Celebrating Ndi-Igbo

Born Yvonne Chinyere Okereke Okoro to a Nigerian father and Ghanaian mother, Yvonne attended Achimota Preparatory School, Lincoln Community School and Faith Montessori School. For her Senior Secondary School, she attended Mfanstiman Girls Senior High School. On completing her Secondary education, proceeded to University of Ghana, Legon where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and linguistics. She moved on to the University De Not in France to study Press Civilization, Drama and Marketing. After her Senior High Education in 2002, she took up acting as a career and first featured in the movie ‘Sticking to the Promise’. Since then, she has featured in over 20 movies. Yvonne Okoro was recently honoured with a Distinguished Achievement Award at this year’s Nigeria Excellence Awards and nominated for AMAA Best Actress in the Leading Role Category for her role in ‘Single Six’.

One to watch Chinonye Chukwu, a third-year MFA candidate at Temple University, is a Nigerian-born, Alaskan-raised screenwriter and director. Artistically, she is most concerned with images that are rich with cultural nuances, often dealing with the complex and contradictory issues of ethnic identity, black female identity and cross-cultural (cross-generational) interaction. Chinonye’s most recently completed film, Igbo Kwenu!, is the recipient of the PIFVA Subsidy Grant from the independent film community and both the “Best Motion Picture Award” and “Best Screenplay Award” at the 2009 Diamond Screen Festival. She was also a recipient of a 2009 Princess Grace Award. Presented by the Royal Family of Monaco, the Princess Grace Foundation-USA honors six student filmmakers in the nation. Currently, she is in finishing up production on another fiction narrative, this time exploring the gentrification of North Philadelphia through a little girl’s desire to be a ballerina. Born in Rivers State...