A team from the National Troupe left Nigeria for Israel last week to be part of a one week long theatre festival. The team comprises the Artistic Director, Mr. Martin Adaji, the guest director Professor, Segun Ojewuyi , three actors sourced from the theatre community and three crew members including a stage manager and technical director.

The Nigerian artist is ready for the ‘international market, but he needs to web his domestic commercial environment and create a local market for his productions.

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, serial award winning writer, gender scholar and professor of English at the University of Lagos was chairman of the Panel of Judges for the 2011 Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas,$100,000 Prize for Literature. In this interview, Ezeigbo spoke to McPhilips Nwachukwu about the whole processes leading to the selection of the winner as well as about other sundry issues. Excerpt:

THERE comes a time in the annals of a nation and, even in the history of an institution when the admiration so warmly felt for an illustrious personality is made explicit and concretized in obvious terms.

The Igbo-Ukwu objects which carbon-date to 9th AD is said to constitute one of the richest bronze treasures in Nigeria and best in the world though, they have not received relative publicity like those of Benin bronzes, Ife terra-cottas and Nok terra-cottas

THIS year’s edition of the annual Lagos Photo Festival successfully kicked off in Lagos last week. Holding under the theme; What’s Next Africa? -The Hidden Stories.

On September 6, 2011, NLNG, the organizer of the prestigious Nigeria Prize for Literature announced the final shortlist of three books for the 2011 Nigeria Prize for Literature out of the initial shortlist of six released last October. The three finalists are; ‘Eno’s Story’ by Ayodele Olofintuade, ‘The Missing Clock’ by Mai Nasara and ‘The Great Fall’ by Chinyere Obi-Obasi.

My people perish for lack of knowledge” is a Biblical injunction. And ever since the statement was made some two thousand years ago, many families, towns and even nations have not fully realised the importance of education, hence they still perish.

Do we desire a new Nigeria? Should we seek a new Nigeria? How can we achieve a new Nigeria? Is one of the paths to a new Nigeria through a resolution of the Niger Delta crisis? What are the root causes of the Niger Delta crisis?

Uche Nwosu is not new to the art circle, he studied Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (South-Eastern Nigeria) specialising in Painting. And ever since his graduation, Uche who works at the National Gallery of Art as a Chief Research Officer has been a prominent player and has participated in local and international exhibitions until he was attacked by a strange illness, which nearly shattered his career.

In a couple of months, literary icon, Chinua Achebe, will release his latest book, whose title is still being kept under wraps. Oseloka Obaze writes on how the book surveys the trajectory of a noble and richly lived life, with its inevitable ups and downs, from the writer’s birth to his fame and present disability and involuntary sojourn in the United States.

The grand finale of Triple Fun Club 2011 Literary, Oratory, and Leadership Week came to a close recently at the Atlantic Hall, Hotel Presidential in River State

Last week was the 70th birthday of veteran and award-winning photographer, jazz percussionist, one-time trend-setting barber and publisher, Sunmi Smart-Cole . And as a way of celebrating that great moment that took place in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in 1941, SS Cole as he was fondly called who is of Nigerian-Sierra Leonean parentage put together a befitting birthday bash.

“We have an obligation to admire the talents in the youths and to celebrate them so as to give them a sense of belonging in the society”, were the words of the assistant parish priest of the St Denis Catholic Church Akoka, Bariga, Rev. Father Bernard during the 4th edition of the Little Miss St Denis beauty Pageant.

African music percolated with excited chatter as a crowd waited to hear Professor of Africana Studies Chinua Achebe kick off the Department of Africana Studies 2011-12 Conversations in Africana Writing Series Monday. Achebe and other authors were featured in a panel titled “Voice and Memory in the Poetic Imagination” at the George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space, which was filled to capacity with academics, students, writers and community members.