FAITH IS THE WAY

No child is not conceived
Free from the sins of our forefathers
The world since it conception
Witness the presence of God

Life is entrusted with souls
Yet star's are falling from the sky
Hope is perishing, love waxing cold
The human mind enslaved

To vanity and fragile misconception
Lingering in the debt of the heart
No one deserves to struggle
No one deserves to experience pain

The world is created in richness
But man is not satisfy 
God's plans for man is infinite
But man lack the will to ask

In the mountain and valley
God's glory abound
To unlock the key to profound greatness
The mind need be upright

All Rights Reserved © Akan Udofia 2018

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Wins 10th PEN Pinter Prize

African Authors Bringing Diverse Narratives to Literature

More than a decade ago, when the young Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was struggling to get her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, published, an agent told her that things would be easier “if only you were Indian,” because Indian writers were in vogue. Another suggested changing the setting from Nigeria to America. Adichie didn’t take this as commentary on her work, she said, but on the timidity of the publishing world when it came to unknown writers and unfamiliar cultures, especially African ones.

These days she wouldn’t receive that kind of advice. Black literary writers with African roots (though some grew up elsewhere), mostly young cosmopolitans who write in English, are making a splash in the book world, especially in the United States. They are on best-seller lists, garner high profile reviews and win major awards in America and in Britain. Adichie, 36, the author of Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction this year, is a prominent member of an expanding group that includes Dinaw Mengestu, Helen Oyeyemi, NoViolet Bulawayo, Teju Cole, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Taiye Selasi, among others.

There are reasons for the critical mass now, say writers, publishers and literature scholars. After years of political and social turmoil, positive changes in several African nations are helping to greatly expand the number of writers and readers. Newer awards like the Caine Prize for African Writing have helped, too, as have social media, the Internet and top M.F.A. programs. At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, black writers with recent African roots will make up more than 10 percent of the fiction students come September. Moreover, the number of African immigrants in the United States has more than quadrupled in the past two decades, to almost 1.7 million.

And publishing follows trends: Women, Asian-American, Indian and Latino writers have all been “discovered” and had their moment in the sun — as have African-Americans, some of whom envy the attention given to writers with more recent links in Africa.

http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/06/30/african-authors-bringing-diverse-narratives-literature/

35 FREE ONLINE COURSES FOR ART & DESIGN STUDENTS AND GRADUATES

If you study Art and Design, here are 35 online courses for you to improve your knowledge and skills. As creative students, you need to improve your skills with some online courses.  These days, what you learn in the classroom is no longer enough to get you your desired job, especially if you are a student or graduate of Art and Design. You'll certainly need more than the theories and practical you learnt at the university to prepare yourself for your dream job.

 As an Art student or graduate, decorating your resume with one or two relevant online courses, will give you a higher chance of getting employment, rather than relying solely on your BSc degree certificate. However, if you have been complaining about lack of access to online courses that are relevant to your field, we've got you covered now. » more As creative students, you need to improve your skills with some online courses.

Here are 35 free courses you can learn online in the comfort of your room. These courses come with real university credit.

1. Introduction to Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists from California Institute of the Arts.
2. Sound Production in Ableton Live for Musicians and Artists from  California Institute of the Arts.
3. Graphic Design History: An Introduction from Maryland Institute College of Art.
4. Sound Synthesis Using Reaktor from California Institute of the Arts
5. Charting the Avant-Garde: from Romanticism to Utopic Abstraction from School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
6. Generative Art and Computational Creativity from Simon Fraser University.
7. Introduction to User Experience from University of Michigan.
8. Evaluating Designs with Users from University of Michigan.
9. UX Design: From Concept to Wireframe from University of Michigan.
10. Principles of Designing for Humans from University of Michigan.
11. Understanding User Needs from University of Michigan
12. UX Research Surveys from University of Michigan
13. UX Research at Scale: Analytics and Online Experiments from University of Michigan
14. UX Design: From Wireframe to Prototype from University of Michigan
15. Human-Computer Interaction from Georgia Institute of Technology
16. Piano I: Introduction to the Piano & Staff from Arizona State University
17. Piano II: Focus on Reading from Arizona State University
18. Idea Development: Create and Implement Innovative Ideas from University of Queensland
19. Creating and Sustaining an Innovation Culture from University of Queensland
20. Design Thinking and Creativity for Innovation from University of Queensland
21. Design Thinking: Prototyping and User Testing from Rochester Institute of Technology
22. Design Thinking: Ideation, Iteration and Communication from Rochester Institute of Technology 23. Design Thinking: Empathizing to Understand the Problem from Rochester Institute of Technology
24. Design Thinking Fundamentals from Rochester Institute of Technology
25. Custom Hand-lettering from School of Visual Arts
26. Working with Motion & Time from School of Visual Arts
27. Camera Essentials from School of Visual Arts
28. The Practical History of Typography from School of Visual Arts
29. Making Meaning: An Introduction to Designing Objects, Part I from School of the Art Institute of Chicago 
30. North Indian Classical Music I: Fundamental Elements from Universitat Pompeu Fabra
31. Digital Drawings: Points, Lines, Curves from University of Nevada, Las Vegas
32. Exploring the Mixed Reality Landscape from Pacific Northwest College of Art
33. Cardin to Castelbajac: Style in French Fashion from Paris College of Art
34. Introduction to Motion Design: Animated GIFs from Ringling College of Art + Design
35. Introduction to Digital Fabrication and Technical Design      


Akinbayo Wahab
Source: Pulse Nigeria