The Lagos Poetry Festival 2019, 5th Edition

The Lagos International Poetry Festival (LIPFest2019) is here.

Now in its fifth year, the festival, which was founded in 2015 by Efe Paul Azino, promises to be “a wild beautiful thing.”

The festival begins October 30th, 2019 and ends November 3rd, 2019, and it features over fifty writers and poets and thinkers from over ten countries. According to their site, these individuals are drawn “from an assortment of dreamers, who by insisting that dreams be central to our lives, inspire a generation to rise up to the challenges of its time.” Among them are: Tolu Agbelusi, Wana Udobang, Upile Chisala, the alternative singer and songwriter Brymo, Bassey Ipki, 2019 winner of the Booker Prize Bernadine Evaristo, Logan February, the linguist Kola Tubosun, Kaveh Akbar, deputy-editor at Brittle Paper Otosirieze Obi-Young, and more.

This year’s edition of the festival includes readings and performances and conversations and workshops to be taught by amazing poets and writers.

The workshops:

• “FUSING POETRY AND FICTION—A WORKSHOP WITH BERNADINE EVARISTO”. Date: Thursday, 31st October, 2019. Time: 11am to 1pm. Venue: British Council, 20 Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos. Registration: N5000.
• Poetry masterclass with Kaveh Akbar. Date: Thursday, 31st October, 2019. Venue: British Council, 20 Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos. Registration: N5000.
• Poetry workshop with Itiola Jones, winner of the 2018 Brittle Paper Award in Poetry and a guest-editor of the Young African Poets Anthology.  Date: Wednesday, 30th October, 2019. Venue: Freedom Park, Old Prison Ground, Broad Street, Lagos Island, Lagos. Time: 11am to 1pm. Registration: N3000.
• “IN A LIFE OF WANT: A WORKSHOP ON THE POETICS OF DESIRE WITH LOGAN FEBRUARY”. Thursday, 31st October, 2019. Venue: Freedom Park, Old Prison Ground, Broad Street, Lagos Island, Lagos. Time: 2pm to 4pm. Registration: N3000.

Exchanges are also part of the festival this year. This will be the first in “a series of exchange programmes with Poetry Africa in Durban and Poetry International, a bi-annual festival hosted by the Southbank Centre.” The LIPFest Team will be sending poets from Lagos to Durban and London for these festivals and will be hosting poets from both cities as well.

We look forward to the festival with joy, and we hope you do too.