PROGRAMS
ART STAMPEDE
MARCH: CORA Stampede at iREP: The flagship of the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA, is the quarterly Art Stampede, which has held since June 2, 1991 when the organisation was founded. It is conceived as an “Artists Parliament,” where members of the creative community in varied disciplines congregate to discuss ideas focused on the chosen theme, which the organisation’s working committee considers germane to the development of the culture sector. In its 20th year in 2010, however, the CORA restrategised its programming content to network or align with other organisations with relevant projects related to aspects of the culture sector.
MARCH 19: Thus in 2010, the CORA
Art Stampede which was usually the annual kick-off programme for the organisation,
was reprogrammed from being an independent Parliament, and was networked into
the annual iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival (iREP). The last
plenary in the 4-day programme was usually the Art Stampede, and it segues into
the chosen theme of the documentary festival’s theme for the year. Thus, in
March 2023, the CORA Art Stampede was focused on the new election that had just
being held with the theme: Documenting the Underserved: Agenda for Nigeria 2023. Though set under the festival project’s generic theme, Africa in
Self-Conversation, the 2023 theme was schemed to
set agenda for the incoming political leaders to update them on expectations of
the people, especially the “underserved” who live in the oft-neglected
communities. Speakers representing diverse disciplines in the arts, notably
Literature, Film, Music, Theatre, Media and the general Creative Economy were appointed to
make presentations, which were then subjected to interrogation by the audiences
in-person and virtual. The Communique from the session was packaged as a memo
to the elected political leaders at both the federal and Lagos levels.
BOOKTREK
MARCH 25: Simon Kolawole’s Fellow Nigerians: It’s All Politics, which reflects on the political situations in the country, especially factors that shaped the new political dispensation. The BookTrek held March 25 at Roving Heights bookstore, Landmark Event Centre in Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos. It was also streamed live via the video communications platform Zoom. Released on October 3, 2022, ‘Fellow Nigerians, It’s All Politics’, published by Cable Books. encompasses both Kolawole’s published and previously unpublished articles, totalling 61, and addressing various issues, including leadership, the economy, and politics in Nigeria. The CORA BookTrek is a fortnightly author-audience interface, featuring readings, reviews and discussions of select books of searching historical and contemporary insight into the African condition.
APRIL-MAY: The CORA staged three Book Reading sessions in its CORA BookTrek programme capsule, that had been in existence since 2006. This periodic edition is different from the “CORA BookTrek: The Community Literacy Outreach”, which is supported by the Hawthornden Foundation Readings and discussions around three titles considered very relevant to contemporary socioo-political discourse in the Nigerian nation were held:
https://bookartville.com/coras-booktrek-breaks-into-a-sprint/
APRIL 12: Ben Egbuna’s Destiny Fulfilled (Posthumous) – a biographical reflection on the state of the media in the country, in particular dissecting how the media lost its influence and impacts in the national space. The book details the career trajectory of Ben Egbuna, the 13th Director-General of Federal Radio Corporatio of Nigeria, FRCN, who worked tirelessly to raise the standard of work in the place. He was DG for twenty- one months for he was thirty-five years in service on 17 April 2008. But he has a lot to show in this book as his achievements despite all the sabotage of some thieving staff, covert and overt antagonisms of some ethnic warriors and the incompetence and unremitting insults of political appointees like John Odey and Ibrahim Nakande. In retirement, Mr Ben Egbuna ran his own outfit, Niche Media, until his death in January this year. He lived a simple and contented life
APRIL 30: Musikilu Mojeed’s The Letterman: Inside the ‘Secret’ Letters of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo – a reportorial book on the contents of the Presidential library of Nigeria, and perhaps Africa’s most important politician of the era. It is also a reflection on Nigeria and Africa’s political trajectories from the 60s through the 2020s. Musikilu Mojeed will today, Sunday, April 30 read from his recently released book, The Letterman: Inside the “Secret” Letters of former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo. The book compellingly tells the story of Obasanjo’s life as defined by and is defining of the story of his country, Nigeria and the larger African continent, as a narrative non-fiction curating some of the most significant and historical letters written by the former president. Musikilu Mojeed is described as a skillful raconteur who deftly manages to braid far-flung pieces into a magisterial whole that unveils the attitudes, worldview, relationships, emotional complexity and stewardship of this enigmatic global statesman, through the correspondences he exchanged with others.
https://bookartville.com/coras-booktrek-breaks-into-a-sprint/
MAY 31: Uche Nwokedi’s A Shred of Fear – a child-soldier’s memoir recapturing the tragedy that attended the Nigeria’s Civil War (1967-1970) in which over 3 million people perished. Effects of the war still define the contemporary politics in the country. Nwokedi held at Roving Heights Bookstore in Landmark Place, Water Corporation Drive, Oniru, Victoria Island. The CORA BookTrek is a fortnightly author-audience interface, featuring readings, reviews and discussions of select books of searching historical and contemporary insight into the African condition.
- https://gazelleafrica.com/2023/06/01/uche-nwokedis-memoir-a-shred-of-fear-on-spotlight-at-cora-book-trek/
JUNE: The second iteration of the quarterly Arts Stampede was devoted to designing the programme for the 89th birthday anniversary of Africa’s first Nobel laureate in Literature, Wole Soyinka, who is arguably Africa’s pre-eminent Culture icon, and a grand patron of the CORA. The 89th birthday anniversary was programmed as a prelude to the 90th birthday anniversary which was celebrated globally across continents on 2024. The June Stampede was thus staged to discuss various ideas that could be mined for the 2024 celebration. Creative artists, Scholars, Civil/Human Rights and Literary activists and enthusiasts were convoked to design the programme that eventually fed into the 89th and the 90th celebration. Members of the CORA Volunteers Corps, CVC – a group of young intellectuals – students in higher colleges, undergraduates and graduates — who constitute the engine room for the CORA Programme executions and management, also began their training schedules, which lasted three weeks. The training was to prepare them for the major events that would shape the November flagship prpgramme of the CORA, as well as the following year, 2024.
JULY: This is the month of the 89th birthday of the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka. CORA collaborated with Bookcraft Africa, publisher of the poet, dramatist, memoirist and essayist, to stage a launch of his poetry collections — Selected Poems (1965-2022): A Retrospective, by Wole Soyinka. Held July 16 at the Roving Heights, Lagos’ best-stocked and most influential bookshop, the event drew participation of Lagos literati, as well as his associates and former students, who contributed to the discussion around his poetry works which are often critiqued as being obscured in language and tone. Soyinka, author of over 60 publications – 15 of them poetry – is about the most misunderstood cultural philosophers of the continent, with his deeply nuanced ideas often misconstrued or deliberately twisted to suit pre-conceived political conclusions. The July event was essentially targeted at spotlighting his political and cultural philosophies, essentially to bring them to the attention of new (young readers) readers.
The BookTrek is a front in the campaign for Literacy, geared towards boosting citizens’ EDUCATION, ENLIGHTENMENT and EMPOWERMENT, to achieve CORA’s fundamental mission of building HUMAN CAPITAL capacity of the nation and the continent.
https://bookartville.com/wole-soyinka-to-headline-cora-booktrek-no-6-2023/
PARTIES
AUGUST: CORA’s flag-off programme in the last quarter of the year is the CORA-NPL Book Party. The setting is reminiscent of a concert or social party but with huge literary content. A joint programme between CORA and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, promoters of the $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature, NPL, it usually featured the 11 Longlisted writers in the prize appearing live on stage reading from their works and fielding questions from In-Person and virtual audiences. The venue is usually one of the prestigious event facilities in the city. The 2023 edition, held August 7 at the Musical Society of Nigeria’s MUSON Centre in central Lagos, it featured the 11 finalists in the year’s edition. In then edition, the writers read from their works and had engagements with the public on the nature of the prize, what winning it could contribute to their career as well as the trend in, and state of literary productions and consumptions in the country.
AUGUST 30: Following the Book Party, the CORA on August 30, also staged a BookTrek on the book “My Entrepreneurship Journey”, a book by the oil and gas tycoon, Austin Avuru. The book throws light on the inner workings of the Nigeria’s economy mainstay, Oil and Gas.
SEPTEMBER: Preparation for the 2023 Lagos Book & Arts Festival, LABAF, revved up with intense training of the CORA Volunteers Corps members towards the humongous responsibilities they have to play in the forthcoming festival, reputed as the biggest literary feast of its kind on the continent. The training is also configured in such a way that it begins to prepare the next generation of culture curators and programmists for the organisation, and as well for the general culture sector. In CORA’s thinking, whereas the Nigeria culture ecosystems has high voltage energies and resources in terms of production, there is a dire shortage of curators and managers to handle the various projects and resources available in the sector.
OCTOBER: This is the peak of the Culture season in Lagos, and by extension, Nigeria. CORA is deeply immersed in the production and exhibition circuits of then creative economy, and thus aligned with other culture production organisations, including the Quramo Festival of Words, Q’Fest (Literature); Lagos International Poetry Festival, LIPF (Poetry); the Lagos Fringe Festival, LF (Theatre); the ArtX (Visual Arts), African Film Festival, AFRIFF (Film). Essentially, CORA’s well-trained Volunteers are sent out intentionally to work with various other organisations. This networking broadens their skillsets and exposures which become handy to the health and profile of the CORA and its flagship project, the Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF in November.
BOOKTREK
OCTOBER 18, yet another CORA BookTrek held featuring the book, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished by Jide Ajide, John Ashimi and Wole Agunbiade. The book reportorially reflect on the trajectory of the Nigeria oil and gas sector, which, though deeply troubled by corruptive malfeasances and insecurity, remains the mainstay of the economy. Experts in the sector as well as members of the public engaged the three authors on the contents of the book vis the developments in the Nigerian economy. No Good Deed details the historical deterioration of relations among the stakeholders, right from the inception of oil prospecting in Nigeria at the beginning of the 20th Century till date (2022). To unravel the complexity, depth and spectrum of grievances and misgivings among the stakeholders, the authors held face-to-face interviews with over 30 key stakeholders, extensively reviewed secondary sources of data (published academic works, newspapers and news magazines, government and interest groups reports) on the Niger Delta imbroglios and, finally, drew on their participant-observer experiences spanning 36 years. The authors’ perspectives are presented as “case studies” in the form of first-hand narratives that speak directly to issues discussed in the book.
https://bookartville.com/coras-booktrek-breaks-into-a-sprint/
CORA LIBRARY & RESOURCE CENTRE
Though the CORA Programming year usually starts in March, the organisation made an earlier shot in January when it staged its first activity – a symbolic event to show the new direction of its public/community engagement.
JANUARY 14: The opening of the CORA LIBRARY & RESOURCE CENTRE located at the CORAVille — a section of the monumental space for creative production and expression, Freedom Park. The library is conceived to serve the interest of the general public, in particular students and youths. The intention is to continue to encourage the citizenry to see EDUCATION as the singular key to ENLIGHTENMENT and EMPOWERMENT – all in the cause of Nation-Building and Human Capital Development. The Library is designed to stage regular literary activities, especially the flagship CORA BOOKTrek, the Literacy Campaign project, which brings authors into direct encounters with reader of their works. The LR &C stages regular programmes on such key literacy-improvement engagements as workshops and seminars on writing, reading, speechmaking among others. It will be a home to fellow artist organisations committed to deepening LITERACY in the national consciousness. The project enjoys the support of several organisations and individuals, notably Freedom Park, Chief Kayode. Aderinokun (Chair CORA Trustee), the esteemed CORA Board members, subscribers and volunteers, and, especially the support of Hawthornden Foundation. Essentially, it benefits from donations by authors, publishers, bookstores, and members of the public in general. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvo11PeWVaI&t=16s
BOOKTREK
FEBRUARY 16: The CORA staged its first BookTrek featuring WORKING WITH BUHARI, a highly anticipated book by a top journalist, Femi Adesina, who, however, went to work with President Muhammadu Buhari as Senior Special Adviser on Media. Adesina by virtue of the office, especially the much-vilified administration he worked with, was thoroughly grilled by the audience who challenged nearly every contention he made to defend his master and the political regime. The objective was to use the book to open the innards of the Presidential palace to the young ones, who ordinarily do not take keen interest in affairs of the State.
https://bookartville.com/coras-booktrek-breaks-into-a-sprint/
ART STAMPEDE
MARCH 17: The first quarterly Art Stampede held at the tail end of the 2024 iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival (iREP). This is a reenactment of an annual ritual that began in 2010 when the festival was inaugurated. Being the last plenary session of the 4-day festival, the Art Stampede took on its usual activist garb discussing “The Screen in a time of socio-cultural-political trauma”. This was a derivation from the general theme of the festival, Righting the Future, which discourse spotlighted the film medium and media as capable of helping to stir the nature of discourse in the polity, especially exploring means by which the national reorientation could be shaped to make sense of the wooly political scene. The theme was auspicious as it brought creative artists and scholars in diverse artistic disciplines into the room to explore means by which the media and the arts could help the citizenry navigate the current political plagues enveloping the beleaguered nation
BOOK PARTY
AUGUST 7: The annual CORA-NPL Book Party, featuring the 11- longlisted authors in the $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature. Held in partnership with the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, the promoters of the Prize. The focus-genre for the year was Children Literature, and creatively, children were the strong protagonists of the event, with a select few of them reading from the longlisted publications. The honoured authors on the longlist include; Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmo (A Father’s Pride), Akanni Festus Olaniyi (Bode’s Birthday Party), Jumoke Verissimo (Grandma And The Moon’s Hidden Secret), Henry Akubuiro (Mighty Mite And Golden Jewel), Temiloluwa Adeshina (Risi Recycle – The Dustbin Girl), and Olatunbosun Taofeek (The Children At The IDP Camp). Other authors on the longlist are; Ayo Oyeku (The Magic Jalabiya), Familoni Oluranti Olubunmi (The Road Does Not End), Hyginus Ekwuazi (The Third Side of A Coin), Anietie Usen (Village Boy), and Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike (Wish Maker).https://guardian.ng/tag/15th-cora-nigeria-prize-for-literature-book-party/https://businessday.ng/life-arts/article/nigeria-prize-for-literature-cora-nlng-honour-2024-longlist-of-11/
BOOKTREK
AUGUST 15: A BookTrek on This Is Not A Discoteke by Toki Mabogunje was staged at the Freedom Park, with the author reading from her book and fielding questions from the public. This Is Not A Discoteke is a hand-on memoir suited to young people who are just stepping into the working/career phase of their life, spotlighting for them the odds and challenges they will most likely encountered at the starting point. It encourages them to be focused on building their career and future. The author is a successful female leader in the business and legal profession. The BookTrek is a focal project of the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) that features book reviews and readings by some of Africa’s most engaging literary writers. It is part of CORA’s extension services to promoting reading culture, deepening literary appreciation and audience engagement with the published text, as well as spreading campaign for literacy towards boosting citizens’ education, enlightenment and empowerment, ostensibly to achieve CORA’s fundamental mission of building human capital capacity of the nation and the continent. https://thisislagos.ng/literary-minds-to-gather-for-cora-booktrek-event-in-lagos/
BOOKTREK
DECEMBER 7: BOOKTREK: WALE ADEDURO
BOOKTREK
DECEMBER 20