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History was made on Wednesday November 16, 2016 at the June 12 Cultural Center, Kuto, Abeokuta.

For the first time, The Ake Arts & Book Festival team organized a concert featuring some of the smoothest voices in Nigeria.

Lola Shoneyin, Director of the festival said this was going to be a fusion of music and literature. Lyrics form literature and literature can be lyrical. Thus, this was a welcome collaboration.

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The audience swooned to Falana’s silky voice that does interesting things. The moment she sat on her “Cajon”(pronounced ka-hoon), she treated the crowd to her mellifluous voice.

She sang a medley of songs including Fela’s “Lady” and “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music, the crowd sang along with glee.

“Reír y Llorar”is a Cuban classic that Falana treated the audience to before playing an original song.

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Following Falana’s introduction of Adunni and the Neferreti Band, the stage was empty only for a minute.

The ladies were draped in white—from elegant, tall headgear to long robes. They sang their way through the entrances floating down the aisle towards the stage. Their drummers were electrifying and the call and response Yoruba cultural songs well-received.

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Things only got better as crowd favorite Brymo continued this musicaliterary concert.

His first song choice of the evening, “In the City,” is the original soundtrack of No Good Turn, one of the short films that will be screened on Friday at the Ake Festival.

The audience came ready to dance along with Brymo and his live band who played as hard as they could.

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Emotions ran high when Falana along with Adunni and the Neferetti Band joined Brymo on stage to wrap up the first ever Ake musical concert.

The entire show lasted for a little over an hour, and I was one of those in the audience who wanted to hear more. The evening concert set the mood for the camaraderie the Ake Arts & Book Festival is renowned for.

With hearts and bodies nimble from the dancing and cheering, we could say bring on the book chats and panel discussions.

Here are more pictures of writers and African literature lovers at the concert.

 

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Images in post by Nmadiuto Uche for Brittle Paper

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