So I attended the Ake Arts and Book Festival
My first time and it was awesome!!! What have I been up to since then?
Hello everyone, it’s been a while I’ve posted here and it feels very good to be back. I hope this newsletter meets you well. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you’d know I attended the Ake Arts and Books Festival about two weeks ago and majority of my tweets from the 24th to 26th of November were all about it
If you also follow a lot of African writers, there’s no way you wouldn’t have heard about the Ake Festival which is arguably the biggest Arts and Book Festival in Africa. It is directed by Lola Shoneyin who is also the founder of BookBuzz foundation, Ouida books (a publishing house) and the author of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives and other amazing books.
I actually heard about Ake Festival this year during the strike and I really wanted to go for it since I was in Lagos. When I saw the lineup of guests and literary gurus coming, I told myself I would cry if I missed it. Thankfully, that didn’t happen because I was a recipient of the Diversity and Inclusion grant and I was able to attend the festival for free. I also got book tokens worth 10,000 naira to spend at the bookstore. Up Ake!!!
Ake Arts and Books Festival has been my biggest highlight yet this year. I met a lot of African Authors who I greatly admire and I must say that the African writing community is so amazinggg!!! The love among the authors and sweet sense of kinship is wonderful and even though I’ve always loved African authors and books (I actually discovered a lot more during the ASUU strike), my love for them increased by 100 percent due to Ake Festival. Subscribe to this newsletter if you haven’t🥰🥰
Here are some pictures from the event. I actually did a mini vlog about the festival which I posted on my Instagram page already but I also wanted to write a blog post about it too.
With Bisi Adjapon, who is the author of The Teller of Secrets (sight Chimeka Garricks at the back🤩🤩)
With Zukiswa Wanner, author of The Madams, London Cape town Joburg, Men of the South and other amazing books.
With the very sweet and jovial Lola Shoneyin 😍😍 (It’s our shining 32 for mee😁😂). I love her.
With Francesca Ekwuyasi, author of Butter Honey Pig Bread. I met her on the second day of the event.
With Aiwanose Odafen, author of Tomorrow I Become a Woman.
With (from left) Leye Adenle, author of The Beautiful side of the moon, Adedotun Eyinade, Co-founder and CEO of Rovingheights bookstores, Chimeka Garricks, author of A Broken People’s Playlist and Tomorrow Died Yesterday.
If you like what you’re reading so far, why don’t you give this post a like?😉
With Miracle Emeka-Nkewor, author of What happened to Janet Uzor (I think we look like sisters though, lol). This was Day 3.
Wole Soyinka also graced us with his presence🤗
With Abdulrazak Gurnah, author of After Lives and the 2021 Noble prize winner. He signed my copy of his book too.
With Jennifer Makumbi, author of Kintu, First Woman and other amazing books. I really love her views and opinions about feminism.
With my Presido, Jola Ayeye, the brains behind Happy Noisemaker blog and host of I said what I said podcast
The books I got courtesy of the Diversity and Inclusion grant. I also got a children’s book- Do as you’re told Baji by Lola Shoneyin which I gave my younger cousins.
I really had a swell time. I look forward to attending more book festivals.
Here’s a summary of my life since my last blog post.
1. All of my 100 level results have been released and they were okay- Glory be to Jesus. I feel like writing a blog post on What I wanted versus What I got regarding my results. Do you think I should? Please tell me in the comments.
2. I’m starting to think I prefer E-books to paper backs. I think this is because I’ve been reading E-books for a very long time and I’ve become accustomed to them. This doesn’t mean if you gift me paperbacks, I wouldn’t collect it. I’m building my own library please. Which one do you prefer? Are you Team E-book or Team Paperback/Hardcover
3. I watched The Heirs (Korean drama) for the second time. The last time I watched it was 7 years ago and it’s so cute seeing the actors young again as they’ve become big stars now. Maybe I’d watch Dream High again (People who have been watching Kdramas for a long time would know this series).
4. I’m currently reading After Lives by Abdulrazak Gurnah and I’m enjoying it. My next read is either The Teller of Secrets by Bisi Adjapon or Tomorrow I become a woman by Aiwanose Odafen. I also want to read Dele weds Destiny by Tomi Obaro, if you’ve read this book already please tell me your thoughts on it in the comments.
Thank you so much for reading, I know this post is longer than usual. Please click here to follow me on Instagram and here to follow me on Twitter. Till we meet again in another blog post.
Yours in Love,
LamLam.
P.S- There was a wall at the Ake Festival where we were asked why we loved books, here’s what I wrote👇
I really wish I can go best year
If you haven't watched my mini vlog about the festival yet, here's the link to the video👇
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