Akwaeke Emezi at the NAACP Awards Ceremony and Dinner

February 27, 2023

Akwaeke Emezi attended the 54^th NAACP Image Awards ceremony, which took place on Saturday, February 25. They were nominated for their book You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty, alongside three other African writers– Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki for co-editing African Risen, Boyah J. Farah for his memoir America Made Me a Black Man, and Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond for the children’s book Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky . [Go here if you missed it.]

The main ceremony, which took place at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, was star-studded, with attendees such Angela Basset, Zendaya, Janelle Monae, Quinta Brunson, and many others.

Emezi, who attended both the ceremony and the dinner, looked stunning in both events. For the dinner, they wore a green dress from Asos and gold Marni boots, accessorizing with a yellow Prada bag and a colorful Nike jacket. For the ceremony, which was televised, they wore a “holographic sari” and accessorized with a beaded purse, gold eyeglasses, and a pair of sneakers.

In the caption on Instagram, they took readers back to a moment in their 2021 book Dear Senthuran where they reflected on the place of fashion in their non-human experience, adding: “[fashion] is a huge part of my embodiment experience.

Even though they didn’t win, they clearly had a great time at the event.

Scroll through the Instagram carousel post to see more photos of the two looks.