BBAAF KEYNOTE LECTURE 1: Professor Niyi Osundare ‘BRIDGES BEYOND BORDERS’

The Benue Book and Arts Festival 2021 starts with a keynote lecture, ‘Bridges Beyond Borders’ to be delivered by world-renown poet and scholar, Professor Niyi Osundare. The virtual session [via Zoom] will be followed by an interactive session.

Details:
Date: Wednesday 4th August, 2021
Time: 14:00 West African Time
Venue: Zoom [Meeting ID: 875 0213 2259; Passcode: 887643]

The session will be broadcast live on
Facebook via: https://facebook.com/benuebook
YouTube via: https://tinyurl.com/fwtf7mh8

Niyi Osundare is a leading African poet, dramatist, linguist, and literary critic. Born on March 12, 1947 in Ikere-Ekiti, Nigeria, his poetry is influenced by the oral poetry of his Yorùbá culture, which he capaciously hybridizes with other poetic traditions of the world, including African American, Latin American, Asian, and European. Osundare is a champion of free speech and his creative and critical writings are closely associated with political activism, decolonization, black internationalism, and the environment. He is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Poetry Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Tchicaya U Tam’si Poetry Prize, and the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize (twice). In 1991, Osundare became the first Anglophone African poet to win the Noma Award (Africa’s most prestigious book award), and in 1998, he was awarded the Fonlon/Nichols Prize for his “excellence in literary creativity combined with significant contributions to Human Rights in Africa.” In 2014, he was admitted to the National Order of Merit, his country’s highest honor for intellectual distinction and creative achievement. Until recently, Osundare was the Distinguished Professor of English at the University of New Orleans. [taken from Wikipedia]

The general concept behind the theme of the festival and Prof Osundare’s session, which will focus on the literary medium, is the exploration of art in its various forms or individually as bridges beyond borders (spatial, physical, geographic, emotional, etc). How it connects or disconnects people across these spaces &times. Its relevance to us as a people in a time like this.

BBAAF is in its 3^rd year after having its maiden edition in 2019 and comes up this year from 5th to 7th August 2021. The event will hold virtually via Zoom and social media channels on 5^thAugust 2021 and in-person in tentatively at the Benue State University, Makurdi, on 6^th and 7^th August 2021. The opening ceremony starts at 9:30AM on the 6^th with registration, while official events start by 10:30AM. There will also be a poetry slam competition on 7th August, 2021 by 4:30pm with prizes worth over N100,000. Be there!

This year’s edition is put together by SEVHAGE Literary and Development Initiative, Eunice Spring of Life Foundation, Writers’ League of the Benue State University, the University of Sussex, Sussex Writes, and Gender and Environmental Risk Reduction Initiative, Sankofa Initiative, SEVHAGE Publishers and Purple Shelves publishers, among others.