Arts news in brief July 31

Nigerian festival with Igbo

THE Nigerian community, its friends and the general public are invited to come along and enjoy the latest festival to land on Limerick’s social calendar. New-Yam Festival is a one day wonder on the bank holiday weekend, taking place on Sunday August 1 from 5pm onwards at Presentation School, Sexton Street.

Organised by Igbo Union Ireland’s Limerick chapter, called Ohanezendigbo, Sunday 1’s celebration is integral to Nigerian cultural and takes place simultaneously in Nigeria and where there are Igbo chapters throughout the world.
According to one of the local organisers, Gabriel Dyke, we can expect traditional music, dancing, drama, live bands and food for this first ever for the city. There’s a big welcome to all for from 5pm onwards at New-Yam, to which Willie O’Dea TD, Mayor Maria O’Byrne and representatives of bishops and churches in the Mid West are invited by the Limerick chapter’s committee.

Loft Venue and Locke Bar

AUGUST can be a wicked month for performance arts and live entertainment. Take heart with the knowledge that The Locke Bar and Loft Venue’s brisk weekly programme continues throughout the month.
Many events are free, simply walk into the George’s Quay bar and enjoy traditional Irish music each Tuesday,  a ballad session each Wednesday, The Off the Nail Poetry evening on the first Thursday of each month and Songwriter Sessions unfolding on 2nd, 3rd and 4th Thursdays.
Locke Bar clientele still finds time for The Piano Man on each Friday and Saturday and on Sunday afternoons, a lively sound from The Busy Hands Band.
Head upstairs to Loft Venue to take in two confirmed Summer residencies until the end of August. Myles Breen and Mike Finn have co-written and direct each other in Porkville! as well as acting and singing. This funny, raw history of Limerick takes us through from the god Sionna’s being condemned for stealing acorns off the Tree of Knowledge to live as the river Shannon, right up to Angela’s Ashes and beyond.
Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at 7.30pm.
A music maker/ writer sets the frame for Wednesday’s The Sinnan Sessions, doors 8pm. Against a backdrop of visual art, we can look forward to poetry and prose readings, and various singer-songwriters in this weekly sequence of live, dynamic nights by Irish creatives.

OPENED4: IN BETWEEN

ON Friday August 6, Daghdha Dance Company issue an open invitation to all to attend the latest instalment in its summer series, Opened. OPENED4: IN BETWEEN is a video installation exhibition and live performance by Kaspar Aus, artist in residence on the Daghdha Mentoring Programme.
Every installation will tell its own story, with connects and rhythms emerging. Aus is interested in a diversity of visual expressions which will flow through the afternoon – visitors are welcome to come and go at John’s Square.
This will be followed by a sound and dance improvisation performance with Kaspar Aus, artist, and choreographer Inmaculada Moya Pavon and The Quiet Club. 1pm to 8pm.

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