Sterling Bank Promises Supports To Annual Ake Books And Arts Festival

<h4>Sterling Bank Promises Supports To Annual Ake Books And Arts Festival<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Sterling Bank Plc&comma; Nigeria’s leading financial institution&comma; has said it is committed to supporting the annual Ake Books and Arts Festival because it sees Nigeria as part of a larger world and believes that Nigeria’s ultimate competitiveness lies in its energy&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Executive Director at Sterling&comma; Yemi Odubiyi&comma; who disclosed this over the weekend in a goodwill message at the opening of the 10th edition of the Ake Books and Arts Festival said Nigeria can become a leader in the world and its creative people as part of its competitiveness&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Odubiyi continued by saying that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Nigeria enjoys a comparative advantage in the arts and culture domain&comma; and Sterling&comma; being focused on promoting the development of human capital and improving national competitiveness&comma; is thrilled to have been a part of the festival for the past six years and plans to continue to do so&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Also speaking&comma; Founder and Director of Ake Books and Arts Festival&comma; Lola Shoneyin said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I’m often amused when people say they can’t believe how long we’ve been doing this&period; I believe it has been 10 years&period; It has been 10 years of bringing brainwaves to life&comma; 10 years of learning&comma; 10 years of celebrating the incredible work that so many of you have done and are still doing and 10 years of making lifelong friends&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;She said &OpenCurlyQuote;Homecoming’ was chosen as the theme of this year’s festival because&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We were going back to Abeokuta where it all began&comma; and it was time to reconnect with our ancestral roots&period; The main reason &OpenCurlyQuote;Homecoming’ was so perfect is that we couldn’t wait to have you back at Ake after the COVID-19 pandemic”&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;She said&comma; after two years of lockdown and online festivals&comma; the festival is back again as participants can mingle&comma; catch up on news and strengthen their friendships&period; Adding that this moment&comma; this feeling&comma; is what has kept them going&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Founder said the priority has always been to ensure that guests feel at home since the very first edition of the Ake Festival&period; Consequently&comma; during this year’s edition of Ake Review&comma; guests were asked to express what home means to them&comma; and the common responses were&colon; A place of love&semi; friendship and a sense of belonging&comma; she said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Shoneyin thanked the winner of the 2021 <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;saharareporters&period;com&sol;">Nobel Prize for Literature&comma; Professor Abdulrazaq Gurnah and his wife&comma; Professor Denise Gurnah<&sol;a> for honoring the invitation to attend the festival in person&period; She also thanked the headliner of this year’s festival&comma; Professor Veronique Tadjo&comma; for finding time to be a part of the festival&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Other highlights of this year’s festival include the hosting of Directors of the Global Association of Literary Festivals while many of the panel sessions explored different aspects of the theme&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Some of the sessions focused on why home exerts a pull on us&comma; stirs our creative impulses&comma; influences our creative expressions&comma; evokes profound sentiments&comma; and shapes our perception of the outside world&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Others explored the impact of conflict&comma; capitalism&comma; and climate disasters as well as what it means to be displaced&comma; to live away from home and&comma; of course&comma; to return&period; The festival also featured book discussions on the idea of a home and how for some people&comma; the home might not be a place of safety&comma; but a place of violence&comma; among others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;18625" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-18625" style&equals;"width&colon; 300px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-18625" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2022&sol;12&sol;Sterling-Bank-300x200&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sterling Bank Promises Supports" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"200" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-18625" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Ivorian artist and headline author&comma; Veronique Tadjo&semi; winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature&comma; Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah&comma; Founder&comma; Ake Festival&comma; Lola Shoneyin and Executive Director&comma; Sterling Bank Plc&comma; Yemi Odubiyi at the 10th Ake Books and Arts Festival opening ceremony in Lagos recently&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;