This week returning guest, Yasmina Fagbemi, is flashing forward with us with an update on her latest projects and evolving glocal citizenship. Having emigrated to the United States in the 1990s, she began her career in marketing with major international corporations. Building on this experience, she developed her network to fuel her passion for cinema. She produced her first documentary, "Bigger Than Africa," a film highlighting Yoruba culture that was featured on Netflix. She went on to develop multiple projects and met Gabriel Souleyka, with whom she founded Tioleja Films to bring original projects to life that contribute to Africa's growing prominence in global cinema. The film "My Soul is a Witness" has been announced in pre-production across global media outlets. Her new feature film, "The Soul of Africa," directed by Gabriel Souleyka, will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this May. As an editor and publisher, she is committed to publishing stories that others don't tell. Be sure to check out her socials for updates on where you can view or read more about African stories that are worth getting to know more about!

Where to find Yasmina?
https://tiolejafilms.com
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On TikTok

What’s Yasmina reading?
Tioleja Titles

What’s Yasmina watching?
Sinners

Other topics of interest:
Le Festival des Divinités Noires
About Lomé, Togo
About Aného, Togo
About Abrahamic Religions
Pavillon Afrique @ Cannes
More about the persecution of Blacks in the Nazi camp system
More about Joy-Ann Reid

Special Guest: Yasmina Fagbemi.

We are nearing the end of our Writing As Activism series @ the 2024 Pa Gya! Literary Festival in Accra. This week, Ghanaian writer and editor winning acclaim as a children's author, poet, broadcaster and novelist, Nii Ayikwei Parkes joins the conversation. Winner of multiple international awards including the ACRAG (Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana) award, his novel Tail of the Blue Bird won France's two major prizes for translated fiction – Prix Baudelaire and Prix Laure Bataillon – in 2014. Nii Ayikwei is the founder of flipped eye publishing, a leading small press; serves on the boards of World Literature Today and the AKO Caine Prize; and was chair of judges for the 2020 Commonwealth Prize. Translated in multiple languages, he has also written for National Geographic, Financial Times, the Guardian and Lonely Planet. His most recent books are The Ga Picture Alphabet and Azúcar, a novel. Currently Producer of Literature and Talks at Brighton Festival, he is also author of two collections of poetry The Makings of You (2010) and The Geez (2020), both published by Peepal Tree Press.

In this conversation, we journey with Nii Ayikwei through his works, his entreprenuership, his love for food and rum, and much more!
See Nii in converation at Pa Gya! here.

Where to find Nii Ayikwei?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Facebook
On X
On YouTube
On Tik Tok
On BlueSky

What’s Nii Ayikwei listening to?
Gene Noble
Blues Man Robert Cray
The Roots
Cody Chesnutt + The Roots
and Headphone Masterpiece

Nii’s Pan-African Activism essential reading list:
Howard W. French, Born In Blackness
Mongo Beti’s, The Poor Christ of Bomba
Ama Atta Aidoo’s, No Sweetness Here
Franz Fanon, Black Skin, White Mask
You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town, Zoë Wicomb
Kofi Awoonor, This Earth My Brother

Other topics of interest:
Historic Jamestown, Accra
Oto Blohum, Old Accra
North Kaneshie
Thornton Heath, UK
About Courttia Newland
Learn more about Nii’s uncle Frank Kobina Parkes
Nkyinkyim in the Adinkra
On Ghana’s Chop Bars
About Spanish-Caribbean Rum
About Rhum Agricole

Special Guest: Nii Ayikwei Parkes.

Eghosa’s second novel, Fine Boys, a coming-of-age novel, received wide acclaim in 2012 and was published in America by the Ohio University Press’ Modern African Writers Series in 2021. When he’s not writing or publishing, Eghosa teaches creative writing at the annual Chimamanda Adichie Creative Writing Workshop. Prior to launching into his literary career, he graduated with a medical degree from the University of Benin.

In this feel good and insightful conversation, Dr. Eghosa shares tips on how to work with publishers and about the how business of bringing books to the people promises to change the narrative on literacy, lifestyle and literary careers all over Africa.

Where to find Eghosa?
On LinkedIn
On Instagram
On Twitter
On Facebook

What’s Eghosa reading?
Truth is a Flightless Bird by Akbar Hussain
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

What’s Eghosa watching?
Andor

Other topics of interest:
About Benin City
About the Benin Massacre
About Warri, Nigeria
Purple Hibiscus
David Hymar
Masobe Books
Nearly all the Men in Lagos are Mad
The Black Axe
Wole Soyinka
By Nike Campbell

Special Guest: Eghosa Imasuen.