Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Popular Nigerian Blogger Offered Residency at the Famous Tyrone Guthrie Centre


Orikinla Offered Residency at the Famous Tyrone Guthrie Centre


Award winning Nigerian artist and writer Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, aka Orikinla Osinachi has been offered residency at the famous Tyrone Guthrie Centre for creative artists at Annaghmakerrig, Ireland.

Orikinla started writing professionally at 18 as a scriptwriter for the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) Channel 10 in Lagos in the early 1980s and his drawings for books have been exhibited in Japan when he was 20. He is the author of Children of Heaven (1987), Scarlet Tears of London (2006), Bye, Bye Mugabe (2008), In the House of Dogs (2011), Diary of the Memory Keeper (2013), The Prophet Lied (2013), co-author of Na-ked Beauty (2006), The Language of True Love (2006) and also the most prolific African blogger with over 30 blogs of which the most popular is Nigerians Report Online and Publisher/Editor of Nollywood Mirror, the most circulated publication on Nollywood in paperback, hardcover and Amazon Kindle. He started his Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema and launched the Screen Naija One Village, One Cinema Project in 2013 and recently started Nollywood Digital that will have an annual Nollywood Digital Cinema Fair every summer. His new social media project iPost Nigeria has attracted the attention of major international companies and organizations. Orikinla is expected to complete his theatrical work "Chi Amanda" during the course of his residency. "Chi Amanda" chronicles the lamentations of three women from the three dominant tribes in Nigeria who fled from different agonies of domestic violence and also tackles the plight of a young woman with the burden of unwanted pregnancy. Orikinla's last major theatrical work "Sleepless Night", the first play on the martyrdom of Chief MKO Abiola and the June 12 Crisis was premiered in July 2002 at the old French Cultural Center in Ikoyi, Lagos. It was co-sponsored by United Artists for Human Development (UAHD), French Cultural Center and Dele Momodu, Publisher of the popular Ovation International magazine. The cast was from the famous Crown Troupe of Africa led by Segun Adefila featured in the award winning documentary "Bariga Boy".
See full biographical profile on http://www.changemakers.com/users/michael-chima-ekenyerengozi.

The centre has since hosted people such as Michael Harding, Loreena Mckennitt, Oonagh Kearney, Derval Symes, Page Allen, Roisin Meaney, Anne Rigney, Gemma Browne, Colette Bryce, Phil Coulter, Brian Kennedy and Peter McCann.

The Tyrone Guthrie Centre is a centre for creative artists at Annaghmakerrig, Newbliss, County Monaghan, Ireland, founded in 1981.
The mansion was the family home of theatrical director Sir William Tyrone Guthrie (2 July 1900 – 15 May 1971).


The centre accommodates eleven residents and there are five self-catering cottages plus a facility and studio for a disabled artist and carer. Each artist must apply individually to the Board of Management and submit examples of their work. To be accepted as a resident, an artist must have demonstrated a proven track record in their field. Facilities include a baby grand piano, seven studios for visual artists, a performance space, an acoustic recording studio, a dark room for black and white photography and a recently added print studio. The ethos of the house is focussed on facilitating creative work within a welcoming, homelike and trusted environment. The only condition of residency is that all the artists must assemble for the evening meal. This was one of the terms of Guthrie’s will as he felt that conversation over good food would encourage creativity and collaboration. The Centre was one of the first North/South collaborations in the early 1980s and was managed as a joint venture by the Arts Council of the North and South of Ireland.

Many artists have commented on the fact that a stay in the Centre has given them the time and space to produce creative work and it is no exaggeration to describe the Centre as a place of heightened creativity.
- See more at: http://www.nigeriansreport.com/2014/03/orikinla-offered-residency-at-famous.html#sthash.RQ8DR0KV.dpuf






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Thursday, March 13, 2014

Miss Fair and White Gold Beauty Pageant is the Talk of the Town


MISS FAIR AND WHITE GOLD BEAUTY CONTEST HOTS UP

The organizers of Miss Fair and White Gold Beauty Pageant is reminding the general public, beauty aficionados and glamorous young women all over the country that the event is coming up on as slated on March 28 2014, at the Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe, Victoria Island Lagos. The Gold carpet starts at 5pm.

According to the Business Development Manager of Bozac Group, Mr. Emma Oko: "the excitement being generated by the event is electrifying and it is going to take the shine off every other beauty contest ever organized in the country before now” It will be recalled that the event had to be rescheduled to this March date in order to accommodate Nigerian Tertiary Institutions Students who have just concluded their exams after the long strikes. The extended date has also accommodated more participants who were able to register for the pageant.

Powered by the Bozac Group, Miss Fair and White Gold beauty pageant is programmed to be a sublime and novel kind of pageantry with a brilliance and surreal excellence that will create a new distinct class for itself among beauty contests. The Event will feature surreal musical performances by Akin Shuga and his band, A-List Stand up Comedians as well as cultural dance troupes along with so many other side attractions. Bozac group is the conglomerate that distributes the Fair and White Gold line of cosmetics, which are available in supermarkets, pharmacies and stores all over the country.

The foreign partners of Bozac Group, Labo Derma in France, one of the world’s largest cosmetic and beauty products research and development laboratory conglomerates, is also honouring the event with the presence of the top most executives.

Miss fair and White Gold is programmed to be an annual contest that will select the brand face for the Fair and White Gold Ultimate line of beauty products and cosmetics. Fair and White Gold comes in a complete line of 13 exceptional skincare, face and Body, day and night formulae for the contemporary Nigerian and African woman who desires the best skincare in the world. Manufactured in France by Labo Derma beauty research facilities, they are specially formulated for all African skin types, from light, to chocolate and ebony, cutting across all skin textures and ethnic systems. The line covers special beauty treatments and formulae for cleansing and exfoliation to, fading and brightening, as well as hydration and protective skincare treatments, to meet all skincare needs and challenges of the modern Nigerian woman.
The essence of the contest is to showcase the ability of Fair and White Gold line of cosmetics to transform the average woman into a paragon of virtuous beauty, glamour and sophistry, and to sustain their beauty with the most naturally effective organic range of beauty care products, without any obtrusion into their God given skin biological profiles.



The Fair and White Gold Range are all formulated with organic ingredients and natural emollients, which cleanses tones, rejuvenates and protect the African Woman’s skin, revealing its natural beauty and sheen and keeping it fresh and supple despite harsh weather conditions and ultraviolet radiation.

Miss fair and White Beauty contest promises to showcase the most beautiful young women in Nigeria with three of them coming out tops to clinch the winning prizes.

· The First prize is a brand new Nissan 2013 Rogue and a Diamond Studded, Russian Jewel Crafted Swarovski Wristwatch.

· 1st Runner-Up will be a Diamond Studded, Russian Jewel Crafted Swarovski Wristwatch and N250,000 cash Prize.

· 2nd Runner Up will be a Diamond Studded, Russian Jewel Crafted Swarovski Wristwatch and N150, 000 Cash Prize.






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Monday, March 03, 2014

Lupita Nyong'o and Steve McQueen Make History As "12 Years a Slave" Wins 3 Oscars!



Kenyan actress Lupita Amondi Nyong’o has become the first Kenyan to be nominated and also win an Oscar by winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards held in Los Angeles, California on Sunday night for her role in the movie "12 Years a Slave" that won the Academy Award for Best Picture and also making history as the first movie from a black director to do so in 86 years of the Oscars. Steve McQueen, the British director was ecstatic as his film also won Best Adapted screenplay.


“Everyone deserves not just to survive but to live, this is the most important legacy of Solomon Northup,” said McQueen in his acceptance speech.

The 2013 historical drama film is an adaptation of the 1853 memoir of the same title by Solomon Northup, a New York State-born free negro who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. in 1841 and sold into slavery. He worked on plantations in the state of Louisiana for twelve years before his release. The first scholarly edition of Northup's memoir, co-edited in 1968 by Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon, carefully retraced and validated the account and concluded it to be accurate.

"12 Years a Slave" received critical acclaim following its release in 2013, and was named the best film of the year by several media outlets. It also proved to be a box office success, earning over $128 million on a budget of $20 million. In 2014, the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) recognized the film with a Best Film award and a Best Actor award for Nigerian born British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Lupita Nyong'o celebrates her Oscar win in Fred Leighton gold jewelry. (PRNewsFoto/LoveGold)

"When I look down at this golden statue may it remind me, and every little child, that no matter where you are from your dreams are valid," she said. 
Lupita Nyong'o made history by becoming the first Kenyan to win an Oscar.

"You are the pride of Africa!" President Uhuru Kenyatta exclaimed on Twitter celebrating Kenya's first major Oscar win by actress Lupita Nyong'o.
"It is our intention that Lupita becomes the first of an endless line of Oscar nominees and winners from Africa and Kenya," he said.

Read full report on Nigerians Report Online.







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