The Talk Your Own Open Mic night is a monthly performance session organized and created by the African Artists’ Foundation to spotlight and showcase emerging creative African talent while contributing to the continent’s growing creative ecosystem.
The April edition, tagged The Future I Assumed Was Normal, took place at the Freedom Park, Lagos on Saturday, April 25, 2026.
Various creative talents across several disciplines delighted the audience with their renditions, spoken word performances, poetry, and comedy.
What Talk Your Own Open Mic Represents
The program stands as a reputable entity in the creative space in Africa, particularly with respect to access and recognition for rising creative stars from all over the nation and continent at large.
The Creative Manager, African Artists’ Foundation and Host of the Talk Your Own Open Mic, Sapphire Favour Ikoghene Kehinde, described the original vision behind the platform as a desire to give performing artists and creatives (singers, dancers, poets, writers, and comedians) a space to express themselves in order to attract visibility to their work and also propel them to the next level in their creative careers.
Raw Talent, Real Stories
The performing artists climbed the stage with enthusiasm and energy, ready to thrill the audience and leave a lasting impression.
The Drive Behind the Creativity
The creative mind doesn’t sit still; it wants to express and will take any chance to. Delta State-born Oke, with her puppet, Brenda, performed on the stage as a ventriloquist.
But her passion for creativity burns beyond one form of expression.
She refers to herself as an all-round creative. And admits she also works as a fashion designer.
“I studied Fine and Applied Arts and I majored in Sculpture,” she shared with Creative Money Africa. “My inspiration is basically everything around me and the uniqueness of human personalities. This is my own way of expressing other parts of me that, ordinarily, you wouldn’t just find.”
The Reality Creatives Are Navigating
These creative talents, along the course of getting exposure for their work, also have to deal with gaps in structure. Despite the passion they bring, their challenges range from absence of adequate support in terms of talent management to low knowledge about the appropriate systems that can help to enhance and uplift their craft so that it becomes an actual business venture.
The Monetization Gap
The point at which they make income from their creative work is where effort needs to be directed to. Oke disclosed to Creative Money Africa that her talent in making people relaxed and entertained with her puppet is barely fetching her monetary returns and smiled at the question of how she is making money from the craft.
There are many creatives and artists like her who, day in and day out, get praised for their exceptional capabilities but find it challenging to translate the positive response into a sustainable inflow of cash.
Expression vs Structure: The Missing Link
Loud applause and raves trailed each performer’s steps back to their seats among the audience. However, the shoulder taps and high-fives, while encouraging, couldn’t diminish the growing concern about how their work could be better structured for monetization.
Their talent was not in doubt. But earning comfortably and sustainably from it soon became a question that was met with uneasy laughs and smiles, signalling the need for concrete aid in that specific area.
And at Creative Money Africa, this struggle sounds familiar. It is exactly the work we have set out to empower creatives with: packaging, structuring, and monetizing their creativity for sustainable development.
Why Spaces Like This Matter for the Creative Economy
The advantage to creatives that get the opportunity to perform on stage at each monthly session of the Talk Your Own Open Mic Night is a chance of getting discovered for something bigger than they could possibly have imagined.
Further than that, they are able to network better with admirers, talent scouts and managers, and lovers of creativity, arts, and culture who may want to share opportunities, resources, and financial support as a way of encouragement.
The creative ecosystem in Nigeria and Africa as a whole also becomes stronger as a result. Likewise, the gap between established and emerging artists in the industry witnesses an uptick in being significantly bridged.
The Bigger Picture: Open Mic to Opportunity
The creative industry in Africa will grow from the proper implementation of structure and systems that enhance talent discovery, management, and monetization.
Moving forward, it is clear that creatives will benefit not just from refining their talent for industry recognition and visibility but also from receiving the adequate coaching and packaging needed to attract stable financial opportunities and rewards.
Creative Money Africa exists for this reason; we are at the forefront of championing the cause of financial empowerment for the current and next generation of African creatives who dare to pursue their dreams.
Beyond the Mic
The vision is huge. African creatives are not bereft of talent, resilience, and innovative concepts. The positive shift within the ecosystem will therefore need to come from systems that support structure and packaging, beyond temporary spotlight.
