Facilitated by Mike van Graan (playwright, project manager at Sustaining Theatre and Dance/STAND Festival - South Africa), the speakers who hosted this Hotspot Nigeria are:

• Amarachi Attamah - Chant performance artist, poet, broadcaster, festival manager, creative entrepreneur - Nigeria
• Joshua Alabi - Creative Director/CEO of Kininso Koncepts and Kininso Creative Limited - Nigeria
  
• Kenneth Uphopho - Artistic director, founding director of Abuja Fringe and the Lagos Fringe - Nigeria
• Kole Ade Odutola - Professor of Yoruba language and Cultures at the Department of Languages, Literatures& Cultures, University of Florida - Nigeria/United States of America
  
• Victor Mark-Onyegbu - Project Manager of Arts and Programme Manager of New Narratives, British Council - Nigeria 
  

You can find the speakers' biographies below.

Playwright, project manager at Sustaining Theatre and Dance (STAND) Festival - South Africa

Mike van Graan, founder of the African Cultural Policy Network, has served in leadership positions in a variety of anti-apartheid cultural organizations such as the Congress of South African Writers and the National Arts Coalition of South Africa. He is also an award-winning playwright, who has written thirty plays to this date. He was appointed as Artscape’s Associate Playwright from 2011-2014 and is considered one of South Africa’s leading contemporary playwrights.

He is the 2018 recipient of the Sweden-based Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture Award in recognition of his contribution to the fight against apartheid, to building a post-apartheid society and to the interface of peace and culture both in South Africa and across the African continent.

You can read his full bio here.

Chant Performance Artist, Poet, Broadcaster, Festival Manager, Creative Entrepreneur - Nigeria

Amarachi Attamah is an award-winning Chant Performance Artist, Poet, Broadcaster, Festival Manager, Creative Entrepreneur and a strong passionate voice in the sustainability of Igbo language speaking as well as other African languages.

Recently, she completed a four-month fellowship with the Royal National Theatre, London, United Kingdom, where she performed in the fifty-two theatre productions of the “Three Sisters” directed by Nadia Falls. A play by Inua Ellams, an adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters. She has also performed in numerous virtual events through the Pandemic including Igbo Conference organised in the UK, Abuja Literary Festival, Lagos International Poetry Festival, Global Poetry Festival organised by Shared_Studio and Divercities poetry connect by Planet Word Museum, both of US based organisations. 

She has received numerous awards and honorary mentions for her very unique art.

Creative Director/CEO of Kininso Koncepts and Kininso Creative Limited - Nigeria

Joshua Alabi is the Creative Director/CEO of Kininso Koncepts and Kininso Creative Limited. He is a Creative entrepreneur, Festival producer, performer, Director, Content/Concept Creator, Teacher and Consultant with several years of experience and credits. He co-produced and directed ‘Queen Moremi- the musical Reloaded which was staged in December 2019/2020 in Lagos and immediately after, conceptualized a Theatre Tour project for the Rule of Law and Anti-corruption Program of the European Union and British Council in Lagos, Kano and Abuja on issues of Anticorruption, criminal justice system and Sexual and gender-based violence. 

Joshua is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management, an Alumni of Magnet Theatre in Capetown, The Festival Academy's Atelier for Solidarity, The University of Lagos and several other academic and professional institutions. He is certified by local and international business, arts and creative institutions. 

Artistic director, founding director of Abuja Fringe and the Lagos Fringe - Nigeria

Kenneth Uphopho is a Director, Writer, Acting coach and Actor with over 2 decades of combined extensive experience in Artistic Direction and Festival Management. He is the Founding Director for Lagos Fringe & Abuja Fringe; both open access showcase platforms. He is also a Global Fellow of ISPA; The International Society for the Performing Arts. 

He was the pioneer Festival Director for the Lagos Theatre Festival from 2014- 2018 where through his work; He expanded the scope of the festival from 16 performances to 109 events in two years. LTF has so far featured over 500 productions with 25 international showcases and collaborations making it one of the largest performing arts festivals in Africa.

As a theatre maker, Kenneth has also created a number of shows with a diverse range of producers, companies ,directing critically acclaimed productions.

Kenneth Uphopho is the resident Artistic Director and Managing partner at PAWSTUDIOS Nigeria.

Professor of Yoruba language and Cultures at the Department of Languages, Literatures& Cultures, University of Florida - Nigeria/United States of America

Kole Ade Odutola teaches Yoruba language and Cultures at the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures, University of Florida. Kole’s academic journey has seen him completing B.Sc (Hons.) in Botany in 1984 at the University of Benin, Nigeria. In 1998, fourteen years after, he graduated with his Master's Degree in TV/Video for development at the University of Reading, UK. Adding another dimension to his studies in communication, he enrolled at Ithaca College for a Masters in Organizational Communication, Learning& Design (OCLD), which he completed in 2000. He was accepted into the School of Communication, Information and Library Science for a Ph.D. in Media Studies and completed it.

Kole was one of those who initiated the Coalition of Nigerian Artists (CONA) with the sole objective of facilitating Welfare, Exchange & Training for artists in Nigeria. He has published 3 collections of poetry and a few monographs on different subjects.

He has presented conference papers in different parts of the world. His Master's degree thesis on the participatory use of video is wildly circulated on development-oriented websites. He presented a paper; Understanding the Media in Nigeria at The British Council Training Workshop on Development Information Management; September 9 to 13, 1996 at the Conference Centre University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. In 2008, he was invited to the 12th Poetry festival which took place in Durban South Africa. In 2009, he attended and he was one of the invited discussants at the CTA annual seminar in Brussels, Belgium. In December 2009, he was one of the invited participants at the Welcome Trust “Telling Stories for public engagement workshop; which took place in Bangalore, India.” His publication, Diaspora & imagined nationality was published by Carolina Academic Press in 2012.

Project Manager of Arts and Programme Manager of New Narratives, British Council - Nigeria 

Victor Mark-Onyegbu is an Arts manager at British Council Nigeria. In this role, he works with teams across the West African cluster to design and deliver arts and cultural programmes that strengthen connections and linkages between the Art sectors in West African countries and the UK. He also works with teams across Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa regions to manage the delivery of the British Council New Narratives programme, which is aimed at developing more plural narratives between the UK and countries of Africa to unlock more productive linkages especially amongst its young people. Before this, he worked in several roles in the public sector, mainly at the Nigerian Arts Council, where he supported the delivery of national-scale arts and heritage programmes. He is vastly experienced in stakeholder management, public sector relations and policy engagements and a fellow of the Institute of Public Diplomacy and Management, Nigeria.