The inaugural Port Harcourt Poetry Festival took place from November 3-5, 2023, and marked a historic moment in Nigeria’s literary landscape. The event, which spanned three days, showcased the prowess of performance and page poets nationwide and climaxed with an awards ceremony recognizing outstanding contributions to the world of poetry.
The maiden edition of the Kudo Eresia-Eke Prize for Performance Poetry (K.E.E.P Prize) crowned David Odiase (78th Psalmist) as its deserving winner. His entry, “Rain is Not the Clouds Last Parade,” stood out among 19 other shortlisted contestants, securing him the prestigious award and a grand prize of one million naira.
In addition, the inaugural Port Harcourt Poetry Festival Awards (PHPF Awards) honored notable poets in various categories. Toby Abiodun claimed the title of Spoken Word Poet of the Year Award (Male), while Hafsat Abdullahi clinched the Spoken Word Poet of the Year Award (Female). The Poetry/Spoken Word Album of the Year was awarded to IB’s album, “Music Has Failed Us,” and Dami Ajayi’s “Affection and Other Accidents” received the Poetry Collection Award of the Year.
The festival’s final day reached a crescendo with a captivating over thirty-minute orchestral performance by Nigeria’s esteemed performance poetry pioneer, Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke. The audience, enraptured by the immersive performance, stood, sang, and recited along with the poet.
Before the grand finale, attendees were treated to dynamic performances by seasoned poets such as Sage Hassan, Diana Modeme, Aremo Gemini, Grey Martyr, Tamara Dogubo, and West Biokpo Joshua, who presented a solo poetry production titled “Biokpo: Hope of the Niger Delta.”
The second day of the festival delved into academic pursuits, hosting over one hundred and twenty participants in workshops, masterclasses, panel discussions, a poetry reading session, and a short film screening. Facilitators included literary figures such as Othuke Ominiabohs, Irene Ini Pepple, Diseye Tantua, Julia Jacks, Sir Grrraciano Enwerem, and Tamara Dogubo.
Preceding these events, the festival’s opening day featured literary capacity-building workshops for secondary school students, led by award-winning poets and accompanied by their English and Literature teachers.
The festival director, Ken-Adele Marvellous Oruchi, expressed joy at the overwhelming success, saying, “We set out to deliver a rich, local poetry festival but found ourselves at the verge of an international one, given the overflowing passion, attendance, reception, and success recorded.”
In post-festival reflections, attendees have lauded the event as a “feast of timeless wisdom and a rich display of our literary prowess as a people and a city.” Social media platforms dedicated to literary discussions have been buzzing with snippets of the epoch-making festival, with many predicting its evolution into a global performance poetry phenomenon.
Ken-Adele Marvellous Oruchi extended gratitude to the sponsors, especially Nigeria LNG, a foremost supporter of literary arts in Nigeria, stating, “We are particularly elated that we have borne out the faith imbued in the maiden edition by our sponsors.”
The success of this inaugural festival has positioned it as a potential mainstay on the international literary calendar and observers are already looking forward to the next instalment in 2024.
Written by S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema, poet and Editor, KSR. http://sueddie.wordpress.com. Catch him as @sueddieagema on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.
