Eyin'juOdu

*The priestess of the word, Aiyeola Mabiaku, seduces with her words *Poetic Satirist Akinpelu... on duty *Awoko (right), Muri Amulegboja the dance, and the punnist Ajankoro of ife *Sage waow the house *Sage's sideman does it too By Bayo Olupohunda *Culled from The Guardian Friday Sept 26. 2008 THE biblical, cultural and historical significance of the Spoken Word as captured by legendary sayings such as this Yoruba proverb oro la fi da ile aye (the world was created through the spoken word) was re-enacted recently by the poetic journeys of the Word Slam series from the stable of the Culture Advocates Caucus and Goethe Institut Lagos. The success story of the maiden edition of Word Slam which began on that rainy day in July continued penultimate Saturday under the Samarkand tree at the National Theatre Lagos. From the scenic beauty of the Lagos Lagoon which provided the background for the court yard of Goethe Institut Victoria Island where the first edition was held in July, lovers o...

* They came from all over for the wordfeast

* Sage Has.Son on trip *Seun Beckley.. digging into the Ikale rootsy of Comfort Omoge *The romantist, Uche Nwadinashi... serenading the angel *The drum poet, Wale Laoye... on call

*Segun Eluyemi... doing music with his nose *Ajankoro... the wordgamist *Norbert Olisakwe... the philosophoco-spiritualist profesorialising on words and light *Ras Banjo.. wailing about Freedom and the Motherland * *The priest of the Feast, Ropo Ewenla, with Edaoto and Ajankoro mentoring the young of the Footprints

By FEMI SALAWU DAILY SUN, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Despite the huge number of acclaimed poets in Nigeria, performance poetry as an artform is a less patronized genre. But a recent move to revive this art was demonstrated at an event tagged Word Slam, held at Goethe Institut, Victoria Island, Lagos. Kindred spirits and lovers of the art including Amb. Segun Olusola, Odia Ofeimun and Arne Schneider defied the downpour that initially threatened what the organizers called A Feast of Poetic Flights. The evening featured poetic presentations with dance and musical accompaniment from artistes including Ropo Ewenla, Jojo Body Beats, Akeem Lasisi, Sage Has.Son, Muri Amulegboja, Iquo Eke, Edaoto, Awoko, Jumoke Verissimo, Dagga Tolar and Conerstone. The choice of Ropo Ewenla, a respected poet as compere was not a mere coincidence as he often spiced the evening with Ijala, Yoruba traditional hunters’ chant. The highpoint of the event was the performance by Sage Has.Son. The Kaduna- born artiste who ...

10th Lagos Book and Art Festival, November 7-9, 2008 Theme: Literacy and the Global Knowledge Society DATE: NOVEMBER 7-9, 2008 Key Literary Events Panel Discussions . Dialogues . Conversations . Arthouse Parties Details on www.lagosbookartfestival.com Physical; CORASECRETARIAT, 95 Bode Thomas Street, Suruletre, Lagos Contact; Toyin 08057622415; Jummai: 08023683651 Marketing Consultant: INSPIRO PRODUCTIONS c/o AYOOLA SADARE 08023044806; inspiro77@yahoo.co.uk Knowledge capacity of the people of Africa Preparations for the 10 th Lagos Book & Art Festival, scheduled for November 7 – 9, 2008 , began on the last day of the 9 th outing. The key goal of this edition, which is slated to hold in the spacious Exhibition Hall of Nigeria's National Theatre, right in the heart of the city, remains two fold: (1) To help improve the African human capacity through encounters with The Book and (2) to provide a site for the most informed, robust debates on the literature of the continent. In purs...

WORDSLAM Words are for the sage Of old but now on page We publish its message. WOW! Fantastic, Fabulous, Mindblowing... were some of the adjectives deployed by members of the distinguished audience of the old and the young -- that congregated satrurday July 5 in the Goethe Institut garden in Victoria Island-- to capture their impression of the proceedings at the first edition of the newly-birthed WORDSLAM. Under the misting cloud, they sat stubbornly and stuck with the artistes, defying the troublesome rains that kept disorganising the technical set-up (and eventually annihilated opportunity for a technical rehersal for the eventl) to flow with the flow of melody and rhythm of the poetic performances dished out by 10 specially selected artistes; and a score of unbilled budding and aspiring poets that featured in the programme. It was such a splendid evening of celebrating the essence of the WORD in the life of man; particularly, the very essentials of WORD expressed in poetic colours t...

Every time i think of the tragic song that Sudan has become, my mind goes to my dear friend, Stephen Ochalla, artistic director of Kwoto Dance Institut in Khartoum, who to escape the ethnic cleansing going on at home against the 'black' Sudanese had decided to spend time learning and teaching dance in Amsterdam. A deep ideologue, Ochalla and his institut had been active on the political stage, using his theatre to mount campaign against the decimation of Sudanese of his hue by an obvious 'arabite' political elite led by soon-to-be-fugitivised President Omar. When the scene was becoming too volatile and discomforting for his kind of activism -- recall what happened to Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and his theatre comrades in Kenya of the Jomo Kenyatta and later Arap Moi time -- Stephen Ochalla was lucky to be helped out by the Dutch government through The Netherlands embassy in Khartoum to go cool off in an art academy in Amsterdam where he was teaching up till 2003 when we la...