A literary night of words @ Smoothy's

Smoothy's Pub in Osu was the place to be last Friday for people who appreciate poetry and literary works. It was a night dubbed Expressions, bringing together writers,poets,bloggers and media men under one roof to read extracts from their works while they enjoyed different flavours of smoothies.

Expressions attracted an unprecedented appreciable audience for on a night that Ayesha Haruna Atta,the prolific young writer, read an extract from her new book, Hamattan Rain. It was her idea for such garthering and many commended her for putting up the event. Talented rapper and music producer, Mensa, was the MC, sharing light jests to draw laughter from an indulging audience.

Mutombo the poet, gave a good account of himself with a spoken word performance he calls, ''Another Black Boy" making the audience hang on to it till the recital was over.

Esi, another young writer and popular blogger on Ghana's blogosphere who writes under name " Wo Se Ekyir"-what your mama never told you about Ghana, read a short story to everyone's fascination. r

From Kobolor comes RED CARD to Ms Naa

Wednesday, the sensational and uniquely witty pidgin rapper, Wanlov the Kobolor gave hints to Yfm's Ryse N Shyne morning show hostess, Ms Naa, of his soon to be released RED CARD album after the success of his debut GREEN CARD with the instant "Kokonsa" hit. Kobolor was in the company of companion Mensa, the talented hiplife/hiphop lyricist based in the UK, currently in Ghana working on a movie project titled 'Coz Ov Moni' starring Kobolor and being directed by Panji Anoff, CEO of Pidgen Music.

The duo who call themselves F.O.K.N Bois were in the studios of the Asylum Down-based radio station together with GH's spoken word performer,Mutombo, who calls himself "the unofficial member" of the group. The Wednesday edition of the Ryse N Shyne show was an exciting and a fun-filled one as the threesome shared wild rib-cracking stories and experiences in an informal chat with the African-American presenter. Oftened she burst out with laughter the whole period, in what seemed to have been an extended version of the show an extra 15minutes after sign off time.

On the spur of the monent, Wanlov mentioned "red card", totally clueless about what it meant,Ms Naa also known as Naa Adjorkor inquired,"what is that? what is it? what's red card?" she asked Kobolor with alacrity, knowing the self styled Afro-beat rapper's capability to coin witty terminologies. According to Kobolor, "red card is an album i'm working on to release soon, one of the four albums i'll be releasing before the end of the year", he said. He also hinted that 'red card' was going to follow in the same direction in terms of rhythm and style like the 'green card',a 20 track record co-produced by Mensa, Kweku Ananse, Seven & Bosco. It deals with visa issues and the musings of an immigrant in America. The red card,Kobolor says," is in connection with the red card in football".

Humbly in his closing acknowlegement, Kobolor revealed, how he owed thanks and gratitude to Eddy Blay Jr. of the defunct rap group, Native Funk Lords(NFL) and current co-host of Overdrive on Yfm, for inspiring his pidgin style of rap music. Mutombo the Poet, who has also been spending studio time recording his debut album of spoken word gave no hints on the date of release. He has been billed together with host Mensa, who he says is his "bestest friend",to perform at a literary night of words labeled Expressions at SMOOTHY's in Osu on Friday 21st August.

Kobolor and Mensa (F.O.K.N Bois) are also set to perform live at Alliance Francaise on Saturday August 22, a show dubbed "AFROBITTEN" which will also feature WUNMI, AYETORO & ATONGO ZIMBA.

Ryse N Shyne airs monday-friday between 6am-10am on Yfm 101.7mhz hosted by Ms Naa,the only female host of a morning show in Ghana at the moment,and CEO of the Afrocenchic clothing line and handmade crafts. Ryse N Shyne is ably produced by "producer extra-ordinaire",Erama, popularly known as E-Boogie.

Maker Faire Africa '09 ends in Accra

Maker Faire Africa '09 ended yesterday at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT. MFA 09, a celebration of ingenuity,innovation and invention was the theme of the faire which was the first of its kind hosted by Ghana. The 3-day novel technology event had been running in Accra from the August 14th-16th bringing together makers and inventors from Kenya, Liberia, USA, Nigeria, India,Tanzania and many other countries.

The aim of the Maker Faire Africa event is to create a space on the continent where innovations, inventions and initiatives can be sought, identified, brought to life, supported, amplified and propagated. According to the organisers, "while the ICT space has developed a head of steam in some parts of Africa, a “maker philosophy” is yet to occur".

Speaking to NewsAfricanGhana, a member of the organising team Emeka Okafor said, "technology goes beyond the computer, we are bringing together people who can create and fabricate things, this is what Africa needs."

Participating in the faire,it is obvious that Africa has talent that is untapped, most creations were targeted at solving basic problems. Amongs the exhibitors was Tei Huagei, an artist who uses waste polythene to manufacture rubber clothes, a project he calls not-a-waste-recycle-art. Tei talks about how his work his a loud statement against waste polythene in Ghana. His works are bought and resold at BlackHat Studios in Mexico.

From the Accra Polytechnic campus, a group of young men put together a radio transmitter of 150watts which they built to broadcast live on fm 101.7mhz to about 3km from the faire grounds. Their station slogan was "the power of NSBE". NSBE they said, meant, National Society of Black Engineers. "if you are a black man or student like me,then you automatically belong to this society" they said.


The next MFA has been penciled to take place in Kenya next year but the date is yet to announced.