Ms Rachael Ama Assa Engmann recently completed her fellowship program at OYASAF, where she conducted research and enjoyed professional work experience on West African heritage, art and material culture.

Writers, literary enthusiasts and budding poets in Abuja turned out in good number to enjoy an opportunity of getting the guidance to hone their skills on Friday 18th June 2008 in what can be best described as an evening of literary splendor.

Honour they say should be given to whom it is due.” In line with this popular saying, the children of one of the greatest photographers of our time and the man who was made famous for documenting the transformations and variations found in traditional hairstyles worn by women in Nigeria J.D Okhai Ojeikere in commemoration of his 80th birthday last week presented a powerful birthday gift to him for all his contributions towards their upbringing and for his contributions towards the growth of photography in the country.

The June 26, 2010 edition of the Abuja Writers’ Forum’s (AWF) Guest Writer Session will feature the winner of the 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book ( Africa ), Tricia Adaobi Nwaubani.

Taking cue from the Foreword, which Dr Ikenna Kamalu provides for Ozah Michael Ozah’s book, Proudly Ukwuani: History and Culture, which attempts to locate, what would have amounted to a more brilliant and significant contribution to an aspect of Nigeria’s post colonial narrative; and in particular, to the history of what late Professor Onwuejiogwu described as “ history of Igbo cultural areas” but failed to do so by deviating to scheme his own theory of history of origin and culture for the Ukwuani sub-group of the Igbo tribe.This review will attempt to investigate how Ozah as a post colonial narrator has faithfully or unfaithfully re- writes, what his book, purports as misrepresentations of some aspects of Ukwuani history .

The monthly creative writing workshop organised by the Abuja Writers’ Forum(AWF) continues on June 26, 2010 with Toyin Adewale-Gabriel as the facilitator. Her work has won awards from cultural institutions and she is a Fellow of the Akademie Schloss Solitude and has been Writer-in-Residence at the Villa Waldberta, Munich, and The Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators, in Visby, Sweden.

The Osun State Government, through its Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding ( a category 2 Unesco Centre), in conjunction with Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC), PANAFSTRAG and the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation is organising an International Conference on Slavery, Slave Trade and Their Consequences.

Art promoter and president of Art Gallery Association of Nigeria (AGAN), Chief Frank Okonta has said that better days lies ahead for emerging artists in the country if given the required exposure that would adequately position them to reap from entire new market and opportunities that abounds in world of creativity.

The UNN Robesonites, the Alumni association of UNN graduates of dramatic arts, is planning a Home Coming in October this year at the department of theatre and film studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

In its avowed bid to maintain the standard and entertain her numerous subscribers, MNET, the producers of TINSEL, the glamorous soap opera which premiered in September 2008 and has grown in popularity all over the continent, last Thursday launched Season 3 of the popular T.V. show.

Forty scientists and 92 foreign and home based playwrights are competing for this year’s pre-eminent prizes in literature and science – The Nigeria Prizes for Science and The Nigeria Prize for Literature.

Nigerian artist, Yinka Shonibare MBE, last week became the first African artist to display artwork in any public space in Great Britain, when he unveiled his work “Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle” in London’s popular Trafalgar Square. The artwork is sponsored by Guaranty Trust Bank of Nigeria which earlier in 2010 registered another first when it sponsored Chris Ofili’s collection at Tate Britain, making it the first African corporation to sponsor a major artwork in Great Britain.

Nigerian born painter, Kunle Adegborioye who is currently based in UK is back in Nigeria with a special message to inspire and engage the Nigerian audience through his latest solo exhibition titled, My Voice; Exhibition of Paintings. The exhibition which opened on the 22nd May at Nike Art Gallery, Lekki, Lagos will run till May 29th 2010.

The first official visit of the newly appointed Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Abubakar Sadiq Mohammad to parastatals of the Ministry , penultimate week in Lagos was an important eye opener to the immensity of tasks expected of the Minister before the expiration of the 2011 national election year.

As the vibrancy of the stalactite catalytically fuels the mesomophic characteristics of the stalagmite, so also the insightful, effective and constructive usage of cartoons can precipitate multifaceted societal development. Hence essayist aldpous Huxley (1894-1963) said, “Parodies, cartoons and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms.”