Louisiana Literaturfestival 2023: Besser als ein Spa-Aufenthalt https://www.literaturcafe.de/louisiana-literaturfestival-2023-besser-als-ein-spa-aufenthalt/ #Louisianaliterature #LiterarischesLeben #Literaturfestifal #AbdulrazakGurnah #JoyceCarolOates #HarukiMurakami #ClaireKeegan #Kunstmuseum #WoleSoyinka #EvaMenasse #IanMcEwan #Louisiana #AliSmith #Dänemark #Museum

“What are the arts? The arts are the material expression of the people’s essence, of their spirituality of their dignity,... [museums around the world should] return the spirituality to Africa by returning all the looted works.”
― Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian novelist, poet, playwright, and Nobel Laureate, who was born Akínwándé Olúwolé Babátúndé Sóyíinká on July 13, 1934

Read more: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/Distinguished-Lecture-African-Studies-Nobel-Laureate-Wole-Soyinka

https://www.arise.tv/source-of-inspiration-nobel-laureate-soyinka-celebrated-as-he-clocks-89/

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#WoleSoyinka
#Nigeria
#Africa
#OnThisDay

@peterrelph2 I doubt that I can be much help there. What I have noticed is how easy it is for those with power to do whatever they want, and sometimes even stuff they don't particularly want simply because they are in charge.

A perfect, but trivial example is the way a few people at the top of the English Cricket Board pushed through The Hundred. It was a format and a competition that no one wanted. The fans hated it. The counties hated it. The press people hated it. The broadcasting companies and players liked the idea of franchises but not the format, and would probably have preferred modifying their existing competition. It was a crap idea in itself and financially terrible. Their best selling product, to be cynical, is the ashes. They can't play that in the prime spot of August because of this competition. None of that mattered. The head honchos had decided. It went ahead.

Part of the mechanism is that you can't force it stopped. No one is going to take pitchforks to Lords and dig up the square. Even if they did, you need concerted sustained action and then you have to fight the forces of reaction. It is almost impossible to build and sustain that momentum. They've got the guns essentially, and they don't need so many scabs to use them.

You also can't reason them out of it. There is always something to be said for any position. It is often stupid but discussion is endless. There are things to be said in defense of The Hundred, utter bollocks when you drill down and not necessarily believed. The problem is you can keep pretending to debate until it is too late. If you look at 19C journalism you see so clearly how ludicrous the defense of the ruling class was. You think why did anyone take this seriously. Then you remember that the next COP is in the UAE and they gave Kissinger a peace prize.

It is deeper than that, but it is a start. #WoleSoyinka explores this stuff in his writing

Nobel Laureate, writer, activist, Wole Soyinka in conversation with Emmy-Award winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJeyo9Fl3AA

#WoleSoyinka #NobelLaureate #HenryLouisGatesJr #LoyolaMarymountCollege #BlackMastodon #Arts #Books #BlackWriters #AfricanAmericanWriters

Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates Jr in Conversation - The Culture Wars - October 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnC-nRmKndY #CornelWest #HenryLouisGatesJr #WoleSoyinka #MarymountInstitute #LMU's GlobalConversationSeries

"Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth." Wole Soyinka #WoleSoyinka #NobelPrizeInLiterature #Literature #books ❤️

'Adults should be left alone to do what they want,' says #Nobellaureate, #WoleSoyinka on gay and transgender rights
- The Street Journal #WSJforum https://thestreetjournal.org/adults-should-be-left-alone-to-do-what-they-want-says-nobel-laureate-wole-soyinka-on-gay-and-transgender-rights/