Good Nigerian art, media & entertainment. This includes Nigerian-inspired visuals, auditory or performing artifacts (artworks), music, movies, culture, etc.
Four Nigerian journalists have been awarded prizes of $1,750 by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the United Nations Foundation for their outstanding coverage of conflict, flooding and desertification.
Continue reading 4 Nigerian Journalists Win ICFJ/UN Prizes For Outstanding Reports [2018]
Nigerian documentary photographer, Yagazie Emezi, has been awarded the Inaugural Creative Bursary Award by Getty Images.
The 26-year-old is among the six recipients selected by an industry-leading panel of the international photo curating platform to get amounts between $2,000 and $5,000.
Other recipients include Neema Githere from Kenya; Oriana Koren, Jeremy Dennis, Donavon Smallwood and Tara Sellios from the United States of America.
Yagazie Emezi came in joint second place with Neema Githere for a prize sum of $3,000.
In the words of Yagazie Emezi on receiving the Creative Bursary Award:
“Ready for the challenge and looking forward to seeing how we make use of this opportunity to tell more of our necessary stories.”
She began her journey as a self-taught photographer in early 2015 and has since been commissioned by Al-Jazeera, New York Times, Vogue, Refinery29, Everyday Projects, and UNFPA.
The Vlogger and a graduate of Cultural Anthropology and African Studies from the University of New Mexico came into limelight for her continuous project ‘Another Tale by Moonlight’.
She returned to Lagos from the United States of America (USA) in 2014, to ‘document life in Nigeria as it truly is’.
Emezi has worked on several projects including ‘Felaberation’ and the Lagos Fashion Week.
In 2017, Yagazie Emezi was a participant in the World Press Photo Masterclass West Africa and is a contributor to Everyday Africa.
Getty Images Inaugural Creative Bursary Awards was established in October 2017, to support emerging photographers, who must be under 30 or have been pursuing professional photography for less than three years.
The annual $40,000 Bursary will enable them to realise commercial photographic projects.
Odinaka Anudu and Temple Asaju have won the 2017 Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Reporters of the Year award at the 2018 MAN annual media luncheon held in Ikeja, Lagos. Anudu retained the award which he also won in 2016.
Odinaka Anudu won the newspaper category, while Temple Asaju of Channels TV emerged winner in the television category.
Continue reading Odinaka Anudu & Temple Asaju Win 2017 MAN Reporters Of The Year Award
Winners have emerged at the 2017 Lagos PR Industry Gala and Awards (LaPRIGA) held at Four Point by Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Lagos Chapter has named Founder/CEO of BHM, Ayeni Adekunle, as the PR Practitioner of the year 2017.
According to the Chairman, NIPR Lagos State Chapter, Olusegun McMedal, the award is in recognition of Ayeni’s sterling contributions to the PR practice in Nigeria, especially for his firm’s leadership in innovation and creation of value for the ecosystem with launch of the Nigeria PR Report: the first and only annual report chronicling development, collating data, monitoring trends, perceptions, challenges and prospects in Public Relations industry in Africa’s biggest market.
BHM was also responsible for the development of the first PR mobile application in Nigeria, BHM App. Described as a complete resource for the media and marketing communications industry, BHM app serves as a reservoir of information for clients, agencies and the PR industry as a whole.
In addition to Ayeni’s recognition, BHM was also awarded Best Agency To Work, and Agency of the Year 2017. The selection of BHM according to the organisers was based on the result of a survey of agency employees which scored BHM high on a wide range of parameters, ranging from integrity of senior management, quality of professional development, creativity, empowerment and risk-taking, staff welfare, mobility, retention and emolument.
TPT International was conferred with the ‘Corporate Practitioner of Excellence 2017’ award. This is in recognition of its “innovative, excellent, professional and creative” approach to campaigns and contribution to the growth of PR practice in the past two decades.
The second edition of the Lagos PR Industry Gala and Awards (LaPRIGA) is themed “celebration of success” with the aim of recognizing excellence in communication professionals, corporate and public organisations in the industry in order to boost professionalism and more investment in the practice.
Ayeni Adekunle was represented at the award ceremony by Moruff Adenekan, General Manager, BHM and Femi Falodun, COO ID Africa – the Digital Agency founded by Ayeni Adekunle. In a pre-recorded video, which was played at the event, Ayeni apologized for not being physically present to personally receive the award and expressed his gratitude to the organizers.
He further said:
“…this award is for everybody that has ever worked at BHM, I take all the credit all the time for what we are doing but from our first staff ever to all the interns that have joined us today, the entire management team and everyone that has worked, are currently working and that will work here in future, it is because of you that we’re able to say- we’re building a company that will surely go global…”
Ayeni Adekunle is a graduate of Microbiology from the University of Ibadan. Before founding BHM, Ayeni was a journalist at Encomium, The Punch, Thisday, and The Africa Report. Ayeni has been invited to speak at numerous conferences and workshops around the world where he teaches on new media, entrepreneurship, youth culture, public relations, and entertainment. He is also founder of Nigeria’s premiere entertainment newspaper – Nigerian Entertainment Today NETng, as well as the umbrella entertainment conference for Nigeria’s creative sector – Nigerian Entertainment Conference.
Ayeni is a member of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and Chartered Institute of Public Relations UK (CIPR).
Winners have emerged at the 2017 Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF) awards aimed at rewarding and recognising creative excellence.
Noah’s Ark Communications Limited emerged the overall best creative agency at the Lagos Advertising and Ideas Festival (LAIF).
Continue reading Winners Of 2017 Lagos Advertising And Ideas Festival (LAIF) Awards
Winners have emerged at the 2017 Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA), held at the Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos.
Winners Of 2017 Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA)
Nigerian Tribune won the Prize for Editorial Writing of the Year; Sulaimon Olanrewaju won the Coca-Cola Prize for Brand and Marketing Reporter of the Year, and the MTN Prize for Telecommunications Reporter of the Year; and Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare won the Saraki Prize for Agriculture Reporter of the Year.
Eric Dumo was named winner in the Corporate Social Responsibility category with his story titled: “I have sold everything including my wedding ring to stay alive.”
Arukaino Umukoro, emerged winner in the Defence Reporter category with his entry titled: “Our Police their servants: How Nigeria’s VIPs use officers, others as domestic servants.”
New Telegraph’s Head of Investigation desk, Mr. Isioma Madike, won in two categories of both the Energy and Entertainment Reporter of the Year.
The Aviation Editor, Wole Shadare, won the Aviation Reporter of the Year with his entry; “White elephant airport.”
The newspaper’s Group Political Editor, Mr. Felix Nwaneri, was declared the winner of the Lateef Jakande Prize for the Political Reporter of the Year with his entry entitled; “A Federation of Unequal,” while the Assistant Editor, Oluwatosin Omoniyi was named the Female Reporter of the Year with her two-part story; “Dustbin Estate: Paradise of filth.”
Similarly, the newspaper’s Property Editor, Mr. Dayo Ayeyemi, was declared the winner of the Real Estate/Construction category with his story titled: “Faulty foundations: The Unanswered Questions.”
Also, New Telegraph’s Finance Editor, Mr. Abdulwahab Isa won the former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola Prize for Culture and Tradition with his story titled: “Zuma Rock: A monstrous Home of Mysteries.”
Mojeed Alabi, won the Education Reporter of the Year award with his entry, “Ivory towers of fraud.”
Professor Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, has won the 2017 The Europe Theatre Prize award.
Announcing the award, the General Secretary, The Europe Theatre Prize, Alessandro Martinez, said Professor Wole Soyinka won the Special Prize category of the award for his consistency “as a proponent of an ideal bridge between Europe and Africa in a deeply delicate period for the present and the future of our continent.”
Professor Wole Soyinka was praised for his deep commitment to combining at the highest level his own cultural political experience with those of others in different climes for peace and civil co-existence among peoples of the world.
Asked whether the prize has anything to do with the collaborative work he has been undertaking with Italian and other European authorities over the Immigration issue, Professor Wole Soyinka explained that the two events have nothing to do with each other.
In his words of Professor Wole Soyinka:
“No. But it is true that I shall take the opportunity to advance some initiatives in which I’ve been involved, which happen to be largely in Italy. For instance, I’ll be attending a meeting with one of our principal collaborators in Milan before heading back. We’ve been on this for a number of years, you know. Africans – and mostly Nigerians – have been dying in droves – either through drowning in Mediterranean or perishing in the midst of the vastness of the Sahara – en route Libya mostly. Some have been butchered by the forces of Daesh – the so-called ISIS along the coast of embarkation.
The would-be migrants were separated – Muslims on one side, ‘unbelievers’ on the other. The latter were mowed down in cold blood. The scandal over Libyan slave camps – it’s not new, it’s only finally burst through the surface to international attention. This is what I was referring to in the recent edition of my INTERVENTIONS series – GREEN CARDS, GREEN GODS – when I advised those brainless commentators to re-direct their energies at the dehumanization of their own countrymen and women – including arbitrary executions and enslavement in Libya. Until recently, the Libyan atrocities were overshadowed by the more dramatic losses and rescue missions in the Mediterranean.
You may recall that the first of the very first special series of the Lagos Black Heritage Festival – titled THE BLACK IN THE MEDITERRANEAN BLUE – devoted special attention to the global affliction. We produced a special publication of poetry and images on the theme of – MIGRATIONS. That is, a number of African and Italian writers were invited to contribute poems on the theme of Migrations, and a publication emerged – both in English and Italian – with illustrations. The work is still current in Italy, especially at Book Fairs. That’s how lines from my own contribution ended up embossed on the gravestones of some Nigerians in far-off Catania.
The bodies were washed up on the island, not far from Lampedusa and Sicily. I happened to have been collaborating on that twenty-first century global challenge with the Mayor of nearby Palermo, in Sicily – where I am Honorary Citizen by the way – in case that interests you! The Mayor, Orlando Leolucca has been at the forefront of a campaign to ensure humane treatment for migrants – as a fundamental responsibility of civilized peoples.
So, we have some of our humanity interred on the remote island of Catania – which they never heard of in their lifetime. Their bodies were fished out of the sea– or washed up, I forget now – and the authorities felt that they should be given a decent burial. It was a most neighbourly act, I felt. Something that deeply rebukes us here over the value we place on human lives. Especially these days. These voluntary undertakers were total strangers to the victims, yet they took the trouble to give their deaths a dignity – and a meaning for the rest of us. They took the trouble to invite an Italy based Nigerian performer to the ceremony. They searched for some Nigerian words to inscribe as their epitaphs. They laid flowers on their coffins and their city dignitaries honoured their departing with their presence. I was very moved to find that they had themselves fastened on lines from my poem MIGRANT to usher them into the other world.
At least, they have found peace. The project on which I am currently collaborating with Italian institutions has to do with the living, needless to say, ensuring that others are saved from such a miserable end. Trying to staunch the death flow of black bodies into the Mediterranean and rescue their desert counterparts from the enslavement trap of Libya. It is a responsibility that belongs primarily to African nations and their leadership, but that responsibility must be shared by the destination states, a responsibility that humanists like the Mayor Leolucca accept and tackle in various ways – both symbolic and material. That’s where culture and the arts come in. One flows into the other. Following on our initiative here in Lagos, Palermo, which is the current culture capital of Europe, has adopted the issue of Migrations as the core motif for her year of designation and is planning a number of manifestations in that direction. So are quite a number of European cities, including Venice.
Right now, however, I am simply going to pick up a prize. I’ll be joined by young Wole Oguntokun, one of the most energetic of the new generation theatre directors – he was nominated to do an onstage interview with me as part of the conferment events. I am sure we’ll be touching on the issue of migrations.”
Former winners of The Europe Theatre Prize award include Vaclav Havel, one of the most important European writers, and a former president of the Czech Republic.
According to Alessandro Martinez, the award ceremony of The Europe Theatre Prize, right from its inception, has become a privileged meeting.
In his words:
“As a matter of fact, on the occasion of the last award ceremony, there were participants coming from more than fifty countries in the world and about 400 journalists and theatre critics from Europe and other parts of the world.”