It’s finally here!
After a long break, the DAkpabli Team will resume its campaign to promote book reading for pleasure across Ghana as well as local authorship. This Saturday’s Festival of Nine Authors and Readings will happen online via Zoom Conferencing.
Patrons can join via this link: https://cutt.ly/ReadAthon or use the meeting ID: 96952383928 on Zoom. The programme will start at 2 PM exactly.
Cutting across different generations with varied backgrounds, the featured guests are, Nana Kwasi Gyan Apenteng, Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng, Amma Ampong Agyeman-Prempeh, Alba K. Sumprim and Nana Awere Domoah. The rest are Bisi Agyepon, Audrey Obuobisa-Darko, Marjorie Boafo Appiah aka Marjy Marj and Kofi Akpabli.
It is also exciting to note that each session will have its own facilitator who will engage the authors in tantalizing conversations, facilitate the readings and moderate the interactions between the audience and the readers. The facilitators include three renowned media personalities: Anny Osabutey, Communications Director at the National Petroleum Authority and former broadcast journalist, Kojo Akoto Boateng, Digital Media Manager at Citi FM and Elizabeth Johnson, Producer of the Writers Project Radio Show on Citi FM.
The nine authors will read from a cumulative of over 25 books to their credit at this event.
Saturday’s reading will comprise three one-hour sessions. The first session will feature Alba K. Sumprim, Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng and Bisi Adjapon. The next set will have Kofi Akpabli, Audrey Obuobisa-Darko & Nana Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng. Finally, Marjy Marj, Nana Awere Damoah & Amma Ampong Agyeman-Prempeh will close the event.
The National Readathon is an initiative which seeks Since its inception six years ago. It has served patrons in seven cities across the southern half of Ghana with plans to extend the campaign to the rest of the regions.
Nana Awere Damoah and Kofi Akpabli, the brains behind the campaign, deserve a lot of commendation for not only birthing this idea but remaining focused and seeing it through to become what it is today. Gradually, a lot of people are coming to terms with the fact that you can sit down to be read to as a means of entertainment and relaxation.
Beyond this, the readAThon is contributing greatly to make reading hip in Ghana. I have seen how people respond to the work these two are doing and the impact it is having on their lives in terms of helping them return to their love of reading, reading more than they are already doing, inculcating the habit of reading in their children and for some people sowing the seed for the passion of reading in them. As a member of the ReadAThon team, feedback like these make me happy. It tells me our cause is a good one and it encourages me to stay on it and give off my best.
One last benefit worth talking about is how this readAThon is impacting young writers in Ghana. Wherever we have gone, I have seen people ask questions about how the two authors, Damoah and Akpabli, do it. It is a practical learning experience for many writers who attend the events where they get to encounter their role models, interact with them and “tap” from them.
Join the readAThon team on Saturday and have massive fun will you enjoy listening to readings for your entertaining pleasure. It’s a free event and don’t forget patrons can join via this link: https://cutt.ly/ReadAthon or use the meeting ID: 96952383928 on Zoom. The programme will start at 2 PM exactly.
Until I come your way next week with another article to promote reading and writing in Ghana, my mantra still remains, it can only get better. We can only get better.
I hope to interact with you at the festival on Saturday. Have a great weekend.
