Under the aegis of PIN ARTHUB, Nigeria's leading spoken word poet, Sage Hassan is set to lead a team of A-list performance/spoken word poets to the 26th edition of Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF). In the team are the foremost Comrade Poet and curator of Aj House of Poetry in Lagos, Dagga Tolar, award winning storyteller and poet Toby Abiodun, artist/performance poet, Evelyn D'Poet, winner of several performance and spoken word poetry contests, Kemi Bakare (aka Kemistree), Adigun Olushola (Solaspeaks) and renowned performance/spoken word poets, Bold Seth, Tirwister Tiwistar, Solutionist Clementina and Jacob Sukpa respectively.
Titled Ujana, the Swahili translation of the english word, Youth, the chapbook captures the zeitgeist of Nairobi and East Africa, with the poems in it presented as urgent and important portraits of what it feels like to be a young artist in the region at this current age.
In 2023, my primary motivation was to express my frustration built up from a conflict of self-identity. I was (and still am) navigating this crisis: as the eldest son, a male child, and, in my parents' eyes as of 2017, something of a disappointment due to my decision to abandon my initial ambition of becoming a Catholic priest. I remember in 2017, after deciding not to continue with the vocation, I didn't gain admission to my preferred university to study the course I was passionate about (fortunately, I am now in the clinical year of that program).
I read the entire compendium of Shakespeare’s sonnets in junior high school, not having the slightest idea what he was talking about in most of them, but loving the sounds and the mathematical arrangements of the words. Love Is Not Love (sonnet cxvi) is still a favourite. At the peak of my identity crises when I started to terribly fear that I did not belong and perhaps never would, I discovered Emily Dickinson. And there she was, speaking to my spirit. In the same way that the Psalms did which was a powerful crutch for me as I was estranged from religion at the time.
But I picked up the pieces, one by one, And slowly learned to let the healing begin. I found solace in the silence, and peace in the night, And slowly, I started to shine with new light.
I remember always turning back in the car when we pass a particular sculpture and I remember the sculpture, "a woman with long breasts breastfeeding a child". That sculpture was intriguing to me as a child
We are curious to explore these expansive dynamics, and we will do this virtually and in-person in 3 days, from Thursday 14 - Saturday 16 November , 2024, with established and emerging poets from across the world through Knowledge Diffusion Sessions, Poetry Master-classes, A Village of Languages, Panels/Readings and Feedback Sessions, the traditional Poetry Concert, a Poetry Party (poems apostle should not hear) and a Ride-for-Climate-Change activity with Jeje Riders.
I was a teenager still when I got to know grief personally. I would sit alone in my room reminiscing about the memories we shared & I would write poems that came right from the heart, unlike the rhymes I wrote, which I believe are more of intellect than expression.
As the year continues to run, the call continues with this month’s theme being “lost and found”. What are those events you have thoughts of constantly? Those emotions, those people, those opportunities? Have you that one poem that speaks to the heart of our theme? Then this call is for you.
