Human rights activist and citizen reporter, Omoyele Sowore, businesswoman and political activist, Aisha Yesufu, theatre practitioners, artists, scholars and celebrated advocate for effective and responsible policing, Okechukwu Nwanguma, are part of the Nigerian panellists and speakers for the Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre’s (C-SET) Festival of Art and Discourse.

C-SET is located in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Performance at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The centre’s Director, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi; the Canada Research Chair in Socially Engaged Theatre and interdisciplinary artistic scholar, said in a statement on Friday that the festival would also showcase and celebrate diverse projects on policing. 

The five-day event billed to take place at the centre is a research showcase of the Canada Research Chair in Socially Engaged Theatre programme holding from November 25 to 29, 2024. The free event will feature exhibitions, talks, debates, and panels on policing, justice and socially engaged theatre practitioners among others.

Speaking on the policing projects to showcase and celebrate at the event, Mr Afolabi, identified them to included highlights of “Staging Justice: People, Places, Planet, and Practice,’’ echoing the CATR/ACRT 2024 conference theme held earlier in the year, research presentations by the centre’s graduate students and display of the play, “Past Shadows, Present Shades,’’ reflecting on migrants’ past and present experiences and imaging new futures staged in Regina for two days during the Cathedral Village Art Festival in May.’’

Besides, the centre director stated that there would be an exhibition of protest artworks displaying caricatures of policing in Canada, the United States of America and Nigeria. The theatre expert added that the works were triggered by protests against police brutality and openly accessible with the artists endorsing their use in most cases as they are solely for education purposes.      

He added that the event’s central themes were activism, policy, artivism, and policing in Canada. The event dates and time are Monday, November 25, 11:00am – 1:00pm (Saskatchewan time), Tuesday, November  26,  6:00pm – 8:00pm (Saskatchewan time), Wednesday, November  27, 11:00am – 1:00pm (Saskatchewan time), Thursday, November 28, 11am – 1:00pm (Saskatchewan time) and Friday, November 29, 6:00pm – 8:00pm (Saskatchewan time). Consummate stakeholders in policing matters, activists, academics and journalists within and outside Canada will attend the event in-person or virtually.