Ticklin' Di Sebiticalis slated for September 3

The campaign to promote reading for pleasure among Ghanaians receives a boost with another public reading event to be held in Accra on Saturday September 3rd 2016.

Dubbed “Ticklin’ Di Sebiticalis”, the special book reading takes place in the cosy setting of Jamrock Restaurant, a Jamaican-themed joint near the A&C Mall at East Legon.

Headlined by Nana Awere Damoah and Kofi Akpabli, the reading offers patrons a lively evening of literary pleasure and thought-provoking discussions on Ghanaian contemporary life.

Kofi Akpabli will charm patrons with excerpts from his books Romancing Ghanaland and Tickling the Ghanaian while Nana Awere Damoah will entice the audience from his repertoire Sebitically Speaking and I Speak of Ghana.

With 10 books between them, the two writers continue on their mission to make reading hip again, and to take writing and reading to the level of pop culture. They believe that reading should be done for pleasure as well, and not only for exams and industry. According to both writers, the event also aims to diversify the social offerings currently available on the entertainment scene.

"Elsewhere, public readings and book signing are top-notch events that receive distinguished patronage. As society is pushing for the consumption of made-in-Ghana goods, let’s not forget about made-in-Ghana books," they said.

In their readings so far, the two have received sponsorship from Threadex, WearGhana, Norte Sobolo and AJ's Housekeeping Services. A special feature about Saturday’s reading is that for the first time, the two are joined by a Guest Reader, Alba Kunado Suprim, author of the Imported Ghanaian and A Place of Beautiful Nonsense.

“Ticklin’ Di Sebiticalis” runs between 4.30pm and 7pm, and involves four rounds of readings from the works of the three accomplished Ghanaian authors. There will be interludes of poetry and music.

About the Authors

Kofi Akpabli is a media consultant and travel writer whose latest work has been published in a new Commonwealth Non-Fiction Anthology launched in the UK in May 2016. He is a two-time winner of the CNN/Multichoice African Journalist for Arts and Culture. Kofi has also won GJA and National awards in Culture and Tourism. He writes a travel column Going Places in The Mirror newspaper, published weekly in Accra.

Amongst his books are: Harmattan - a Cultural Profile of Northern Ghana, Romancing Ghanaland: the Beauty of Ten Regions, A Sense of Savannah - Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana, and Tickling the Ghanaian - Encounters with Contemporary Culture.

Kofi is a member of Faculty, Central University. His scholarly interests include the research and dissemination of key values of African culture. Kofi Akpabli lives at a village near Accra with his wife and children.

Nana Awere Damoah holds a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham and a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). A British Council Chevening alumnus, Nana works in Nigeria as a Technical Manager.

In 1997, Nana won first prize in the Step Magazine National Writing Competition. He is the author of five books: Sebitically Speaking, I Speak of Ghana, Tales from Different Tails, Through the Gates of Thought, and Excursions in my Mind.

His sixth book, Nsempiisms, is due in print later this year and is already available as a free e-book. Nana Awere Damoah is married with three children. He divides his time between Lagos and Tema.

Alba Suprim has been writing for as long as she can remember and regularly flips through, with a wry smile, the stacks of notebooks that contain what can only be described as the melodrama of her teenage years. She is the author of The Imported Ghanaian and A Place of Beautiful Nonsense.

She graduated from Escuela International de Cine y Television (EICTV), the Cuban film school, as an Editor and worked on several short and independent film projects in Cuba and London before moving back to Ghana, where she now earns her living writing screenplays, television programmes, producing and directing television commercials.

She has been on the writing and editing team of the BBC World Services Trust Radio drama, ‘Story Story, Voices from the Market,’ for over six years.

She was a writer and director for the BBC WST television drama, entitled, ‘Wetin Dey!’She lives in Accra, where she is regularly accused of being Senegalese, Malian, Ivorian, Liberian, Kenya or Zimbabwean, in fact, any other nationality but Ghanaian.