, an afrocentric music icon who is also a poet. Babatunde usually brings back nostalgic feelings with his music. Both passionate and energetic music acts will be at Artmosphere, this month. Spoken word Poets, Servio Gbadamosi and Femi Fairchild Morgan will be the anchors of the event.