As January’s East Coast blizzard picked up steam, 50 Yalies and New Haveners gathered in the cozy Common Room of Luce Hall to talk literature with six African and African diasporan authors: American playwright and novelist Kia Corthron; Nigerian author and editor Okey Ndibe; Nigerian novelist Chigozie Obioma; South African film director and crime writer Margie Orford; Nigerian novelist Chika Unigwe; and Rwandan social entrepreneur and storyteller Clemantine Wamariya.
The illuminating insights shared by authors and audience alike — fueled by Ethiopian and Tanzanian coffee from New Haven’s own Happiness Lab at the Grove, Crêpes Choupette, and a delicious Moroccan lunch by local chefs Café Sophie — created a warm, genuine atmosphere well worth trudging through what author Orford called “that crazy Narnia snow.”
Have a taste of that atmosphere below, and see more of Continents in Conversation, an AFRICA SALON Literary Festival, here.
Audience member Nicholas Forster introduces Kia Corthron
AFRICA SALONLiterary Content Curator Sarah Derbew holds a question. Attendees had the option to draw questions from an Ethiopian basket or freely pose their own
An audience member shares thoughts
The festival program
Students Efe Igor and Thuto Thipe chat
Clemantine Wamariya (background) talks with Chika Unigwe
Student Ivy Nyayieka talks with Clemantine Wamariya
Professor Emily Greenwood (right) talks with a fellow attendee
Kia Corthron talks with Nicholas Forster
Attendees listen in
Chika Unigwe (left) and Margie Orford (right) feature in one of three festival sessions
Okey Ndibe (left) joins the conversation
Ndibe talks with attendees
Hannah Orford sits with students Nikita Bernardi and Nicola Soekoe
Attendees enjoy Moroccan food
A student talks with Kia Corthron
Clemantine Wamaryia (left) and Chigozie Obioma (right) feature in one of three festival sessions
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| From left to right: Obioma, Unigwe, Ndibe, Wamariya, Corthron, and Orford |