Category: Non classé

Nkabom 2019: Cultural Slums and Sanctuaries

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NKABOM LITERARY ART FESTIVAL in its fourth year will be spread out in a 7 day all-round  experience where literature meets art with society in focus; with panel discussions, book readings, poetry slams, workshops, mobile artist residencies, performances, exhibitions, a grand concert, etc in two West African cities- Accra and Lomé.

Nkabom 2019 Curatorial Statement

“Cultural Slums and Sanctuaries”

Cultural Slum is a term borrowed from the artist, poet, mathematician and scholar Dr. kąrî’kạchä seid’ou. From the historical standpoint and the emotive elements of geopolitics, to the layered material cultures and theories of climatic determinism. How are we designing potential futures around the rubrics of infrastructure with awareness about the historical relationship between global North and global South? Sanctuaries on the other hand, echoes the Sankofa feeling across board as emboldened by the “Year of Return” pronouncement in Ghana and Togo’s elaborate diasporic relations. Cultural Slums and Sanctuaries is an anatomical visitation into the decay of a body which was originally engineered to spark self-sustenance in multiple interconnected points. A haven and a hoax? Knotted together with other threads of oxymorons; crave of class and culture vultures, royal restitution and toxic commodification of culture, wider projects of urban transformation and cultural diffusion where assertion and stakes are granted or barred by gate keepers and ‘slum lords’. Processes elevating the slum and others which propel [its] decay. In seid’ou’s own words: “My over-identification with the cultural slum is an optimistic rather than a cynical one, constructive rather than resistance politics. It is to affirm and thereby help invent an alternative to the global mainstream.”

Collaborations and Inclusive Programming

Since its establishment in 2013, Inkfluent has become a vital force in the African literary and art scenes with a global appeal due to its many collaborations and inclusive programs.

With a cutting edge and refreshing approach to festival production, Nkabom has grown to be the home of a broadening and rich discourse that connects two capital cities in West Africa; Accra and Lome, with diverse and focused contexts aiming at building sustainable frameworks with interactive and inclusive community-based concepts. We invite you to join Inkfluent and Nkabom in a partnership that will meet the exclusive needs of your organization.

Participating Artists

In the context of Nkabom, pan- Africanism has constantly been the ideological rubric, creating the centre for intellectual, artistic and social awareness programming. Nkabom produces and promotes contemporary cultural production and discourse of artists, curators, writers, film makers, poets or slammers, students and performers, etc be it solo, collabs or collectives, who live in/have ties to/work on subjects about Africa. A space station enforcing cultural solidarity based on local, national, transnational, and international frameworks, spanning across multiple geographical spaces and projecting marginalised voices.

We work with the Togolese registered non-profits “Kekeli Lab”  and “Tsale Lekema” for this dual country production. With participants from over 20 countries showing interest, we are still confirming those who can make it to either or both locations: Accra and Lomé. Below are some of these artists…

Hind Meddeb- Film Screening + Panel (France), Break Ya Bones (France/Cameroon/Madagascar/Ghana), Mariusz Smiejek (Italy), Limbo by  Dominique Petit-Frère and Emil Grip (Denmark/Ghana), Christine Jean Blain: Workshop + Panel- (USA), Kate Savage Workshop + Conversation- Freedom Creating: Contemporary  Understandings of Art and Life Amongst The Ghanaian Creative Community (USA), Elom 20CE- Workshop + Performance (Togo), Julio Teko- Panel (Togo), Balims 1er (Burkina Faso), Raquel Lima (Portugal), Winnie Nketia and SASAA (Denmark), Tanya Evanson (Canada), Marie Mamonia and We Make Peace- Kids Workshop (Denmark), Felix, Sophia, Sahba and The Ashanti Vibe- Theatre Residency, Performance + Talk (Germany/Ghana), Slam: Vos de Levante. Roberta Estrela D’Alva + Tatiana Lohmann (Brasil), NYU Creative Writing Class (USA), Martial Panucci (Congo), Iro of Niamey du Rire (Niger), Malika la Slameuse (Burkina Faso), Kamal Radji (Benin), Aziz Kone of Festival International du Slam et de l’Humour (Mali), Amee- Slam (Cote d’Ivoire), Kumut Imesh- Film Screening (Italy), Alya Sirelkhatim (Sudan), Naomi Tekeste (Eritrea), Phoebe Boswell (Kenya/UK), Poetry Potion (South Africa), Mathew Oyedele (Nigeria), Lisa Greenaway AKA DJ Lapkat (Australia), Mind Art Recordings (Kenya), Kekeli Lab (Togo), Tsale Lekema (Togo), etc.

PHOTOS FROM PREVIOUS EVENTS. COURTESY INFLUENT

 

Categories: Festival Non classé

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Slam Ghana

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Slam Ghana is the Ghana national outlet for poets to read or recite their original work without props, costumes, or music. Our events incite the creation and performance of poetry that engages communities and provides a platform for voices to be heard beyond social, cultural, political, and economic barriers. We have two types targeted at two different age ranges:

 

TEEN SLAM GHANA is our open welcoming space for teenagers to freely express themselves. Check out young people speaking to the most important issues of our time. Our events are in conjunction with National Theatre of Ghana. We are passionate about critical literacy, youth development and advancing interest in creativity and its potential for social change by engaging the youth with preparation and performance opportunities.

 

 

GRAND SLAM GHANA

Spoken verses are beautiful art forms that engage audiences directly and intimately. Our grand slam is open to poets and spoken word artists above 18. The splendor of word art on diverse themes and topics has got ours peaked every time. Come share with us.

 

2019 updates will be uploaded. Follow Slam Ghana on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Categories: Non classé

Says Her Ink

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In honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we’re inviting women/girl poets of all ages worldwide to share their poems and stories with us. Get involved by tweeting at us or via Instagram (@inkfluent) using the #SaysHerInk tag.

Says Her Ink is produced by Inkfluent and features womxn poets. This video features Crystal Tettey, a Malagasy-Ghanaian poet and artist who uses performance art to inspire positive social change and whose performances often incorporate Malagasy folk music and organic instrumentation.

Concept:
Womxn poets on unlearning sexism, ending rape culture and disrupting patriarchal norms, practices and ideology.​

Details:
Accra- Continuing in its mission to positively impact the social fabric of African society through creative expression, artist platform Inkfluent has begun production of a spoken word film project dubbed Says Her Ink. The project, which features female poets from Ghana and the U.S., aims to be an audio/visual creative work geared toward ending rape culture and Ghana’s harmful patriarchal behavioral tendencies.

Sexual assault in Ghana is an inherently difficult topic to discuss, though it’s a topic that bears discussing. Advocate group Gender Centre Ghana reports that 27% of Ghanaian women have been sexually assaulted in their lifetime, and 1 and 3 women having been fondled or touched against their will. The Says Her Ink project was born out of a desire for women to have a voice on this topic in a largely male-dominated society. Inkfluent is hoping to communicate a serious topic in a colorful, expressive way that will shed a personal, relatable light on a complex topic. Inkfluent is a platform that works with artists to expand on oral history, literature and performance art intersecting with social commentary in contemporary times. Please contact inkfluentgroup@gmail.com for more information.

[Words by Tiffany Duafe Howard]

Categories: Non classé

THE WRITE EXPERIENCE II [HEALING HANDICAPPED HOMES]

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Last year, THE WRITE EXPERIENCE I had a strong message about the essence of appreciating our environment through a fusion of poetry, live jazz music, graffiti and contemporary dance. By popular demand, Inkfluent brings you the second edition, THE WRITE EXPERIENCE II dubbed: “Healing Handicapped Homes”.

The event explores how art can be used as a tool to heal and keep us aware in the midst of society’s drag. This concept is composed of an animated collages of film, poetry, live music by a spectacular visually challenged band and contemporary dance featuring a collaboration with artist Serge Attukwei and performances by Rewrite Crew, Jude Kurankyi, poets from Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin, as well as a live music session by Humble International Band(an extraordinarily talent.

The fusion is based on Africa’s intrinsic visual and oral context and the dynamism of body, action, space, time and energy, also using technology as an innovative means to explore the realities of displacement due to natural or artificial effects. The result subtly creates the awareness of fragility of existence and the concrete belief in transformation when a collective of broken societies merge.

THE WRITE EXPERIENCE is a long-term project aimed at bringing together artists from different parts of Africa for cultural exchange and social activism; reflecting on the Scramble for Africa(the artificial drawing made among European powers which started with the Berlin Conference of 1884–85) and its after-effects due to the creation of African political boundaries. We combine history and trajectory of contemporary experimental forms mixing local, anglophone and francophone dialects.

This particular edition remarkably involves persons with disabilities in performances to express individuality and the limitless healing abilities of the human touch. Even as a continent, made up of independent but handicapped bits, how does networking aid growth?

the write experience ii cover art, courtesy: awo tsegah

VENUE: La Paillote Takpekpe at Alliance Française Accra
DATE: 27th January, 2016
TIME: 7:30 – 9:30 PM
GATE: GHc5/GHc3 for AF students/Free for those under 16

Alliance Française Accra

Liberation link (behind Opeibea House), Airport Residential Area
P.O. Box CT4904, Cantonments Accra – Ghana
www.afaccra.org

Facebook: AllianceFrancaisedAccra

Twitter: @AF_Accra

Instagram: af_accra

Categories: Non classé

THE WRITE EXPERIENCE III [TROTRO TELEPORT THEORY]

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THE WRITE EXPERIENCE III [TROTRO TELEPORT THEORY] maps shared histories of language, spirituality and creative cultures in West Africa. The festival takes us on a mobile(traveling) artists residency from Accra through Aflao to Lome. Artists from several parts of West Africa will connect to work on an experimental video that fuses folk storytelling poetry, music and vodou dance .

The project culminates in a concert on the 25th of January at Alliance Française Accra (Amphitheatre) where we show the experimental video and stage live performances of folk poetry, a dance installation, contemporary jazz and “porpor” or trotro music by Nii Noi Nortey and the Accra Trane Station band from 1968 La Drivers Union Porpor music group.

the write experience iii cover art, courtesy: ian quhachi

TROTRO TELEPORT THEORY CONCERT:
DATE: 25th Jan., 2017
TIME: 7-9:30PM
VENUE: Alliance Française Accra (Amphitheatre)
GATE: GHc10, GHc5 for af members, FREE for those under 16
RSVP inkfluentgroup@gmail.com/ Whatsapp +233243470344

Categories: Non classé

NKABOM 2017

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OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

NKABOM FESTIVAL 2017

NKABOM 2017 – AUGUST 23rd to 26th – ACCRA, GHANA

THEME: UNSCRAMBLING AFRICA

Last year’s festival had its theme as ‘Kenten Spaces‘. Kenten means basket in Akan language. The project went out to network poets, novelists and spoken word artists with photographers, DJs, painters, illustrators, theatre artists, musicians, etc such that the inter-weaving of diverse content magnifies the perimeters that literature in commonplace is thought to accomplish.

The creative know-how and messages were implanted through workshops with basic school kids at Nubuke and young students at University of Ghana, as well as non-traditional spaces in Accra like Republic-Osu and the main street in the centre of Abelenkpe .

This year, the theme ‘Unscrambling Africa’ goes to redefine how Africa as a continent with a myriad of cultures and essential tech resources, acute philosophies, coded data, rare science, hatched art, etc is handed the teeny toothpick. The exchange circumnavigates the tired one-way discussion of slavery, but opens wing to bring back home muted meanings, measures and mysticism.

It’s a quest and questioning affair, as we unbutton borderlines, bulletins and belief systems. We address inclusiveness, open-mindedness and responsibility from talking drums to Sahara hikes to Mediterranean silt. From Ghana or Naija jollof, diaspora dynamism to coltan trails. Even from Khufu’s pyramid to Xhosa tongue clicks to Akan weights.

We look to once again engage multidisciplinary frameworks and build further the grid of sustainable ideas through workshops, readings, recitals, performances, screenings, digital applications, etc,. We hereby call on cultural provocateurs asking the right questions to inspire social change.

Categories: Non classé