AFRICA WRITES – September 29 to October 1, 2023
Whether your interest is in learning how to pitch your work, discovering rituals that connect the diaspora the world over, unpacking history and mythology in community, or new sight and sounds from internationally renowned African and diaspora authors, we welcome you to join us for this special 10th edition.
Ghanaian polymath Blitz the Ambassador will join us as our first headline event at our 10th Africa Writes at the British Library on September 29th. His book, The Scent of Burnt Flowers, takes us on a journey from Alabama to Accra in the 1960s, via harrowing escapes and dangerous journeys into a simmering coup d’état woven together with music and magic. Blitz Bazawule is a multidisciplinary artist whose film The Burial of Kojo premiered on Netflix via ARRAY releasing, whose paintings have been featured at The Whitney Biennial, and whose co-direction of Beyoncé’s Black is King won him a Grammy nomination. His musical take on The Color Purple (Warner Bros.) will grace screens globally in December, but Africa Writes has the honour to host him for this eclectic and illuminating exchange. Bring all your openness and imagination as he shares his creative experience and how he channeled it into his debut novel.
The theme of Africa Writes 2023 is Intangible Heritage. What are the things that make us who we are that we can’t explain or put our fingers on? What parts of our culture are known and felt without being said and how do they manifest in our stories? These are two questions we will explore in great company over the three festival days and online throughout September in the lead up. Trying out a format that has worked beautifully for Africa Writes’ sister festival, Film Africa, we have invited curators to help us gather the voices to lead this exploration: Ainehi Edoro (Brittle Paper), Bibi Bakare-Yusuf (Cassava Republic Press) Angolan musician and writer Kalaf Epalanga, photographer and Booker Prize-shortlisted writer Maaza Mengiste, Nancy Adimora (Afreada), and Sulamain Addonia (writer and director of Asmara-Addis Literary Festival in Exile) and multiple award-winning poet Yomi Sode. Dozens more suggestions flowed in from our larger Africa Writes communities for other ways to dive into this theme, which we are also including in the festivities.
The first day is dedicated to Young Voices. 120 children will join us for workshops covering poetry, illustration and language-learning, unfolding their own adventures and storytelling with brilliant facilitators including Sarah Asuquo and Gbemisola Isimi. The evening opens the rest of the festival with Blitz the Ambassador, and the weekend explodes into a rich programme over three different British Library spaces. Panels, book launches, workshops, professional development and prizes, networking and opportunities to learn, meet and discuss will continue through to Sunday evening.
Some highlights to look forward to:
⭐️Kelechi Okafor takes us to the Edge of Here with a theatrical reading of her first collection
⭐️Caribbean Book Club, Book of Cinz, invites Soraya Palmer
⭐️Jacaranda Books talks A Quick Ting On…
⭐️Sauutiverse collaboratively assemble an Afro-centric shared world like no other
⭐️PEN Eritrea highlight the work of those imprisoned for their words
⭐️Eating the Book, à la Lola Shoneyin/Kaduna Book & Arts Festival
Our third Lifetime Achievement Award (Margaret Busby and Micere Mugo being the first two recipients) will be announced as well.Scoop yourself a day pass already on https://www.bl.uk/events/africa-writes-2023 and stay tuned for more programming details.