Lagos Book & Art Festival announces theme for 2024 edition 

Chronicles, imaginings and factfulness will be “dangerous pursuits” as artists, writers, authors and wordsmiths gather at the 26th Lagos Book & Art Festival (LABAF), November 11-17, 2024. 

To keep the conversation mainstream, the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) Art & Cultural Foundation has listed 11books centered on the theme: Hope is a Stubborn Thing. CORAselected the books reflecting hope, doggedness, the will to win, as theme, whether in fiction or in non-fiction, to stimulate a spirited festival conversation.  

The Books include:

• Andre Brink’s Imaginings of Sand

• Mukoma WA Ngugi’s We, The Scarred

• Mark Manson’s Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope

• Laila Lalami’s Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

• Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Way of Companions

• Wọle Ṣoyinka’s Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth

• Antje Krog’s A Change of Tongue                                                                                                                          

• Edward W. Said and Daniel Barenboim’s Parallels and Paradoxes: EXPLORATIONS IN MUSIC AND Society -This is about a possible Pluralism of Israeli and Palestinian societies

• Peter Sekihan’s  The End of The World Is Just The Beginning

• Chigozie Obioma’s The Road to the Country

• Hans Rosling: Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

• Chibundu Onuzo’s Sankofa

LABAF is a landmark event in the nation’s culture calendar with sprawling book displays, exhibitions, live music and drama performances and of course, nuanced literary events that take time out to dig deep into the content of books. The events include a Book Trek featuring short readings by authors of the newest books on the Nigerian shelf; a full day workshop christened Publishers’ Forum, a Visual Art parley and two prize awards for book reviews.

This year’s edition, set for the Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos, is dedicated to the humanist scholar, poet, essayist, prose stylist, dramatist and filmmaker, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who turns90 on July 13 and whose tireless, lifelong work on the possibilities of the Nigerian project is a cause that CORA holds dear. 

“LABAF is self-styled as Africa’s Biggest Culture Picnic because we don’t just put together a book fair, a performance concert, a literary festival or an art expo, what we do is a healthy fusion of all four in a festival atmosphere, and for the past 25 years, the festival has become an important destination for families, literary and art enthusiasts, culture producers, children and even lovers”, says Jahman Anikulapo, CORA’s ProgrammeChairman.

“We have had people who came as teenagers years ago,attending now as middle-aged adults. We have also had people who met at the festival grounds for the first-time years ago, still attending as married couples. What keeps them coming back is the way the festival allows them to engage with culture in a fun atmosphere, that is why it is Africa’s Biggest Culture Picnic,”  

At LABAF book events, attendees usually engage with books at a deeper level beyond the star power of the authors that produce them. Most sessions are usually driven by robust discussion panels. This year’s panelists will be unveiled to the public soon.

There is a children’s programme coordinated by Children andThe Environment (CATE) and CORA YOUNG CREATIVE CLUB. It features loads of activities, workshops, talks and performances centered around the festival theme, Breakout: Hope is a Stubborn Thing.