Nigerian Times

Dame Taiwo Ajai-Lycett Taiwo Ajai-Lycett and other Celebrities Grace Closing Day of LABAF Renowned Nigerian actress and muse of the Arts, Dame Taiwo Ajai-Lycett and other celebrities added glamour to the fanfare of the closing day of the 13th Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) Sunday evening at the Freedom Park in Lagos, Nigeria. Her 70th birthday was given a special party as one of the connoisseurs and dignitaries who were celebrated in a special combined LABAF Birthday Party for icons of Nigerian Art, music and literature including the grand old man of Nigerian music Fatai Rolling Dollar at 85, famous novelist and civil servant Chukwuemeka Ike at 80, the encyclopedia of Nigerian music Benson Idonije at 75; Prof. Ebun Clark at 70; the iconoclastic musician and showman Charles Oputa, aka Charly Boy at 60; popular actor Richard Mofe-Damijo at 50; first daughter of the late Afrobeat King, Yeni Kuti at 50; actress Joke Silva at 50; entertainment writer and publisher Femi Akintunde-John...

The 13th Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) opened this Thursday amidst the euphoria of the 81st birthday of our literary icon Chinua Achebe and the good news of British Nigerian playwright Janice Okoh's clinching the £16,000 Bruntwood Prize for Play-writing with her play Three Birds . It is the competition's largest single award to date. She is also popularly known for her play Egusi Soup that was premiered at the 2009 Hotbed Festival and taken on tour by Menagerie. Okoh was also a runner-up for the 2011 Verity Bargate Award for The Real House . The noble grand old man of Nigerian Literature, Prof. Chinua Achebe celebrated his 81st birthday on November 16. . Bruntwood Prize winner Janice Okoh receiving her prize from Maxine Peake . LABAF which is the biggest book fair and art event in West Africa started in the morning with the second publishers forum at the Goethe Institut on the 4th floor of the City Hall on the Lagos Island. The forum focused on "THE BOOK IN THE AGE ...