Quramo Publishing has announced the third edition of the Quramo Festival of Words (QFest 2021), with the theme: “Transcendence: Words Defying”.
This year’s theme, according to a statement by the Director of QFest 2021, Iquo DianaAbasi, will unravel how storytellers and creative’s around the world, have modified words – for enlightenment and restoration, and as an effective tool in the fight for social justice and equality.
According to the statement, “with the popularity of Podcasts, Zoom, Instagram, Club-House, WhatsApp, and many other virtual platforms for expression, words have taken on different forms; from written texts to audio documents and visual texts, as such, this festival will explore the effectiveness of these new forms in the age of clampdowns”.
From social media bans to worsening inflation, the statement adds, brain drain and numerous killings across Nigeria and Africa, QFest will look at a dynamic range of human issues in the throes and aftermath of a pandemic, and how different artists explore these issues and cope with the harsh impacts of the pandemic on the creative industry.
Mrs. Gbemi Shasore, Executive Publisher, Quramo Publishing, and convener of QFest 2021 said, “This year’s theme, Transcendence: Words Defying is apt, as it captures the struggles of creative’s who, though amongst the worst hit and the most stifled, during and after a pandemic, are constantly seeking meaning and restoration through all the traditional and alternative modes of creative expression that words allow.”
This year’s edition of Quramo Festival of Words (QFest) will explore its theme through poetry, book chats, panel discussions, film and more. The guest line up of 50 includes Professor Ahmed Yerima, Dike Chukwumerije, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Femi Odugbemi, and many more exciting creative voices.
The Quramo Writers’ Prize – Our flagship prize which is currently in its fifth year, has since 2019 been incorporated into the Quramo Festival of Words. As is tradition, the prize winner will be unveiled at the festival.
In 2020, the Quramo Festival of Words was themed, “Creativity Reset: The Future of Words”, as a way of interrogating the adjustments resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, globally.