Femi Osofisan Society (FOS) will stream Femi Osofisan’s A Nightingale for Dr. Du Bois today, at 2.00pm (UTC+1) as part of Professor Femi Osofisan’s 75th birthday celebrations.
The link to the zoom streaming can be obtained by sending an email to femiosofisan2021@gmail.com with the subject: FO at 75.
This is a one-camera recording of the world premiere stage performance of the play, produced by the Department of Theatre, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA. Directed by Segun Ojewuyi, Nightingale was written by Femi Osofisan, and examines the parallels between American and African struggles against racial oppression. It was produced at the McLeod Theater of the University between February 23 and 25, 2017.
A Nightingale for Dr. Du Bois focuses on two weeks in the life of author and civil activist W.E.B. DuBois in Ghana between 1961 and his death in August 1963. In writing the play, Osofisan explores the philosophy behind the Encyclopaedia Africana, Du Bois’ major project on the creation of a new encyclopaedia of the African diaspora, and that relationship to the founding principles of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), which Du Bois had collaborated in founding in 1909.
This streaming is part of a day-long series of activities dedicated to Professor Femi Osofisan today. There will be an hour of tributes at 5.00pm, to which you are also invited.
Other plays scheduled for streaming include Osofisan’s The Discombobulation of a Rookie Patriot: A Stage Adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s Man of the People (2013) at 12 noon, and Nkrumah Ni, Africa Ni (1995) at 6.00pm.
