Yesterday's BookJam

Chuma Nwokolo (standing) reads from his poetry collections, Memories of Stone, at yesterday's BookJam - the fourth edition also featuring (from left) Binyavanga Wainaina, Sade Adeniran and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Nwokolo followed his reading of a poem on old shirts with an excerpt from his book, 'Diaries of a Dead African'. The hilarious passage brought the house down and probably led to quite a few sales of the book for the author to autograph afterwards.

Wainaina was the first reader, followed by Sade Adeniran (who read a funny 'wormy' episode from Imagine This, after which the main character, Lola Ogunwole misguidedly plots her expulsion from a hated school by opening her legs).

Adichie read work the of two participants in the ongoing Farafina Writing workshop, the pieces actually produced during the sessions. The workshop writers were all at the event - and yes, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma did make it after all.

The BookJam packed them in, into the Lifestyle Bookstore of the Silverbird Galleria on Victoria Island. This being an event involving Adichie, BookJam 4 also had its share of the now familiar 'Chimamanda groupies' who can't ask a question or comment without beginning with 'Oh, I love you sooo much. You are so wonderful. I can't believe you're here in front of us etcetera etcetera'. The spontaneous burst of declared affection is now usually drowned out by the ohhhs and ahhhs of a knowing crowd - as yesterday's main contender discovered, while someone said 'pass the tissue!'

Usually held on the last Saturday of the month, BookJam was moved forward this month because the Farafina literary event of readings and music which traditionally closes Adichie's workshop, holds next Saturday (at the Civic Centre, Lagos).

Sade Adeniran continues her book tour at the House of Makeda today.

• Images by MW - see Igoni Barrett's photos here

BookJam 4

All indications are that the monthly BookJam reading events at the glitzy Silverbird Galleria in Lagos, are here to stay. The brainchild of writer Igoni Barrett who anchors the events, the BookJam continues to attract a high calibre of writers from Nigeria and beyond on the programme. Organisers have also shown flexibility with the 3-writers format of the readings, as they've done with this month's coming edition, which promises to be more popular than ever.

Orange prize winning author of 'Half of a Yellow Sun' and lately writer of a third book, 'The Thing Around Your Neck' - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - headlines the 4th edition of The BookJam @ Silverbird.

Also on the bill is Sade Adeniran who took self publishing to a new height with her debut novel 'Imagine This' She went on to win the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Africa Region) for the book. She comes to the BookJam as the novel gets its Nigerian publication.

The third featured author is the amiable Chuma Nwokolo. Publisher of African Writing and a prolific short story writer, Nwokolo is the author of 'Diaries of a Dead African'.

There will be a special appearance by Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina, perhaps the most influential winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. He won the Caine in 2002 for his short story 'Discovering Home' and used his prize money to set up the Kwani literary mag in Nairobi. Wainaina is in Lagos to help co-teach at Adichie's now yearly Farafina Writing workshop (also facilitating are: Ghanaian great Ama Ata Aidoo - author of 'The Dilemma of a Ghost', Chika Unigwe and Niq Mhlongo).

The BookJam @ Silverbird

Silverbird Galleria

Ahmadu Bello Way

Victoria Island, Lagos

Date: Saturday May 22, 2010

Time: 3-5 pm

Images from BookJam3

The third monthly BookJam took place at the Silverbird Galleria in Lagos on Saturday April 24. Here's writer Igoni Barrett who started the BookJam series (left) with 'God of Poetry' author Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, one of the featured writers at the latest event. Author of short story collection 'From Caves of Rotten Teeth', Barrett has become a leading advocate for writers and writing in the last year. 2009's highly successful Nine Writers Tour, was his brainchild. I guess we'd call Igoni Barrett a literary activist now.



Uzor Maxim Uzoatu greets Toyin Akinosho, the General Secretary of arts advocacy group CORA (the Committee for Relevant Art). Akinosho maintains the popular Artsville column in Nigeria's Sunday Guardian. In the background is playwright Wole Oguntokun whose theatre company lays on Theatre @Terra. Thanks to him, a play is performed twice every Sunday at Terra Kulture, Lagos. The play for May is Oguntokun's 'The Other Side'.



The BookJam is packing them in on the last Saturday of every month and features 3 writers every time. On the programme for April were Karen King-Aribisala (lecturer at the University of Lagos and author of 'The Hangman's Game' as well as 'Our Wife and Other Stories'), Uzor Maxim Uzoatu and Wole Oguntokun, who read from his playtext, Gbanja Roulette.

Among the poems read at the event by Uzor Maxim Uzoatu was 'We Will Vote With Stones', which has extra resonance now, given that one of Nigeria's most reviled military dictators, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, has had the gall to reveal he's gunning for the presidency - to rule Nigeria again! - in 2011. Here's hoping a hail of stones drives IBB the evil genius back to his hilltop mansion in Minna, and that he stays there not showing his face, for the rest of his days. That's the hope, the reality in Nigeria nearly always trumps logical conclusions. If only this were fiction and one could fix the ending.

Images courtesy QF Photos.