First Kwara Book and Arts Festival Begins Today: Catch all the Scoop
It is festival season and the maiden KWABAFEST is joining the train with a 3-day program which runs from Wednesday, 24th August to Friday, 26th August. Here is everything we know.
Kwara Book and Arts Festival or KWABAFEST is organised by a poetry collective known as Poetry In A Million Voices (PIAM). The festival’s first edition is themed Stories From Scratch, which according to the collective’s convener, Absdulbasit Hussein captures the essence of the festival, “spinning our stories ourselves, stories that talk about beginnings, stories that are unexploited.”
It is a three-day hybrid program comprising of virtual and in-person events.
The first day, 24th August is virtual and on the line-up is a panel discussion themed Where We Are: Writers in the Land of Emboldened Fears. The panel is aimed at discussing how society affects literature and the role of writers in a society laden by fears. The discussion is slated for Wednesday, 24th August, 8–9:30PM WAT and will be moderated by Nigerian literary curator, Uchenna Emelife. Panelists include Nigerian poets, Rasaq Malik Gbolahan and Funmi Gaji, and Nigerian author and book distrubutor, Aisha Umar. Meeting link here.
Day 2 of the program, 25th August will be the festival’s opening ceremony. To kick-off 9AM, the ceremony will endure until 4PM where there will be an evening of performances as well as the staging of Isiaka Aliagan’s Oba Mama. The venue of the opening ceremony is the Kwara State Library while the Evening of Performances will be at the Kwara State Council for Arts and Culture.
The third and final day of the program will be the closing ceremony. To begin as early as 8:30AM on Friday 26th August, just as the previous day, the day promises to be packed with a lot of enticing art and literary activities. There will be a poetry slam, dances, cultural displays, fashion and art exhibitions and much more.
Do not miss KWABAFEST for anything. Book and Arts Festivals are always sights to behold. Follow KWABAFEST to keep tabs.
