Books of 2013 at LABAF

One of the panel discussions I'll be hosting is tagged The Books of 2013, on the panel are Tade Ipadeola, Igoni Barrett, Iquo Diana Eke and Sage Hassan. Below are the profiles of two people on the Panel, Igoni Barrett and Sage Hassan. We shall be discussing Igoni's 'Love is power or something like that' and Sage's 'Dream Maker'

A. Igoni Barrett is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, an Ebedi Writers Residency, and a Norman Mailer Fellowship, among others. His second book, Love Is Power, or Something Like That, was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

A poet, writer, thinker, teacher and author Sammy Sage Hassan is recognised as Nigeria's premier spoken word poet embracing the genre and bringing it to the attention of the art and music savvy populace in the mid 2000s.

He went ahead to perform hundreds of major non-poetry events like 2 Hip Hop World Award Shows, This Day Music Festival, Arts Alive's Speak The Mind In Jo'burg; he has performed near a hundred brand poems - poetry specifically created for companies and products from UniLever, Coca Cola, MTN, Celtel, NBL, Diageo etc. He has organised workshops and performances for schools and cultural organisations like British Council, Goethe Institut, Lekki British Int'l, Green Springs Int'l and more.

He has recorded and released 2 albums and 3 videos.

As a music executive he has worked with a lot of musicians like MI, Jesse Jagz, Ice Prince, Tosin Martins, Jagunlabi and a rash of upcoming artistes.