The 21st edition of Lagos Book & Art Festival, is billed to take place from the 4th – 10th of November, 2019 at Freedom Park, Lagos. This year’s outing is dedicated to the memory of Dr. David Herbert Dale, a departed Arthouse honouree and one of Nigeria’s most celebrated visual artists who died in August.
The theme of this year’s festival is ‘EMERGE… breaking into the NEW.’ According to organisers in a release, the theme encourages one to break free from social, political, economic and cultural constraints that hinder an individual and the country, as a whole, from progressing.
The week-long event is mainly aimed at honouring members of the Arthouse who have contributed to the creative sector and have over time, inspired the younger generation of creative artists to do better.
The release said this year’s activities include book and art exhibitions, live reading sessions, conversations around books, seminars on visual, performing and allied arts. There will also be displays of painting, sculpture, mixed media, live music, poetry, drama and dance presentation, among others.
The festival hopes to make books look cool by dedicating four days of the week-long event to having book treks where writers visit schools and engage pupils in productive discussions.
A ppublishers’ forum and writers’ workshop will also take place during this period. This strips away the seriousness and boredom that is associated with reading books, the release said.
There will be honourees at the event including Wole Soyinka, Tunji Oyelana, Theo Lawson, Segun Ojewuyi, Mahmood Ali-Balogun, Moji Bamtefa, Tope Babayemi, Norbert Young, Jerry Buhari, George Ufot, Edmond Enaibe and Kunle Adeyemi.
