By Iminza Keboge
Published March 31, 2019
Four Africans described as being ‘highly accomplished’ artists who promote the well-being of humanity around the world’ have been awarded artist residency in Italy.
The four practitioners whose artistic practice shall be sharpened further at Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center include UK-based Kenyan academic and writer Wangui wa Goro (Literature), South Africa-based Nigerian Akin Omotoso (Film) and South Africans Gabeba Baderoon (Literature) and Philip Miller (Composer).
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“These four artists were selected from an extraordinarily talented shortlist of 13, who were selected from an equally impressive pool of 100 applications to our AIR – Bellagio Center program,” Africa Centre of Cape Town, that organises the Africa in Residency (AIR) programme, says. “The residency award includes a month at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center and round trip airfare from the artist’s country.”
Africa Centre says its AIR – Bellagio Center “strand of our continental residency program awards highly accomplished artists across disciplines who share in the Africa Centre and Rockefeller Foundation’s mission to highlight and support the artistic practice of those working to promote the well-being of humanity around the world.”
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Meanwhile, Brunel International African Poetry Prize has announced the names of artists it has shortlisted.
Those on the list include Egyptian-American poet and pediatrician Sherry Shenoda, Somali American writer and educator Jamila Osman; Ghanaian American academic Afua Ansong; Ghanaian American poet, editor, and educator Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah; writer, UK-based poet and essayist of Nigerian heritage, Selina Nwulu;and Egyptian poet Nadra Mabrouk.
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Others on the list of 10 are Sudanese poet K. Eltinaé; Nigerian-born cross art form practitioner Inua Ellams; Los Angeles (California)-based, Nigerian-born writer and scholar Mary-Alice Daniel; and Omotara James, a poet whose nationality defies ‘boxing’ because she is born of Nigerian and Trinidadian immigrants in Britain.
Bernardine Evaristo, founder of The Brunel Prize that is projected as having ‘been highlighting emerging African poets since 2012’, is quoted in Prairie Schooner newsletter as saying that “the quality of the poetry submitted has increased exponentially each year and the range of thematic and stylistic concerns has continued to broaden.”
