First edition of iRead this weekend!

DADA books is proud to present iRead, a book reading session to provide a platform for bringing together young people and lovers of literary works in a relaxed atmosphere where they can interact and network alongside Nigerian writers in an intellectually stimulating environment.

iRead runs on a simple idea, come with a favourite book of yours and read two paragraphs that appeal to you the most. You get to talk about the book and why you picked the paragraphs you read and you get to question other people about their own choices too.

The first edition of iRead will also feature the DADA authors Onyeka Nwelue and Jumoke Verissimo who have just returned from literary events in India and Macedonia as they relive their experiences.

Date: Saturday 5th September 2009
Time: 12noon - 4pm
Venue: This Day Media Store @ The Palms Shopping Center, Lekki.

A DAY TO MAKE THEM READ IN KADUNA

THAT THEY MAY READ...

Reading has suddenly become unfashionable and the seeming financial reward and fame in comparison to the glamour burden entertainment industry is helping to make it less fashionable! This realization and preempted future consequences prompted the Editorial Board Community Development Club of the National Youth Service Corps Scheme, Kaduna State to organize a reading campaign aimed at reversing the downslide in reading among young people.

The Editorial Board is a Community Development Group registered within the ambits of what the NYSC represents. Over the years, the Editorial Board with the help of corporate bodies and general public, has continually been at the forefront of Community Development through innovative projects and selfless service.

To further add value to the event which held on the 3rd of June, 2009, Onyeka Nwelue, author of The Abyssinian Boy was around. The event was in two stages: the first at Command Secondary School, Sabo, Kaduna South and the second at the Faculty of Arts, Kaduna State University. The author, at these events, read from his book, interacted with the audience and also presented a paper titled - Regenerating the polemics of reading culture in Nigeria at the university.

Onyeka Nwelue was born in 1988. He won the Thompson short stories competition when he was eleven. In 2004, he was described in the Guardian Newspaper as the ‘teenager with the steaming pen’. He received a grant from the Institute for Research on African Women, Children and Culture (IRAWCC) in 2008 and has been selected as Writer-in -Residence for the month of July by the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Lagos. His debut The Abyssinian Boy was published this year and is being made into a movie by Danish film maker Lasse Lau together with Nigeria’s Tunde Kelani.

At the Command Secondary school venue of the literary and current affairs quiz competition, seven schools competed. The competition saw Queen Amina College emerge 1st , Royal International college was 1st runners up and Christ ambassador’s college was 2nd runners up. Other schools that participated are Oxford International School; Government Secondary School, Kakuri; Danbo International College; Command Secondary School, Sabo and Rimi College, Ungwarimi, who had their students come as observers. Questions for the literary segment was pulled from The Last Duty by Isidore Okpewho, The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta, Sizwe Bansi is Dead by Athol Fugard, On His Blindness (Poetry) by John Milton and contemporary Yellow Yellow by Kaine Agary.

Books worth N50,000 were shared among the participating schools. The book gifts were donations of literary materials by Destiny Bookshops, Kaduna; El-nukoya, award winning author of Nine Lives; Kaine Agary, the NLNG award-winning author of Yellow Yellow; Macmillian Publishers, Zaria; Dada Books, African First Publishers and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Kaduna Branch whose donation of cash and financial literary materials helped to swell the programme.

The Kaduna State Library Board was at the event represented by Alhaji IbrahimBuba.The Dean of Students’ Affairs, Mr. Audee T. Giwa was at hand to join cause with the Editorial club team. Also apresent was Mrs. Ogwuche Victoria, the staff adviser of the editorial board who challenged the ladies to pick up reading as a pastime and also encourage their siblings to do same.

At the university, Onyeka presenting his paper submitted ‘I could be weird at times. Once in my university, a lecturer had asked us, the students, to Google up a topic, copy, paste it on MS Word, print, write our names on them and pass for assignment. (Hilarious, isn't it?) I was instantly taken aback. But what can one do in such a lousy situation? The truth is that we can only save Nigeria through extensive research.’

Have your say...

I was at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Yaba on Saturday for the PAGES event for the month of March. It was tagged: The World is Flat. Are you shaking your head in question of the title? Yes, it was the title that also nursed my decision to make it for the event, I wanted to know, how come again that the world is flat?

Okay for those who don’t know, here’s a little background into PAGES. It is a monthly event hosted by CCA with the aim of understanding our world and ourselves better through the arts. Usually, there is a convergence of art in diverse forms: painting, literature, map making, photography with the aim of  giving literary interpretation to the works on exhibition. The event had an ‘okay’ audience for an art event; to think that it was not featuring any of Nigeria’s young music artists (my opinion) that's what attracts 'Naija' youth, am I lying?

It was an opportunity to see the world from a new perspective and take brief lessons in architecture, cartography, history, literature  and also set me thinking about the process of writing.

Johanne, the curator of the exhibition introduced the theme of the exhibition and answered questions from a very inquisitive audience; there was a book reading and discussion from Onyeka Nwelue’s novel The Abyssinian Boy.

The the questions started sprouting from all corners: What is  the place of knowledge about a setting in the making of a work of literature? Where does reality stop and idealism begin? Does a writer need to have a perfect knowledge of the place that he/she is writing about? If yes, how was JK Rowlings able to write her best-selling Harry Potter series? If yes, how was Chimamanda Adichie able to pull off an Orange prize-winning Half of a Yellow Sun which is about the Nigerian civil war when she was not a part of the war? 

If no, how does a writer stay true to describing what a place is like at any point in time, bearing in mind that places change? If no, where is the place of creativity even when making fiction  out of reality?

What is your take?

Opening P.A.G.E.S of The Abbyssinian Boy

Onyeka Nwelue, the author of The Abyssinian Boy will be reading from his debut book on Saturday 21st March 2009 at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Yaba at an event tagged: P.A.G.E.S.

P.A.G.E.S is the confluence of literature, art works, comics and photography. This programme is designed to converge writers, poets and playwrights at the Center for Contemporary Art, to give literary interpretation to the works being exhibited at the centre every month.

Kowry Kreations Media, an African art and culture organization came up with this unifying concept in collaboration with Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA).

The Center for Contemporary Art is located on Mc Ewen Street, Sabo, Yaba.

Call 07084287828 for details

Visit: http://www.ccalagos.org/ and http://kowrykreationsmedia.blogspot.com/

Onyeka Nwelue's fear of not being read!

Born in 1988 in Nigeria, Onyeka Nwelue travelled extensively to Asia, particularly to India. In 2004, he was described in The Guardian as a 'teenager with a steaming pen'. His writings have appeared in The Sun, Kafla Inter-Continental and The Guardian. He's presently a student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In this interview, he answers questions about his fears, the writers that he loves and the strangest thing that got into his hair.

Who is Onyeka in one sentence?

Onyeka is a writer born in 1988 in Nigeria

Which talent would you most like to have?
Talent as a writer.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My Christian background.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Life.

What is the last thing you read that made you laugh?
White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

Who is your perfect audience?
My siblings.

How does being a Nigerian influence your writing?
Many ways.

When is the best time for you to write?
When I'm depressed, hungry, lonely and angry.

What is your most treasured possession?
My hair.

Writers that influenced you
Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Jude Dibia, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Kiran Desai.

What is the book that changed your life?
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

What inspires your writing?
Everything

Describe your writing in a sentence?
Stories that reveal the unreal parts of life.

How will you introduce your child to writing?
No way. My father didn't 'introduce' me to politics.

What part of writing do you enjoy most?
The flow of thoughts; the writing itself.

What would a story about your life be called?
The Humourous and Mystical Life of Onyeka Nwelue. Or The Wondrous Tale and Tale of Onyeka Nwelue. Or The Paltry Sultry Years of Onyeka Nwelue.

What is your greatest fear?
My greatest fear is not to be read.

Who are your favourite writers?
Arundhati Roy, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie are my favourite writers.

What do you love most about India?
Its diversity in everything.

Where is Onyeka, the writer and person in five years?
I live my life in a minute. Don't know.

Animals: do you eat or save them?
I think both. I eat and save animals.

Your house is on fire; what will you take with you?
Any manuscript I'm working on.

What is the strangest thing that has ever been found in your 'afro'?

A HB pencil during POST-UME at Nsukka

Five minutes left on earth, what will be your last words?
Live and let's live.

What do you hate about being Nigerian?
The claim that when you are religious different, you are 'possessed by an evil spirit'.

What were you thinking of when you wrote The Abyssinian Boy?
I was thinking of a world that can only exist in my wildest imagination.

What is the worth of a book?
A book I can read, laugh and clap, even when I'm supposed to cry.

NB. Watch out for A WRITER AND A REVIEWER: Onyeka 'in response' to a review of his novel The Abyssinian Boy.