The Humber Mouth 2001 brings you a season of African literature, film, music and the visual arts

Sunday October 28th 8.00pm �6 (Conc �4) Box Office (01482) 323638
Hull Truck Theatre, Spring Street

The Africa Centre
presents the best of African contemporary literature

Join three prize winning authors in a celebration of their writing and a discussion about their experience of writing in relation to African Politics:

Zakes Mda, South Africa's pre-eminent novelist and playwright, is the winner of the 2001 Commonwealth Literary Prize for his novel 'The Heart of Redness' described as 'a magic realist text of great beauty, humour and pathos' (Sunday Independent)

Ivan Vladislavic, winner of the Olive Schreiner Prize & a Noma Award Honourable Mention, is one of the most distinctive and compelling voices in South African Literature. His new novel 'The Restless Supermarket' is a 'spectacular carnival of riotous images and urban satire'.

Helon Habila is the winner of the 2001 Caine Prize for Love Poems a short story from his collection 'Prison Stories'. Described as a work of 'rare integrity', Prison Stories addresses the final years of the military dictatorship in Nigeria.

Ama Ata Aidoo will chair the evening. She is the winner of numerous literary awards including the 1992 African Region Commonwealth Writers Prize for her remarkable novel 'Changes'. She lives in Ghana. "She has re-affirmed my faith in the power of the written word to reach, teach, to empower and to encourage" Alice Walker

To find out more about the African Visions tour and the associated Internet Residency, which features specially commissioned pieces from the writers for young people from all over the UK, contact Bridget Keehan/Peter Jenkins at the Africa Centre, Covent Garden, 020 7836 1973, e-mail: [email protected]

Sunday 11th November 8.00pm �10 (Conc �8)
Hull Truck Theatre, Spring Street
Box Office (01482) 323638

J-Night presents:
The African All Stars
directed by Lucky Ranku

Featuring Lucky Ranku (guitar), Mervyn Africa (piano), Claude Deppa (trumpet), Fayaz Virji (trombone), Tony Kofi (baritone sax), Bukky Leo (tenor sax), Ntshuks Bonga (alto sax), Sami el Salahi (bass), Frank Tontoh (drums), Nana Tsiboe (percussion)

Regarded as Africa's greatest guitarist, South African Lucky Ranku returns to the UK with his most ambitious project to date. Lucky creates a spiritual journey back to the heart of the townships, by assembling a line-up of 10 instrumentalists from all corners of Africa to produce a sound that sizzles like the African sun. Many of the musicians have visited Hull before leading their own bands and we are delighted to welcome them back with this massive African supergroup for one of the most important - and funkiest - evening of the year.

"exuberant and energetic, sophisticated and stylish" World Magazine

This concert is part of the J-Night series of world music concerts

African Visions at Hull Screen

Hull Screen, Hull Central Library,
Box Office (01482) 327600

Thursday Nov 8th 7.30pm �3.50 (Conc �2.50)

'Odes to Filth' (18)
Dir: Jean Michel Bruy� (Fr/Senegal) 1998, 35'
Twenty poems by Ibahima Konat� & Amadou Ba. Developed from a project with eleven street children in Dakar. Narrated in English by Laurie Anderson

'Xala' (18)
Dir: Ousmane Sembene (Senegal) 1974, 119'
A bitter satire on corruption and power of the new black bourgeoisie in an unnamed African state. The central character celebrates his affluence by marrying his third wife but on his wedding night he is afflicted with impotence (Xala). His obsession with a cure brings about his downfall.

Tuesday Nov 13th & Wednesday Nov 14th 7.30pm �3.50 (Conc �2.50)

The Golden Ball (PG)
Dir: Chiek Doukoure Guinea/France 1993 1hr 40mins subtitled
This comedy-drama follows the early life of diminutive football mad teenager Bandian (Sidiki Sumah). Leaving for the bright lights of the big city, he is adopted by a football manager and a local businessman.
"An evocative commentary on late twentieth-century African society,�a warm and moving film, a fine example of modern-day African film making" Nigel Robinson.

Thursday Nov 15th 7.30pm �3.50 (Conc �2.50)

Yeelen (Brightness) (PG)
Dir: Souleymane Ciss� 1987 (Mali) 105'
An extraordinarily beautiful and mesmerising film adaptation of the West African Bambara people's creation myth told through the story of a young warrior's struggle to depose a corrupt ruling power, resulting in knowledge for all. Winner of the jury prize at the 1987 Cannes festival.

Friday Nov 16th & Saturday Nov 17th 7.30pm �3.50 (Conc �2.50)

The Season of Men (12)
Dir: Moufida Tlatli Tunesia 2000 2hr 2mins subtitled
"After her sensitive, prize-winning directing debut in 1994, Silences of the Palace, Tlatli returns to the theme of Tunesian women caught between modernity and oppressive traditions. Aicha (Rabiaa Ben Abdallah) has realised her lifelong dream of leaving the claustrophobic island of Djerba with her children and moving to Tunis." - Variety

Thursday Nov 22nd 7.30pm �3.50 (Conc �2.50)

Unsere Afrikareise (18)
Dir: Peter Kubelka (Austria) 1966 13'
A disturbing and complex look at a group of bourgeois Austrians on their 'Trip to Africa'

Daughters of the Dust (18)
Dir: Julie Dash (USA) 1991 113'
Set on an island in the south of the US, a family of African-Americans led by a group of women prepares to migrate north. Can the ancient African beliefs and ways of life that survived slavery days continue in an age of science and industry? A film of extraordinary visual power.

The African Visions Film Season has been jointly programmed for the Humber Mouth by: Rob Gawthrop (The Hull School of Art & Design, University of Lincoln in conjunction with Hull Time Based Arts and the Deep ROOT Festival) and Mark Odgen from the Hull Screen.

Take 5 Caf�, Hull Central Library, November

'Fishing Stories'
an exhibition of photography and text by Isaac Acheampong

Fishing Stories explores the theme of fishing and fishing communities in different cultural contexts, featuring photographs and text from Hull and Elmina. The fishing town of Elmina in Ghana is the site of the first and biggest slave fort built by Europeans. Isaac Acheampong was born in Ghana and is currently studying at the Hull School of Architecture. The project was made possible with funding from the Millennium Commission's ON THE LINE Award (founded and adminstered by Oxfam). ON THE LINE is based on the idea of linking countries which lie along the Greenwich Meridian Line.