Nigeria’s frontline art and culture advocacy group, the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), has announced arrangements for the execution of the 2025 edition of its flagship event, the Lagos Book & Art Festival (LABAF) scheduled to hold at three venues in Lagos.

The event will hold from November 10 to 16 at Freedom Park, Lagos Island, and the J. Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, Onikan.

With its 27th edition, the week-long festival will explore the theme “Change: Imagining Alternatives,” reflecting a collective desire to reimagine pathways to progress in Nigeria and the global community.

Speaking on the festival’s focus, CORA’s Programme Chair and Festival Director, Jahman Anikulapo, said the 2025 edition is inspired by the need to “encourage new processes to transform our society into a productive, knowledge-driven economy” amid prevailing social and political challenges.

“Can we all, through books, imagine a world of better possibilities?” Anikulapo asked, adding that LABAF 2025 will spotlight novels, nonfiction works, and dramas where hope, resilience, and dramas where hope, resilience, and the will to win are central themes.”

This year’s festival will feature 62 events, including 12 plenary sessions on politics, culture, and society; four sessions on Literature in the Digital Age (exploring AI and new technologies); 10 BookTreks covering fiction, drama, poetry, and nonfiction; and five visual arts exhibitions.

Other highlights include a two-day Green Festival (Nov. 14–15), Open Mic sessions, Poetry competitions, CORA Youth Creative Clubs, drama and dance performances, film screenings, and two literary parties.

The festival’s core mission, literacy advocacy through the arts remains central. According to the organisers, LABAF’s diverse programming aims to “educate, enlighten, and empower citizens to participate in nation-building through artistic engagement.”

.“The festival was conceived as CORA’s contribution to the spread of literacy towards boosting the nation’s human capital,” Anikulapo explained.

CORA revealed that about 40 percent of the festival’s events will be hosted by partner organisations, including Freedom Park, which has served as the home of LABAF for 15 years; Children and the Environment (CATE), organisers of the Green Festival; and Events by Nature, anchors of the CORA Youth Creative Club.

Other collaborators include the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), PEN Nigeria, NANTAP, SONTA, Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), and the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA), as well as several individual artists such as performance artist Jelili Atiku.

The 2025 edition also welcomes a new partnership with the J. Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, a fast-growing cultural hub in Lagos.