Amorpha Youth Foundation presents:
Breakwater Literature: NIGERIA

Topic: Nigerian Literature. Chinua Achebe, Landmark in Nigerian and African Literature and Postcolonial Discourse. Popular New Nigerian Writers, Diaspora Literature. Bulgarian-Nigerian Poet and Actress Bistra-Ijeoma Okereke. Cultural Discussion and Literary Reading.
Guest speaker: Bistra-Ijeoma Okereke, poet and actress, Bulgaria / Nigeria
Language: Bulgarian and English
Date: 13 March, Friday, 19:30 – 20:30 h
Venue: Bar Brand – 2 Musala Street, Varna / Bulgaria.
Free enter. Reserve your seat on the event page.

César Pimentel – Rasec (Brazil), “Africa” (2011), mixed media

The talk will be followed by Música Afro-Brasileira ֍ Afro-Brazilian Music-Dance-Poetry Party at the same venue. Our guest Bistra-Ijeoma Okereke will be joined in by César Pimentel, a multidisciplinary artist from Brazil based in Varna, to provide the party’s music of funk carioca, kuduro, afro house, hiphop. The two artists will present short Nigerean, Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian poetry in the original and Bulgarian translation.

Photo: Craig Ruttle/Associated Press

Breakwater Literature: NIGERIA

○ Chinua Achebe: key figure to strengthening Nigeran literature nationally and establishing it worldwide, considered the father of contemporary African literature. Together with Bistra-Ijeoma, we will present short excerpts from Achebe’s highly respected novel, ‘Things Fall Apart’, to obtain better understanding of important aspects of Nigerian Igbo culture. We will look into Achebe’s role in building African postcolonial literary tradition and identity.

○ Writers at the forefront of Nigerian literature at the moment. What is being translated into Bulgarian and who are the translators? We will read and discuss short excerpts in the original and in Bulgarian translation. We will draw parallels and distinctions with Achebe as well as discuss topics associated with life & writing in African / Nigerian diaspora around the world. Our guest speaker, raised in the Bulgarian African diaspora, will guide us through these observations.

○ Young Nigerian poetry in diaspora in Bulgaria. We will hear poems by Bistra-Ijeoma selected for her upcoming first poetry publication. We will discuss the processes of writing, self-discovery and self-revealing, toghether the poems’ take on culturally significant topics to the Nigerian and Bulgarian cultural context.

Bistra-Ijeoma Okereke is the first African-Bulgarian actress and a poet. Born in Owerri, Nigeria, in 1995. She graduated from the Bulgarian Theatre Academy in 2019 and already has an extensive acting portfolio. Recently, she consulted a major theatre production staged in Varna and Sofia, Bulgaria, on the specifics of African diaspora, Nigerian theatre and the use of Igbo language in the play’s dialogue. She is also interested in dance and singing. Bistra-Ijeoma is currently working on the publication of her first poetry book in Bulgarian.

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Breakwater Literature is the literary edition of Breakwater Talks, the public discussion format by Amorpha Youth Foundation. We approach world literatures and writers encoders and decoders of the cultures and societies they represent to understand better culture-specific worldviews, values and lifestyles. We read literary excerpts in original and Bulgarian, if available, or English translation. The talks take place at various partner venues in Varna, Bulgaria.