Circumspecte

A free urban arts festival, the Chale Wote Street Art Festival could soon be the in-thing on the GH street arts scene. Co-sponsored by ACCRA [dot] ALT , The French Embassy (in Ghana) and Institut Francais, the first edition of the soon-to-be annual international festival will take place on July 16, 2011 in the Jamestown community of downtown Accra from 10am till 10pm. The event is the brainchild of Mantse Aryeequaye (an independent filmmaker) and Dr. Sionne Neely (a researcher and writer); both coordinators of ACCRA [dot] ALT.   In the words of the organizers, its purpose is “to promote the exhibition of alternative art in Ghana and to nurture an appreciation for different kinds of art among Ghanaians.” The first time I read about the Chale Wote Street Art Festival, I thought: interesting name. The second time around during GhanaBlogging ’s July meetup over the weekend, I got a peek at the schedule of events and thought, interesting concept/project!   Now, after some m...

The following is a transcript of the interview with the creator of Pencil Tribe – an online literary and art magazine for new inspired voices on Africa. As per the request of the interviewee - henceforth PT - his name and details have been excluded for personal and professional reasons. Despite this, I am confident the information presented below will be of great value to those of us who are budding writers or who are simply poking around in the art and literary worlds. Circumspect: Where did the idea for Pencil Tribe come from? PT: It grew from my personal experience as a creative writer trying to find a welcoming platform to publish and get feedback for my work. Most budding writers know the agony of submitting a piece for publication in an 'established' mainstream magazine. The turnaround time for getting a response from editors is usually 8 weeks to several months. What is worse, most 'established' magazines have no interest in creative works that focus on ...