Nsibidi Institute will hold its inaugural festival in Lagos, with a focus on Nigerian popular culture and its historical roots.

The Director of the Institute, Emeka Keazor, said the two-day event, themed “The Past in the Present Around Us: A Retrospective Celebration of Nigerian Popular Culture,” will take place at Quintessence and Didi Museum.

The programme, which opens with a welcome ceremony, will see the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Ojinnaka Obi Asika, deliver a keynote address on “Heritage and Future in the Past.”

A symposium on the role of the Nigerian popular press in shaping heritage and social culture will follow, moderated by Aduke Gomez, with panelists including Jahman Anikulapo, C. Don Adinuba, Freda Olatunbosun, and Michael Effiong.

An exhibition on “The First Century of Newspaper Advertising (1863–1963)” will run all day as the programme also includes a film screening of Lagos: The Birth of a City of Style (1861–1967) by Muni and Ed Keazor, a book discussion with Major-General Tunde Akinkunmi (rtd) on his work Hubris: A Brief Political History of the Nigerian Army, and a conversation with photographer Don Barber.