Award winning Nigerian artist and writer Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, aka Orikinla Osinachi has been offered residency at the famous Tyrone Guthrie Centre for creative artists at Annaghmakerrig, Ireland.
Orikinla started writing professionally at 18 as a scriptwriter for the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) Channel 10 in Lagos in the early 1980s and his drawings for books have been exhibited in Japan when he was 20. He is the author of Children of Heaven (1987), Scarlet Tears of London (2006), Bye, Bye Mugabe (2008), In the House of Dogs (2011), Diary of the Memory Keeper (2013), The Prophet Lied (2013), co-author of Na-ked Beauty (2006), The Language of True Love (2006) and also the most prolific African blogger with over 30 blogs of which the most popular is Nigerians Report Online and Publisher/Editor of Nollywood Mirror, the most circulated publication on Nollywood in paperback, hardcover and Amazon Kindle. He started his Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema and launched the Screen Naija One Village, One Cinema Project in 2013 and recently started Nollywood Digital that will have an annual Nollywood Digital Cinema Fair every summer. His new social media project iPost Nigeria has attracted the attention of major international companies and organizations. Orikinla is expected to complete his theatrical work "Chi Amanda" during the course of his residency. "Chi Amanda" chronicles the lamentations of three women from the three dominant tribes in Nigeria who fled from different agonies of domestic violence and also tackles the plight of a young woman with the burden of unwanted pregnancy. Orikinla's last major theatrical work "Sleepless Night", the first play on the martyrdom of Chief MKO Abiola and the June 12 Crisis was premiered in July 2002 at the old French Cultural Center in Ikoyi, Lagos. It was co-sponsored by United Artists for Human Development (UAHD), French Cultural Center and Dele Momodu, Publisher of the popular Ovation International magazine. The cast was from the famous Crown Troupe of Africa led by Segun Adefila featured in the award winning documentary "Bariga Boy".
See full biographical profile on http://www.changemakers.com/users/michael-chima-ekenyerengozi.
The centre has since hosted people such as Michael Harding, Loreena Mckennitt, Oonagh Kearney, Derval Symes, Page Allen, Roisin Meaney, Anne Rigney, Gemma Browne, Colette Bryce, Phil Coulter, Brian Kennedy and Peter McCann.
The Tyrone Guthrie Centre is a centre for creative artists at Annaghmakerrig, Newbliss, County Monaghan, Ireland, founded in 1981.
The mansion was the family home of theatrical director Sir William Tyrone Guthrie (2 July 1900 – 15 May 1971.
The centre accommodates eleven residents and there are five self-catering cottages plus a facility and studio for a disabled artist and carer. Each artist must apply individually to the Board of Management and submit examples of their work. To be accepted as a resident, an artist must have demonstrated a proven track record in their field. Facilities include a baby grand piano, seven studios for visual artists, a performance space, an acoustic recording studio, a dark room for black and white photography and a recently added print studio. The ethos of the house is focussed on facilitating creative work within a welcoming, homelike and trusted environment. The only condition of residency is that all the artists must assemble for the evening meal. This was one of the terms of Guthrie’s will as he felt that conversation over good food would encourage creativity and collaboration. The Centre was one of the first North/South collaborations in the early 1980s and was managed as a joint venture by the Arts Council of the North and South of Ireland.
Many artists have commented on the fact that a stay in the Centre has given them the time and space to produce creative work and it is no exaggeration to describe the Centre as a place of heightened creativity.
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