October!

Watch this space for more events this October. Last week we put our arty and cultural caps on as we attended the following events:

1) Nneka on The Green - courtesy www.quirktheworld.com



2) Against All Odds - Exhibition (drawings by Ibe Ananaba) @ The Goethe Institute



3) Terra Kulture Craft Fair




Art Competition - Entry Closes October
23rd!!!!!



IO - MADE IN NIGERIA WITH PASSION



Made in Nigeria with Passion
September 15, 2009

Interior Options Furniture Hosts Annual Open Day

Interior Options Furniture – the preferred and leading Nigerian furniture manufacturing and interior design consultancy company-- is hosting its annual open day on Saturday the 3rd of October 2009 which will take place at its showroom (click on link to see pictures), IO World, 6/8 Industrial Street off Town Planning Way Ilupeju.


This year's open day themed “Celebrate your space,” will showcase IO's wide range of innovative furniture, particularly its functional and contemporary range of made in Nigeria furniture. The company will open its doors to invited guests, clients and individuals, offering them the singular opportunity to participate in the “IO World” experience and in this way, redefine conventional perceptions of furniture and space planning. The special guest of honour for the day is His Excellency, The Consulate General Sig. Antonio Giandomenico.

IO Furniture's reputation for creativity, innovation, design and quality has firmly established it as one of the top 5 furniture and Interior Design companies in Nigeria with over 20 years of experience outfitting homes, offices, hotels, airports lounges, restaurants, apartment buildings, showrooms and boutiques, IO has proven its mettle, versatility and variety of products and services.


“We pride ourselves on having something for everyone. Our goal is to inspire our clients' emotional well-being and provide a productive ambience that reinforces their image through their choice of furniture and interior design,” says Mrs. Muni Shonibare, IO MD and founding President of internationally affiliated Interior's Designer's Association of Nigeria (IDAN).

Originally a design consultancy providing interior design service to mostly Nigerian oil companies, IO has since expanded its business to include furniture manufacturing. Executive Director Ms. Funmi Shobo notes that “Manufacturing is a core aspect of our business. Our clients can rely on the quality of our products to elevate the quality of their spaces.” IO furniture is designed and manufactured using cutting edge technology and only the best-grade materials at the company's world-class manufacturing facility in Lagos.

Made in Nigeria with Passion, IO Furniture continues to make important contributions to the development and appreciation of furniture manufacturing & interior design in Nigeria, and in so doing socio-economic growth of the country.

We're In August!


Look what we have for you this month:


1) Speechless (22nd August)


Venue: Beckton, London







Click here for more info


2) Zebra Trunk Show MEGA SALE (16th August)


Venue: Piccolo Mondo, Lagos




Click
here for more info

Website:
http://www.zebraliving.com/


3) Circa 64 Jewellery Workshop (15th - 19th August)

Venue: Circa 64, 5 Sanusi Fafunwa Street. VI





Click
here for more info

Website:
www.circa64online.com/workshops.html


4) Theatre @ Terra (Every Sunday in August)

Venue: Terra Kulture




Click
here for more info

Website:
http://www.nigerian-theatre.com/


5) Face of Sleek Nigeria (Entries from August)




The winner will be the brand ambassador and face of sleek Nigeria for one year. This will include an international modeling contract worth $15,000 and she also gets a brand new car. The first and second runners up will win $10,000 and $5,000 respectively. Other contestants stand a chance of being scouted and signed up by Sleek Models and other international modeling agencies that will be partnering with us for this project, as well as the opportunity to take part in a reality tv show.



Click
here for more info

Website:
http://www.sleeknigeria.com/


6) Elite Model Look 2009 (Auditions Begin in August)




Click
here for more info

Website:
http://www.elitemodellooknigeria.com/



7) Harambe 2.o (28th August)

Venue: Shell Hall, Muson Centre



The first 20 young persons with bright agricultural ideas who send application to
hharambenigeria@yahoo.com, will get a chance to exhibit their plans and speak to stakeholders in the industry at the Garden of opportunities for possible investment.


Click
here for more info

Website:
http://www.hendeavor.org/


8) D'banj's Kokoconcert (31st August)

Venue: IndigO2, Greenwich



Click
here for more info

Website:
http://www.cokobarlondon.com/



9) Free Summer Camp for 10-19 year olds resident in Nigeria. (22nd - 31st August)




Click
here for more info

Website:
http://www.frontlineyouth.org/

10) Fate Foundation Fate Model Entrepreneur 2009 (closes 14th August)



(From our partners at the Fate Foundation)




From July 27, 2009, FATE Foundation will embark on a search for the 2009 FATE Model Entrepreneur of the Year as part of its 9th Annual Celebration Award Ceremony. FATE Foundation is calling on all Nigerians across the country to vote for an exemplary Nigerian Entrepreneur who has demonstrated innovation and creativity in his/her business; strong ethics and personal integrity; and inspired people with his/her leadership and achievements. In 2001, FATE Foundation instituted the FATE Model Entrepreneur Award to recognise and honour outstanding entrepreneurs who are leading and building dynamic and growing businesses that have affected people’s lives and served society. Entrepreneurs are the driving force of any economy, and according to the Head of Brand Management and Communications, Sterling Bank, Mrs. Abimbola Sowemino, “Entrepreneurs are men and women imbued with rare abilities to turn ideas into businesses. They are the sources of innovation, providing the market with new and improved products and services . . .”


The objective of the award is to honour Nigerian entrepreneurs across the country and the winner will be revealed at the FATE Annual Award Ceremony on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos Island, Lagos. The past winners of this prestigious award include Mrs. Nike Ogunlesi of Ruff & Tumble; Mrs. Ibukun Awosika of Sokao Chair Centre; Mr. John Momoh of Channels TV; and Mr. Godwin Ehigiamusoe of LAPO (Lift Above Poverty Organisation).Nominations can be sent from either individuals or teams regardless of location or grade.


The closing date for submissions is Friday 14th August, 2009 and we encourage people to get nominations in as early as possible.For more information, call Wale 08075929014, or email info@fatefoundation.com.


First Fridays August

Join First Fridays at their AUGUST NETWORKING EVENT






Date: Friday August 7th, 2009


Time: 6 - 10pm


Venue: RED LOUNGE, 2 Saka Jojo Str, Off Idejo StrOff Adeola Odeku Str, VI


Keynote Speaker: Ms. Ngozi Edozien Head, Actis West Africa


Dress Code: Business casual (no jeans or tee shirts)


Admission: N1k

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Thing Around Your Neck


FARAFINA BOOKS & SILVERBIRD LIFESTYLE STORE PRESENT “THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be in Nigeria in July to promote her new book,The Thing Around Your Neck. Published locally by Farafina Books, The Thing Around Your Neck is a collection of short stories exploring the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States. Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie’s signature wisdom, the collision of cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.Award-winning author ofPurple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been described as “the 21st century daughter of Chinua Achebe.” Her much-anticipated public presentation ofThe Thing Around Your Neck will hold on


SATURDAY JULY 11TH AT 3PM, at:
THE SILVERBIRD LIFESTYLE STORE,
SILVERBIRD GALLERIA,
AHMADU BELLO WAY,
VICTORIA ISLAND, LAGOS



About The Thing Around Your Neck



Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie burst onto the literary scene with her remarkable debut novel,Purple Hibiscus, which critics hailed as “one of the best novels to come out of Africa in years” (BaltimoreSun), with “prose as lush as the Nigerian landscape that it powerfully evokes” (The Boston Globe);The Washington Post called her “the twenty-first-century daughter of Chinua Achebe.” Her award-winningHalf of a Yellow Sun became an instant classic upon its publication three years later, once again putting her tremendous gifts—graceful storytelling, knowing compassion, and fierce insight into her characters’ hearts—on display. Now, in her most intimate and seamlessly crafted work to date, Adichie turns her penetrating eye on not only Nigeria but America, in twelve dazzling stories that explore the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.In “A Private Experience,” a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to confront the realities and fears she’s been pushing away. In “Tomorrow is Too Far,” a woman unlocks the devastating secret that surrounds her brother’s death. The young mother at the center of “Imitation” finds her comfortable life in Philadelphia threatened when she learns that her husband has moved his mistress into their Lagos home. And the title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland forces her to reexamine them.Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie’s signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.The Thing Around Your Neck is a resounding confirmation of the prodigious literary powers of one of our most essential writers.



About the Author

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into thirty languages and has appeared in various publications, includingThe O. Henry Prize Stories, 2003; The New Yorker; Granta; the Financial Times;and Zoetrope. Her most recent novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, won the Orange Broadband Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; it was aNew York Times Notable Book and a People and Black Issues Book ReviewBest Book of the Year. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. A recipient of a 2008 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

What's On: Michael Jackson Memorial


Remembering the King of Pop - Tuesday 07/07/09


A sad day for the world yesterday as over 1billion people viewed the Michael Jackson Memorial Ceremony.

It was disheartening to see a legend celebrated so much in death as opposed to when he was alive but at the same time, it was pleasant and endearing to know he was appreciated and remembered.


Friends, family, and fans gathered yesterday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to pay tribute our King of Pop.

Visit Funeral Website and coverage of the service.


See some of the memorial in pictures below: