Evocative sessions, performance of ‘Sanya’ as curtain falls on 2025 LABAF,
By Prisca Sam-Duru
The 27th edition of one of Africa’s most inspiring culture feasts, the Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF, came to a close last Sunday, November 16, with the customary session known as Art Stampede.
The annual festival organized by the Committee for Relevant Arts, CORA this 2025, held at two venues; Freedom Park, Lagos, and J Randle Centre Onikan, as well as virtually.
The event, which has been tagged a “Literary Owambe”, which has become a core platform for talent nurturing and community building within the arts, held this year with the theme, “Change: Imagining Alternatives”. The theme was chosen to encourage new processes and ideas for social transformation.
With a sub-theme, “The Creative Economy in the Renewed Hope Era,” the Art Stampede witnessed some deep-seated views from the panellists on how best to create a vibrant culture sector. This session brought the 27th edition of LABAF to an amazing close after a week-long festival featuring panel discussions, readings and conversations, Children’s Green festival, and much more.
The Day Three of the festival brought the festival theme, “Change: Imagining Alternatives,” to life across Freedom Park and the J Randle Centre. The day blended mentorship, youth creativity, cultural heritage, and memorable storytelling.
Professor Tunji Azeez led an inspiring session where he emphasized artists’ critical role in shaping national progress. He encouraged creatives to embrace responsibility, master financial literacy, and stay committed to purposeful dreaming. Referencing Ben Okri’s Journey with The Famished Road, he gave profound insight into how perseverance turns imagination into achievement.
Another session themed, “Story Telling and Cultural Preservation,” featured a thought-provoking panel that explored African jujuism, symbolism, and the digital future. The need for Africans to control their narratives and protect endangered cultural expressions by documenting and integrating them into modern technologies was also emphasized.
The LABAF Readers’ Assembly which was sponsored by the NLNG, brought the 2025 winning book in The Nigeria Prize for Literature prose fiction competition, “SÀNYÀ” to life through powerful performances and deep conversations on memory, culture, and change.
While Aisha Abdulahi captured the essence of the plot of Sanya in a mesmerizing review, Actor Nathaniel Olaoye gave an amazing performance of the award-winning book.
During the session, Manager, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs, Mrs. Anne-Marie Palmer-Ikuku highlighted NLNG’s long-standing support for LABAF as part of the company’s commitment to nurturing Nigeria’s creative and intellectual culture.
Mrs Palmer-Ikuku emphasised that platforms like LABAF play a vital role in shaping minds, inspiring expression, and preserving the nation’s artistic heritage.
She seized the opportunity of the event to talk about NLNG’s newly introduced The Nigeria Prize for Creative Arts, explaining that the Prize was created to further elevate and reward excellence in the creative sector.
“This new category is important because it gives young Nigerian storytellers, especially documentary filmmakers, a platform to tell authentic stories about identity, culture, and the Nigerian experience. It is an investment in the next generation of creatives and a continuation of NLNG’s belief that the arts are essential to national development.”
The 2025 edition of the cultural feast also celebrated ARTHouse Cultural Icons while marking 20 years of Green advocacy. On Saturday, November 15, CORA conferred honour on a large number of “icons” of the Culture sector who, “clocked landmark ages”- 90s, 80s, 70s and 60s at various times in the year.
On the honours list for the celebration, which the LABAF has staged since 1999 when it made its debut, are among others: Frank Aig-Imoukhuede, first federal Director of Culture; Prof Demas Nwoko, the eclectic art designer and architect; the lawyer-playwright, Chief Fred Agbeyegbe and the publisher-writer, Modupe Oduyoye — all of whom clocked 90 this year.
“The celebration is steeped in the CORA’s founding objective: to Educate, Enlighten, and Empower the citizenry, by spotlighting those who have helped build the nation’s cultural foundation. The tributes centre on distinguished personalities whose careers span media, performing arts, architecture, literature, and public service.
This segment underscores LABAF’s commitment to preserving and promoting the history of Nigerian arts by recognising its architects,” Festival Director and CORA Programme Chair, Jahman Anikulapo stated.
Same Day Five of the festival was branded the ‘Green Day,’ which marked the 20th anniversary of the Green Festival, the children and adolescent segment consistently staged by CORA in partnership with Children and the Environment (CATE) in the past two decades. The Green Festival, curated and directed by Adesola Arti Alamutu, has played host to over 5000 pupils and students, some of whom are today in leadership positions all over the world.
The post Evocative sessions, performance of ‘Sanya’ as curtain falls on 2025 LABAF appeared first on Vanguard News.
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The 27th edition of one of Africa’s most inspiring culture feasts, the Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF, came to a close last Sunday, November 16, with the customary session known as Art Stampede.
The post Evocative sessions, performance of ‘Sanya’ as curtain falls on 2025 LABAF appeared first on Vanguard News.
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