Inclusive 2025: promoting women creativity and excellence
Tracy Ohovwore, Benin city
In a significant push to promote creativity amongst women, Tell That Story (TTS) Initiative organised a seminar on the theme “Expanding the Frame” to enhance women’s ability to change the narrative of marginalisation in Nigeria and the world.
Inclusive 2025, a second edition hosted by Tell That Story, a team of creative photographers, in commemoration of International Women’s Day (IWD), seeks to foster women’s creativity in Nigerian society so that they can achieve confidence, excellence, and global impact.
Narrating the idea behind Inclusive, Babawale Obayanju, Host of Tell That Story, revealed that the initiative was to create a safe space for women to explore their creativity beyond the expected.
“Inclusive was inspired by a need we observed. Generally, females are marginalized in creative spaces because male voices are louder.
“However, it is observed that women/ females create more impactful works than men, hence the need to create the space where women can meet, strengthen one another, form synergies for collaboration, promote excellence amongst themselves and also find ways to project their works collectively.”
Highlighting some of the challenges faced by women in Nigeria and globally, Babawale mentioned that the intimidation of male dominance and women’s service to their homes may sometimes challenge their fulfillment of their personal dreams.
He further reiterated that the seminar was to help create a space to tackle some of the challenges women face in the creative space.
Speaking on the theme“Beyond the Frame,” Babawale explained that “Frames are borders in which a story is told by a lease-based artist. We are looking at how lens based artist can push beyond the Limit of creativity, explore new dimensions of storytelling, and engage more deeply with both subjects and the audience.”
One of the guest speakers, Fati Abubakar, a photojournalist and public health activist, spoke at the event on the importance of resilience and how women can foster creativity by utilising social media, volunteering, and engaging in insightful workshops.
She further advised women to prioritise excellence in their chosen creative genre and ensure that growth and development in their chosen field are treated seriously.
Mary Ene Inalegwu, addressing the subtopic “Accelerating action and volunteering for growth,” emphasized the need to engage in volunteerism as it would give a “deeper insight” into identity identification and an avenue to solve a problem within the community.
According to her, “Volunteering develops nations, communication, and teamwork skills, exposes opportunities to acquire relevant experiences, and creates lasting changes. “ She further reiterated the need to promote collaborations amongst creative minds to enhance growth and productivity.
Speaking to Newsnowng, Divinegrace Ogbodo, a participant at the event, shared some knowledge acquired during the seminar.
“I learnt that being a female is not a barrier to achieving your goal. Try to reach out to people, try to collaborate. No one is an island of knowledge. You can delegate, volunteer, and network to increase your creativity.
“Programs like Inclusive gives women a safe space to come together to share ideas.” She noted.
