The organizers of Sokoto Book and Arts Festival #SOBAFest, Sokoto Book and Arts Foundation (SOBAF), have unveiled the dates for the second edition of the festival. It is set to run from Friday, November 4, to Sunday, November 6, 2022 in Sokoto.

Themed “A Returning,” this edition “hopes to spark off conversations that would spur a need for artists in the state to make a return to arts, to reconnect to the artistic nature the state and northern Nigeria is known for and to fill in that vacuum years of neglect has created.”

The event lineup, which will be a hybrid mix of virtual and in-person activities, includes book chats, panel discussions, art exhibitions, film screenings, plays, poetry, music and dance performances, and much more. The guest line-up is a cross-connect of various industry professionals, from writers and poets, to publishers and policymakers, to educators and people in tech. Some of them include Hadiza Isma El-Rufai (the First Lady of Kaduna state and Publisher of Almara Books) Umar Abubakar Sidi (author of Like Butterflies Scattered About by Art Rascals), TJ Benson (author of People Live Here), Saddiq Dzukogi (author of Your Crib, My Qibla), Kukogho Iruesiri Samson (author of Devil’s Pawn), Dr. Nasir Daniya (Director-General of ICT Directorate Sokoto), Dr. Mansur Isa Buhari, Abdulrahman Liman, King Skot, Hafsat Dange, Salihu Mahe (author of How To View The World From A Glass Prism), and much more.

Registration for Sokoto Book and Arts Festival #SOBAFest22 costs N1000. Interested persons can register here.

Deadline for registration: October 30.

The headline sponsors of SOBAFest22 are: Almara Publishers, Konya Shams Rumi, and Isele Magazine. Partners are: Teach for Change Nigeria, 21st Century Entrepreneurs Hub, NTA Sokoto, Open Arts, Beulah Tech, Dreams Imagery, Jikan Babi Productions, Poetic Wednesdays, Parresia Publishers, and Daily Star NG.

Follow @soba_fest on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to keep tabs.