Hotel Presidential, the venue of the fifth Garden City Literary Festival, wore an unusual radiance at the behest of the natural sunlight and the impressive events of the festival. The event had a stellar cast including Nigeria’s finest Wole Soyinka, Gabriel Okara and Elechi Amadi, to mention a few. The festival drew high profile academics, public officials and emerging literary talents. In line with this year's theme, "Women in Literature" the guest authors were all female writers; Veronique Tadjo, Doreen Baingana and Chibundu Onuzo.
This convergence of the crème de la crème in the world of African literature was complemented by the captivating array of scheduled programmes. At the book fair, elusive books as well as new books were available. For the workshops, most participants were pre-registered, so signing up was easy. The ushers and gatekeepers, who were mainly young people, welcomed everyone with smiles. They brimmed with enthusiasm and a genuine desire to help. They wore their distinctive branded black T-shirts on Jean trousers. The seminar rooms were well-lit and air-conditioned; they had comfortable chairs, giving the rooms both functionality and aesthetics.
The events for children had various small groups of excited uniformed schoolchildren in attendance. The fiction seminar played host to an inspired set of aspiring novelists exclusively while bona fide poetry lovers had their seminars simultaneously in a separate room. However, other events had unrestricted access. But all events stood out by their interactive approach, among which was the discussion by the three female authors on the theme of the festival. There was also a dance drama on VVF by an all-female troupe from the Arts Village, University of Port Harcourt; this triggered a reflection on the broader themes of illiteracy, tradition and injustice.
All the events were free. Indeed, I consider that outstanding considering the rewards participants garnered such as the opportunity to hobnob with established writers and receive invaluable insights from them,
It was particularly pleasing to find a sizeable proportion of young participants at the festival whose presence infused the older generation of writers with the firm optimism that the writing profession has a living legacy.
In sum, the festival as a whole was a valuable lesson in impeccable organization.
This article was sent in by Princewill Udom; he was part of the GCLF writing workshop, 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment