Andrew Kaggwa Mayiga
Most of the time, arts and culture journalism is at the bottom of the pyramid in many news establishments. For instance, where reporters of oil and gas, health and other journalism departments usually get trained, arts journalists never get the opportunity.
This is the reason the Africa Theatre Magazine workshop, Writing About African Arts, is a big deal.
The workshop brings together arts journalists from different parts of Africa such as Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda.
Daily Monitor’s Andrew Kaggwa Mayiga, an arts journalist and critic is one of the workshop facilitators alongside Grace Kerongo, a Kenyan lifestyle editor, Billie McTarnan, a Ghanian artist, writer and editor, South Africa based Zimbabwean arts writer and creative industries consultant, Tonderai Chiyindiko.
The workshop is aimed at retooling and informing future African storytellers in bid of helping media tell the story of African art better. The call for participants went out on October 30th and attracted applicants from across the continent with a total of fifteen up and coming arts writers from nine countries including Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal, Botswana and more were selected. The Writing about African Arts Workshop is a week-long intensive workshop for aspiring arts and culture writers with the interest to write about African Arts and cultures through an Afrocentric lens for the African reader, and a global audience. Facilitated by experienced arts and culture journalists from across the continent.
It started on Monday and will be climaxing on Friday online with daily two hour sessions and individual asynchronous assignments
The workshop will cover topics like, finding and horning your voice, research, finding and maintaining your sources, fact-checking, preparing for an interview, writing a feature story, events and performance reviews, working with editors and other people/receiving feedback, framing for or casting and understanding your reader, and getting your work published.
“The African Theatre Magazine is intent on making the bold attempt of creating an Afrocentric space for African Theatre. By centering African Theatre in media and cultural discourses, the Magazine seeks to reinvigorate cultural identities, uniqueness and diversity of a continent in a melting pot, with over 54 nations and its diasporas…”
Through this workshop, they hope to lay the foundation for the training of a new crop of writers who can wield the pen that examines, critics, and reports about African arts and cultures through an Africentric lens and narrative for an everyday African audience and beyond.
The African Theatre Magazine is an online platform that covers African Theatre activity on and off the continent.
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