Come to our film & trivia event, please 🥺

Hi there, friend

In all my excitement (it was mostly anxiety, let me not lie) to share that we’re having an event with you and in time to get the newsletter out, I forgot to tell you why we’re planning a night to experience Nigerian history through art and friendly competition.

In the past, we have had small community gatherings to gist, complain and play games. We haven’t done those in a while because life got in the way. I thought it would be cool to bring them back as a more experience-based event. But why history? Why trivia? Why music? Why film?

The idea was a community effort. I asked for event suggestions on Instagram, all I knew at the time was that I wanted to donate some of the proceeds.

My friend, Dami, suggested trivia, an Instagram friend suggested making the trivia about history. Another friend, Deola, suggested a night to chill and forget the wahala of Nigeria. Then my friend, Fope, suggested a documentary screening at MILIKI, and we decided it would be cool to combine all these ideas for an immersive experience.

What does this have to do with you, a reader of That New News? Fine I’ll tell you

There are three things in my opinion: firstly you are curious about what is happening in Nigeria now, and I think history often repeats itself, so context into the past would provide some revelations about what is happening now.

Secondly, we are quite a small community who read this newsletter every week. I believe that as like-minded adults, we owe it to ourselves to speak to and learn from each other - this is the first of a possible quarterly gathering, if it goes well. I am really excited about this one, so I hope that you can come if you’re in Lagos, and bring your friends.

Thirdly, one of the things that we often cover in this newsletter is police brutality. I wanted to create a way that we could collectively contribute to fighting this cause so that powerlessness does not consume us—I spent money (bribe) and about 6 hours at a police station two weeks ago to get out someone who didn’t break the law. I saw droves of people who didn’t break any laws get manipulated by the system to admit to things they didn’t do.

Hope Behind Bars works across Nigeria to get people who don’t have friends with money and time out of prison. Beyond that, they help prisoners prepare for life outside with skill building. I feel it is important to support work like this, and what better way than while having a good evening with people who get you on some level?

All this is to say, I hope you are excited (or at least intrigued 👀) by this event. I hope you can come. And if not, I hope you can share with friends who will come. The fee for readers of this newsletter is N5,200, slightly cheaper than the general fee because I truly appreciate you and your dedication to reading these articles every week.

We learn about the news together every week. Let’s learn about history together on the 27th of December at MILIKI.

If you have any trouble with the link or have questions about the event, please email me at isiakatomiwa@gmail.com.

See you soon!