Bookartville (2024)

22/03/2023

Rhodes-Vivour has put fire on Sanwo-Olu’s heels

https://bookartville.com/rhodes-vivour-has-put-fire-on-sanwo-olus-heels/

22/03/2023

NAIJA Tour- Post Elections Getaways: New Nike Gallery Arrives Abuja; Francophonie: French Food, Art & Comedy; Self Care Weekend in VI; Mountain Safari in Ekiti; Easter Boat Cruise in Lekki; Sun up Watching in Tarkwa Beach; Kayaking in Ikoyi; Jos Parley for “Food of the North”; A Book Walk to Ikeja; Outdoors in Bauchi; Ibadan’s Comic Con…

https://bookartville.com/naija-tour-post-elections-getaways-new-nike-gallery-arrives-abuja-francophonie-french-food-art-self-care-weekend-in-vi-mountain-safari-in-ekiti-easter-boat-cruise-in-lekki-sun-up-wat/

22/03/2023

Election Ends, Culture Returns-Writers Residency Open Call; Ndibe Reads from ‘Arrows’; Live Classicals in Ikoyi; Kolawole Reads at CORA’s BookTrek; Yinka Davies Shuts it Down at Britcoun; Herstory: Young Filmmakers Invited to Submit; ‘The Witness’ on Stage at Terra; Steve James’ ‘Handcuff’ at The Theatre; ‘Everything is Sampled’ for Launch; Paintings on View at Soto; The Nigeria Lit Prize invites Entries…

https://bookartville.com/election-ends-culture-returns-writers-residency-open-call-ndibe-reads-from-arrows-live-classicals-in-ikoyi-kolawole-reads-at-coras-booktrek-yinka-davies-shuts-it-down-a-2/

22/08/2022

Osofisan Reads Kolera Kolej at Booksellers

Adélékè Adéẹ̀kọ́ is continuing the reading tour of Kolej Onigba Meji, his Yoruba translation of Femi Osofisan’s Kolera Kolej, an uproariously cynical take on the Nigerian project through the lens of a University administration grappling with an epidemic on the campus in the early years of Nigeria’s independence.

A professor of English at Ohio University, Adéẹ̀kọ́ will be sparring with Osofisan for the second time in a week.

This Thursday evening June 14, 2022, at 4pm, they will be reading from the “two books” at Booksellers Store, on Magazine Road in Jericho, the particular area of Ibadan that was once the hub of Nigerian publishing.

Last Sunday (July 10, 2022) at the Roving Heights Bookstore in Oniru, the not-so- scenic waterfront and potential tourist, “holiday precinct’ of Lagos city, the two of them read a few English and Yoruba chapters back-to-back.

It was clear from the readings what Adéẹ̀kọ́, an English literature scholar with keen enthusiasm for spoken Yoruba Language, saw in Osofisan’s Kolera Kolej. The translation of the book affords him the opportunity to read in high pitched, satirical bombast, that Yoruba broadcasters of the 1960s-1980s were known for.

Published in 1973, Kolera Kolej was one of the earliest statements of arrival by the generation of Nigerian writers who came after the Soyinka-Okigbo-Clark-Achebe generation.

Reading it now and hearing it read and discussed one could see that the book set the tone for the many works of drama, poetry and prose that Osofisan, now widely acclaimed as the country’s most performed playwright, has come to be known for.

22/08/2022

The reviled British bureaucrat who helped shape South Africa

Milner: Last of the Empire Builders, by Richard Steyn (Jonathan Ball)

It’s tempting to compare the South Africa of 1902 (not yet a united state) with the country almost a hundred years later in 1994. In both cases the people had emerged from traumatic events: in the first from war and in the second from apartheid.

In both cases, the nation was in need of urgent repair; there had been physical and human devastation across the land. When the Boer War (South African War, Anglo-Boer War) ended, the earth had been scorched and thousands of women and children confined to unsanitary camps where disease killed tens of thousands. Many thousands of black people also died in British camps. At the end of apartheid, millions who had been denied their basic rights, and forced into urban and rural ghettoes needed to be uplifted and granted equality and the illusion of freedom….Visit our website via the link on the bio to read full article.

22/08/2022

Goodman Gallery

Life has become a foreign language
14 July - 3 September 2022 Goodman Gallery Cape Town Namoda's first exhibition with Goodman Gallery Cape Town will feature a new series of paintings produced by the artist during a
residency in the city earlier this year.

Featured images in GIF: Life has become a foreign language, Cassi Namoda, Oil on linen, 2022 | The Drowning Woman (ode to Goya), Cassi Namoda, Oil on linen, 2022 | Young Wife, Cassi Namoda, Oil on linen, 2022.
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JOHANNESBURG

163 JAN SMUTS AVENUE
PARKWOOD
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

[email protected]
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CAPE TOWN

37A SOMERSET ROAD
DE WATERKANT
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

[email protected]
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LONDON

26 CORK STREET
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
W1S 3ND

[email protected]

22/08/2022

Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? has finally, finally arrived in Lagos, Nigeria!

All the waiting and tracking – from the UK to Durban (where it was stuck for six weeks), and then to Nigeria – has culminated in its arrival at our Lagos office.

Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? will be available in bookstores by this weekend. Please send your orders to [email protected].
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UNBOXED: Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?

Autographed Wahala For You!
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More good news…
During the just-concluded Wahala Book Tour in Lagos, Nikki May signed copies of her book for those who were at the book readings.

If you were not at the readings, don’t fret. We got you covered. We have signed copies of Wahala for you to buy and brag about.

To get one or more, please send an email to [email protected] or visit our website.

Limited copies available, so hurry!
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Buy WAHALA for N5,000
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In other news…
A Shred of Fear by Uche Nwokedi comes to you this August from Narrative Landscape Press.

Uche Nwokedi is an accomplished poet and author. He is the writer and producer of the award-winning production, Kakadu the Musical, a story of “Lagos in the time of infinite possibilities”, and the successful M-Net Africa legal TV drama series, E.V.E – Audi Alteram Partem. He also serves as the editor-in-chief and publisher of Nigerian Oil and Gas Cases. A leading commercial lawyer in his professional life, he was conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2007.

Nwokedi lives in Lagos where he carries on his legal practice.

Anticipate!

22/08/2022

Sign Writing: Obi Azuru, Ebun Alesh and Paul Adams

As I start to think about the history of sign writing in Lagos, I asked my mother to tell me about Kunle sign, the man I have come to identify with sign writing. In his days everything was manual before the Odugbesans came on the scene. As far as my youthful mind is concerned, they brought a difference to sign writing. Their company could write on any surface.

Since I have scanty material on Kunle Sign my mind went to another graphic artist I related with from a distance. We called him packager, but his people named him Obi Azuru. I wonder where he is today. His office was next to the dark room at Ogunlana Drive when the most handsome men and most beautiful women, the class of Stella Apiafi, worked for Boy Jala.

Obi Azuru produced cartoons and also worked on front covers. I watched him up close move from one art shop to the other looking for graphics to purchase. In those days too, the graphic artists hunted for fonts and cut and pasted them carefully. In the same team was ever smiling Ebun Aleshiloye, this brother had a wicked humor and a deep foresight about social happenings. I was lucky to have photographed his wedding in Lagos before Abuja snatched him from Lagos. Ebun too was a gift of a different sort. No editor could rush him to produce anything, he simply took his time. In his days at the Guardian, people like Olatunji Dare, and other cerebral lots, were his friends.

I will like to write about these two graphic artists someday.

There is no need writing about Pastor Paul Adams-Paul as he has written his own story himself. He was the third leg of the tripod in that little office of creative heads. At no time could anyone know what was in his mind. He laughed out loud at the world but took his chores seriously. You would see that he worked like an efficient machine with no time to waste. I did not know him as someone who hung around for small talk.

All three men have morphed into something else. I doubt if any of them still do cover designs or create artistic works. If you know about these wonderful souls and can update me about their new journeys in… Read more on our website.

Link on the bio

22/08/2022

$450 million Hong Kong Palace Museum opens with trove of Forbidden City treasures
Beijing’s Palace Museum, located in the heart of the Forbidden City, contains the world’s largest collection of Chinese art, spanning nearly 5,000 years of history. Now, more than 900 of those treasures are on display at the new Hong Kong Palace Museum — a “gift” from the central government to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule.
While there’s nothing overtly political within its collection — by modern standards, at least — the museum sparked controversy when it was first announced by Hong Kong’s outgoing leader Carrie Lam in late 2016, partly due to the apparent lack of public consultation before the project was green-lit….Visit our website via the link on the bio to read full article

22/08/2022

Shyllon to Become a “Doctor”, the Second Time in 10 Years

Yemisi Shyllon, the benefactor of the sprawling Yemisi Shyllon Museum (YMS) at the Pan Atlantic University, in the east of Lagos, will be honoured with a Doctorate Degree at the University in December 2022.

A billionaire engineer, lawyer, and philanthropist, Shyllon is a prince of Ake in Abeokuta, a Nigerian city distinguished by the number of distinguished National leaders who call it their native land.

“I have received notice of the conferment of Doctor of letters degree(D.Litt) to me, by the prestigious Pan Atlantic University, in Lagos, Shyllon, who is never shy of talking about his long list of achievements, wrote to friends via his WhatsApp handle.

For good measure, he added: “This will be my second conferred D.Litt degree award, following the one since previously conferred on me, by the University of Port-Harcourt in the year 2012”.

He then concludes: “I look forward to being formally decorated at the Pan Atlantic University convocation ceremonies in December 2022”.

22/08/2022

Irie Vibes Heads for Ilashe Beach

The annual reggae concert Irie Vibes is moving out of Freedom Park for the first time

It will be at Ilashe Beach

The concert will be plugged into Pop WKNDR, a series of activities set to take place all weekends of August and September at the Pop Beach in Ilashe, ff the Lagos-Epe Expressway in the east of Lagos.

Shimmers Services, a Tour/Travel operations run by Lucia Ikediashi, is partnering with Pop Beach Club on one of the weekends (August 26th-28th, 2022). It is on that weekend that Irie Vibes Fest 2022 will happen.

Irie Vibes Fest has always been linked to Cervical Cancer awareness and part of the reason for taking the party to Ilashe is “to get free cervical cancer screenings to more women especially those in the Ilashe community and also those who will attend the event”.

Irie Vibes Fest was founded by Lucia Ikediashi, owner of Shimmers Services, in partnership with 09.16 Enterprises owned by Omotola Ibeh. “This reggae+entertainment +free screenings started out as a Halloween Party called Spook Out Cancer in 2012 and has been different themed parties (Silent Party, Halloween Party, Pool Party) till we started it as Irie Vibes Fest in 2018 at Freedom Park. And it has been a part of the events at Lagos Fringe since 2018”, Ikediashi explains.

“This initiative is in honour of my late mum, Isioma Grace Ikediashi who died of cervical cancer in 2009”, she adds, her eyes misty.

Shimmers will arrange for boats to the venue according to the preference of the guests interested in attending either Banana boats or speed boats.

Ikediashi says: “This will be the first time Irie Vibes Fest will take place at the Beach. (Its a touring event to reach many women so we aim to take this initiative to as many spots as we can get women to attend.) As long as whoever is requesting for Irie Vibes Fest will sponsor the cost of the doctors fee/welfare/Reggae entertainment.

“The doctors charge a fee of N4000 per woman and we have to pay for at least 50 women for them to come to the venue”.

22/08/2022

Chika Okeke-Agulu confirmed as Slade Professor for 2022/23

We are delighted to announce that Chika Okeke-Agulu has been confirmed as the Slade Professor of Fine Art for 2022/23.

Chika Okeke-Agulu, an artist, critic and art historian, is Director of the Program in African Studies and Professor of African and African Diaspora art in the Department of African American Studies, and Department of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University. Born in Umuahia, Nigeria, Okeke-Agulu earned an MFA (Painting) from the University of Nigeria, and PhD (Art History) from Emory University. For further details, please see here.

Professor Okeke-Agulu will be presenting his series of six lectures in Hilary term 2023…. Click the link on the bio to read full article

22/08/2022

AIFA READING SOCIETY PARTNERS WITH SHELL NIGERIA EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION COMPANY LIMITED (SNEPCO), NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION (NNPC) AND ITS CO-VENTURE PARTNERS TO DONATE EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS AND INAUGURATE A READING CLUB AT EKO AKETE GRAMMAR SCHOOL IN LAGOS

AIFA Reading Society, in its mission to achieve sustainable educational development by promoting literacy and a reading culture, partnered with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) / Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) and its co-venture partners – ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies and Agip to promote reading culture and literacy among students in Eko Akete Grammar School on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Through this partnership, textbooks and notebooks amongst other educational materials were donated to the school and its students. To sustain the interest in reading sparked by the donations, the partners launched a Book Reading Club which will be supported by Women in Shell (WIS) volunteers.

The Representatives of NNPC/SNEPCo, Lagos State Ministry of Education and the Education District III, Directors of AIFA Reading Society, the School’s Administrators, and members of the Junior School Parents’ Forum attended the event.

The event which kicked off at 1pm had Mrs. Nireti Adebayo, a Director of the Society, give the opening remark where she reiterated the Society’s commitment to its mission to achieve sustainable educational development by promoting literacy and a reading culture. She advised the students of Eko Akete Grammar School to take advantage of the Society’s opportunities to improve themselves as the future of Nigeria lies with them.

Also speaking at the event, the Strategy, Planning and Operations Manager, Corporate Relations Nigeria, Mr. Tunde Adams, who represented the Managing Director SNEPCo, applauded SNEPCo’s commitment to improve the quality education in Nigeria as education takes the place of pride in the list of social investment activities of the company… Read more on our website.

Olu Amoda: ‘Rite of Passage, Recent Sculpture’, at The Skoto GallerySKOTO GALLERY529 West 20th Street. 5FLinfo@skotogall...

22/08/2022

Olu Amoda: ‘Rite of Passage, Recent Sculpture’, at The Skoto Gallery

SKOTO GALLERY
529 West 20th Street. 5FL
[email protected] www.skotogallery.com Tel: 212-352 8058

Olu Amoda
Rite of Passage
A found-object sculptural musing on two plays:
Ruined by Lynn Nottage and Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka
June 23 – October 1, 2022

Skoto Gallery is pleased to present “Rite of Passage”, an exhibition of welded steel and mixed media sculptures by the Nigerian-born sculptor Olu Amoda. This will be his third solo exhibition at the gallery. The reception is on Thursday, June 23, 6-8pm.

Over the last three decades Olu Amoda’s work continues his rigorous exploration of an independent system of thinking in art-making and design principles that consciously strike a balance between material, form and technique. A prolific artist with a varied and dynamic oeuvre that include sculptures, furniture design, murals and multimedia installations, he has consistently demonstrated an uncanny ability to focus on a given theme and generate a cohesive and vigorous body of work, a veritable product of intense and deep reflection.

Characterized by an open, process-oriented form of engagement that explore what it means to be an artist working with the public in a globalized world, and what makes a relevant socially engaged practice, the body of work in Rite of Passage consist of sculptural musings by Olu Amoda on two significant plays – “Ruined” by the American playwright and Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage and “Death and the King’s Horseman” by the Nigerian playwright and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.

Lynn Nottage’s Ruined (premiered 2008, Chicago, USA) is set in a seedy bar in a small mining town close by a rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congolese government soldiers and rebels broken into factions all patronize Mama Nadi’s bar and her “girls,” the women contracted to her because they were run out of their own families after kidnapping and repeated
savage r**e by one of the warring parties… Read more on our website.

22/08/2022

British Columbia poet Tolu Oloruntoba wins $65K Griffin Poetry Prize for The Junta of Happenstance
Surrey, B.C.-based poet Tolu Oloruntoba is the Canadian winner of the 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize for his collection The Junta of Happenstance. The $65,000 prize is one of the richest awards in the world for a book of poetry.

The Junta of Happenstance is an exploration of disease, both medical and emotional. It explores family dynamics, social injustice, the immigrant experience, economic anxiety and the nature of suffering…Click the link on our bio to read full article

22/08/2022

The Orphanage wins the EBRD Literature Prize 2022

• €20,000 prize split evenly between the writer and translator

• Prize recognises best work of literary fiction from the EBRD’s regions translated into English

The Orphanage, a novel written by Serhiy Zhadan and translated from Ukrainian by Reilly Costigan-Humes and Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler, has won the 2022 EBRD Literature Prize.

The €20,000 prize will be split between the author and translator.

This is now the fifth year of the EBRD Literature Prize which celebrates the very best in translated literature from the nearly 40 countries where the Bank invests: from central and eastern Europe to Central Asia, the Western Balkans and the southern and eastern Mediterranean…Click the link on our bio to read full article

22/08/2022

The Noir Series Shine At AKO Caine Prize 2022

The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing announced its long-awaited 2022 shortlist, thus offering another significant opportunity to discover the best in African short story writing that many may have missed over the last year, and is a true showcase of the talent and diversity that the continent holds.

Naturally, this announcement is something we eagerly await each year, ready to dive into a new crop of stories. However, what makes this year extra special is that three of the five shortlisted stories were published by Cassava Republic Press in the UK and Commonwealth countries!

‘The 2022 entries represented a staggering feast. It was a testament to the vibrancy, variety and splendour of creative talent among writers of African descent.’
Okey Ndibe, Chair of Judges
The shortlisted writers are:

• Joshua Chizoma (Nigeria) for Collector of Memories,

• Nana-Ama Danquah (Ghana) for When a Man Loves a Woman

• Hannah Giorgis (Ethiopia) for A Double-Edged Inheritance

• Idza Luhumyo (Kenya) for Five Years Next Sunday

• Billie McTernan (Ghana) for The Labadi Sunshine Bar

The three Cassava authors are Nana-Ama Danquah, Hannah Giorgis and Billie McTernan, who contributed to our anthologies, Accra Noir edited by Nana-Ama Danquah and Addis Ababa Noir edited by Maaza Mengiste, both part of our Noir series!

In true Noir style, their entries take readers deep into the seedy underbellies of Accra and Addis Ababa, peeling back layers to reveal the lives of its residents. Think mystery, criminal acts, justice, and survival…

And the great news doesn’t end here! We’re thrilled to be publishing the latest AKO Caine Prize anthology, which compiles all the shortlisted stories from the last two years. Fans of the AKO Caine Prize (and exceptional storytelling in general!) keep your eyes peeled for the release of A Mind to Silence and other Stories – coming soon from Cassava Republic Press this summer!

From the Cassava Republic team, congratulations to all the shortlisted writers!

22/08/2022

No More My Little Friend

My friend Klaus, desperate to learn Russian, was always listening to a radio language learning programme targeted at children from five to ten years old.

Twice a week, for a whole year. The upshot was that he began every sentence with ‘And now, my little friend’. Klaus was in urgent need of someone to talk Russian to. So, I recommended placing an ad in Tip und Zitty, and it wasn’t long before the first Russian, Sergei, got in touch with him.

He had come to Germany a year before, in an artists’ exchange programme. For six months he had represented contemporary Russian art at the Bethany Artists’ House.

Then the exchange was at an end. But Sergei did not want to leave Berlin, and decided to remain illegally. By day he worked on a building site, and in the evenings, he indulged his passion, eating snails bought from the food department of the KDW department store. It was a hobby that cost him almost every pfennig he earned. At first Sergei was living in one of the houses at Friedrichshain that squatters had occupied. When the police cleared the squatters out, he managed to make his getaway at the last moment. So, then Klaus put a bed in the corner of his one-room apartment for Sergei. ‘And now, my little friend’, he would say every day, ‘you must help me improve my Russian’. But it didn’t really work. The two of them were too different, and the apartment was too small. Klaus, a vegetarian by conviction, had to put up with Sergei’s revolting eating habits day in, day out.

One day Sergei made his landlord an offer. How about he moves to Moscow for a week or so and stay with Sergei’s wife, and improve his Russian there?
Klaus got himself a visa right away and flew to Moscow.
Sergei’s wife was called Mila, and she knew nothing about the story. She had a small room in a council flat. There was no telephone, and five other families were living there too. It was a very lively flat, with three gas stoves in the kitchen, one toilet, and a lot of screaming children in the corridor.

But when Klaus arrived, it seemed almost deserted. An old woman who lived there had just died, the pool attendant who lived on his own… Read more on our website.

22/08/2022

Book banning in the US: These are the authors of color who censors are trying to silence

(CNN)Young adult authors of color are fed up with being targeted.

They’re sick of seeing their books bogusly labeled “critical race theory” or “anti-police.” They’re incredulous at claims their words make kids uncomfortable. They’re done seeing their books challenged or banned over what they see as insincere claims about vulgarity, violence or s*x. They’re exasperated with feeling singled out…Click the link on our bio to read full article

22/08/2022

GOODMAN GALLERY
William Kentridge has been awarded The Queen Sonja Lifetime Achievement Award, one of the world’s most important prizes for printmaking.

He was presented with the Award by Her Majesty Queen Sonja at an Award Ceremony at the new Munch Museum in Oslo on 20 June 2022. He joins past winners of the Award: David Hockney (2018) and Paula Rego (2020).

The 2022 Jury: Rachel Kent, Pablo del Val and Qiu Zhijie.

“It is a great honour for the QSPA board to present William Kentridge with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his distinguished contribution to the art of printmaking through a long and outstanding career.”

-HM Queen Sonja

The Queen Sonja Art Foundation also announced, The Queen Sonja Print Award 2022, the world’s most important prize for printmaking, which was presented to Yto Barrada.

22/08/2022

I’m not journeying anywhere or risking anything, but I’ll read the books

Who doesn’t like to curl up on the couch or stay in bed reading in this cold weather? I sit in front of my gas heater (pretending it’s a fireplace) in my reading socks (they were actually marketed as such and look like bulky Christmas stockings lined with thick fleece), my faux-mink gown and many, many other layers. I do think I should invest in a pair of gloves as my hands are the only part of my body that freezes when I read…Click the link on our bio to read full article

22/08/2022

Samella Lewis: Friend, Art Historian and Mentor of Multitudes

I yelled at my computer the moment the email announcing the passing of Samella Lewis came through the live inbox notification. Then, I stopped what I was doing, pushed my chair back, and piled my hands on my head. This was the moment I had dreaded for some years, fully aware of her advanced age (ninety-nine at death) and having been unable to see her for close to two decades. In the last three to four years, I would dial her California number, go through the frustrating motions of trying and failing to leave a message…then, review her Wikipedia page to reassure myself that she was still with us. Pleased, relieved, I would cherish the old times, before moving on to other things.

Dr. Samella Sanders Lewis, a foremost, trail-blazing African American artist, art historian, and mentor to many generations of artists and scholars, passed on at a hospital in Torrance, California on May 27, at age ninety-nine.

To understand her iconic status in twentieth-century African American history, the general reader might imagine an Angela Davis whom time and temperament placed in the open realm of art education and activism instead of the barricades. Samella Lewis was all in with political conviction of the most searching kind, and if she did not wear her hair in afro or did not have many pictures of raised fist, she wielded her pen and brush with determined value, and wore her hair natural.

Her pictures can attest to this.

Beyond surfaces, deeper stories run. Jim Crow laws (the regime of US legal discrimination against Black people) were in full force in Florida when she taught at a school in Tallahassee, and members of the terrorist group Ku Klux Klan frequently shot at her house. She picketed museums in California to force them to open their collections to African American art. She wrote petitions, drafted position papers, led delegations, all in the historic effort to affirm Black creativity as an irreducible part of the American heritage, a part whose exclusion reduces the whole. Everywhere she worked, she put up new structures—a gallery… Read more on our website.

22/08/2022

Divergent Desires in A Good Name

Eziafakaego Okereke, a first class graduate of Engineering, moved to the USA twelve years ago to pursue the American dream. He is reluctant to return home because he doesn’t have much to show for the years he has spent abroad.
He is eventually summoned home to pick a wife, one he can mould to his taste. He picks Zinachidi, a girl barely eighteen and two decades younger than him. She turns out to be heady, stubborn and far from submissive, which turns his world on its head.

A Good Name tells the story of an immigrant couple in a difficult marriage and how their divergent desires pull them apart, eventually leading to tragedy.

Ramona Peter on Goodreads rated the book 4 out of 5 stars. She described it as a harrowing work highlighting the burden of cultural expectations, how these expectations shape the lived experiences and the relationships of immigrants.

A Good Name is available for purchase on our website.
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Anietie Isong’s debut novel, Radio Sunrise, is a satire on Nigeria. Ifiok, a young journalist in a public radio station in Lagos, aspires to always do the right thing, but the odds seem to be stacked against him. Government pressures cut off the funding for his radio drama. His girlfriend leaves him when she discovers he is having an affair with an intern. Amid these personal frustrations, kidnappings and militancy are on the rise in the country.
When Ifiok travels to his hometown to do a documentary on some ex-militants’ apparent redemption, a tragi-comic series of events will make him realise he is unable to swim against the tide.

Radio Sunrise won the McKitterick Prize in 2018. It will be adapted for film by the Royal Arts Academy and Closer Pictures.

22/08/2022

Nigeria-Born, Canada-Based Pop/R&B Artist STANLEY Battles With Ego Vs Love In “Twisted”

The tale of ego versus love is one as old as time itself. For some of us, we lose that battle and nowhere is that concept captured more perfectly than in pop-R&B artist Stanley’s new single, “Twisted” — available now!

As Stanley’s newest release, “Twisted” arrives fresh from the Winnipeg-based artist’s latest album, Resurrection; the LP aims to be a retelling of loss throughout the pandemic, with “Twisted” a pivotal chapter in that story.

Fantastically produced, “Twisted” is reminiscent of Weeknd’s summer releases, bringing forth images of summer flings ending too soon, and the high energy behind this mix paired with Stanley’s R&B style vocals really sells this track. It’s this façade of feel-good loving that acts as the cherry on top.

“’Twisted’ tells a story about how, in the midst of all I was going through, I had a girl that loved me regardless — but I never wanted her the same way she wanted me,” Stanley shares.

With that, Stanley’s newest single feels like something sweet tainted by pain — like a vodka lemonade with a heavy pour.

The song’s production features punchy synth grooves coupled with well-timed guitar samples that make a guest appearance in the chorus. While these layers of production seem innocent at face value, each instrument throughout the mix plays a role in the mindset that comes with feeling all-worthy of a loved one’s embrace.

“She did all she could do to let me know she cared for me, but I never saw the value in her,” Stanley reflects. “She decided to move on and I instantly regretted losing her; it made me see what I was missing.

“This destroyed my ego,” he continues, before adding “for the better… My ego always told me she should never get it ‘Twisted’; that she will always love me.”

As heard across recent releases — including singles “Waiting,” his 2020 EP, Late Bloomer, and more — Stanley is an innovative musician who blends pop, afro, EDM, and R&B effortlessly.

Moving from Nigeria to Winnipeg, MB, Canada, Stanley was here to further his education — although he never let go of… Read more on our website.

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