No images? Click here FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ỌKPARA HOUSE© Publishing We are thrilled to announce our first release from our in-house imprint for picture books based on Igbo folktales, targeted for all ages. Pre-Order begins March 30th! "Nkemdiche Why We Do Not Grow Beards", is a classic Igbo folklore that takes place in an otherworldly time when women grew beards. It is a genesis story of African women and their knack for elaborate hairdos that we have come to admire and love them for today. This Igbo-centric children's book captures the power, creativity, and the sacred practices of feminine beauty throughout the story's beautifully designed illustrations and accurate depictions of Igbo culture as seen and lived by the people in a time before now. Written By - Obiora Nwazota , Illustrated By - Lucie Van Der Elst, Cover Design and Typesetting - Nick Adam and Bud Rodecker of Span in Chicago, Printing - Jelgavas Tipogrāfija. Photography - Valdis Kaulins Imagine Studio. ỌKPARA HOUSE© is a producer of Igbo content. Through art and design objects, prints, and various media, our mission is to harness the power of good design, dialogue, and academic research as powerful agents to stimulate, reactive, elevate, and reimagine Igbo culture. Through this, we are reclaiming and asserting the relevance of Igbo culture on contemporary lifestyles within and beyond the Igbo community. Ọkpara in the Igbo language is a name associated with the eldest son and a de facto leader of his community. He is the custodian of wisdom to be passed down to the next generation. What We’re Doing — Projects Being Released Our initial projects explore themes relevant to foundational structures of Igbo culture reimagined for contemporary lifestyles. Our projects will be a benchmark in quality and will contribute to ongoing efforts in preservation of Igbo culture in the diaspora and beyond. Inspiration Behind the Project
The African (Including All persons of African Descent in the Diaspora), was once free both spiritually and materially. It is no secret that we as a people and race have been strategically miseducated against our ways of living. Our children are predominately brought up in institutions that are dominated by perspective that is lacking in inclusiveness and thus poor in narratives of the rich cultural diversity that is the diaspora. This is especially overt in Black Africa where school children are indoctrinated in the classics of their colonial history. The official educational system often marginalizes our ethnicity and in rare cases when available is often a postscript. There are highly commendable efforts going on today across the diaspora to produce beautiful content but we have a long way to go and are currently anemic when compared to the quality and quantity of literary works out there available to other children. As said by the late Nigerian novelist, poet, and cultural critic, Chinua Achebe, “It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have – otherwise their surviving would have no meaning”. We find ourselves at an opportune moment in time to reclaim, nurture and elevate Igbo culture and traditions through the art of storytelling, design and various media. The Vision for ỌKPARA HOUSE© is to become the place to tell our story. A space of belonging, dialogue, and exchange. A place to be, a place to meet and an immersive experience of Igbo culture. We the Igbos are one of the most recognized peoples yet like most indigenous and old-world cultures we are at risk of losing our identity due in part to misplaced priorities by various stakeholders. The narratives we create today will fill in the void that exists in our collective story as humans. ỌKPARA HOUSE©, founded by Obiora Nwazota, an architect from Nigeria, is the long awaited second chapter in the exploration of Nigerian culture. Conceived from experiences garnered from Little Unicoco concept Restaurant, Nwazota’s first successful attempt at creating a culinary dining experience that elevated authentic Nigerian food culture. Since closing in 2017, Nwazota has spent that time working with creatives locally and across the globe on design objects, prints, and various media that reimagines Igbo culture— seeping into all aspects of black African identity in ways never before seen today. ### Reserve your copy starting March 30th ! "Nkemdiche Why We Do Not Grow Beards" Written By - Obiora Nwazota , Illustrated By - Lucie Van Der Elst, Cover Design and Typesetting - Nick Adam and Bud Rodecker of Span in Chicago, Printing - Jelgavas Tipogrāfija. The Mission of ỌKPARA HOUSE© Is to harness the power of design, dialogue, and academic research as powerful agents to stimulate, reactive, elevate, and reimagine Igbo culture. We are reclaiming and asserting the relevance of Igbo culture on contemporary lifestyles within and beyond the Igbo community. For all inquiries, please contact us: info@okparahouse.com Image Credits for this email: Valdis Kaulins Imagine Studio, G. I. Jones. Graphics: Ebere Agwuncha |