By Anote Ajeluorou
“A crossroad between poetry,
oration, commentary, performance and rap,” so did Mr. Chike Ofili, a poet,
succinctly categorise the new poetic buzz in town known as ‘spoken word’
performance. In deed, throughout most performance outlets, spoken word is
taking over the traditional poetry performance of reading from the cold pages
of a book. It is the new generation alternative poetry that is fad among the
young and not so young poets. Its main attraction rests in the fluidity it
offers its performers to mesmerise the audience with seeming verbal virtuoso,
especially in the hands of gifted performers who season it with none verbal
elements to woo the audience.
But some die-in-the-wool ‘traditional’ poets
would have none of it; for them ‘spoken word’ or ‘spoken call’ is nowhere near
poetry as it lacks the essential ‘ingredients’ of poetry. But yet others see it
as an extension of Africa’s oral performance poetry coached in modern robes and
that it is giving traditional poetry a fillip, as it is gradually winning more converts
to itself, especially from among the young. But even while the place of spoken
word is still being debated, strands have started emerging from within it that
would interest keen observers.
There is no doubt that there will be an
explosion of spoken word performance at Paul Efe Azino-organised Lagos
International Poetry Festival 2015 scheduled to start today at Freedom Park,
Lagos Island. Azino is one of the masters of spoken word in the country and as
director of the festival, he has promised a balanced space for performers from both
sides of the poetic divide.
Last Saturday at Tantalisers, Masha,
Surulere, Lagos, the debate about spoken word performance, its place within the
poetic space, spiced up The Arthub’s programme when it unveiled its poetry
magazine PoetsinNigeria (PIN) – www.poetsinnigeria.org.ng. The
launch was amidst performances from young poets who regaled the audience with
variants of spoken word.
While defending spoken word at The Arthub, former
Lagos State chapter chairman of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) AJ Daga
Tola argued that spoken word takes after African oral poetry tradition, adding
that it should not be discriminated against as not being proper poetry. But
founder of The Arthub, Mr. Eriata Oribabor was insistent that spoken word,
though tantalizing as it may sound, is not poetry and should not be regarded as
such as it lacks the core ‘ingredients’ that make up poetry.
Others also argued in support of spoken word
performance, but charged its practitioners to have a good grasp of the written
language first, as it wasn’t enough to mouth inanities on stage and call it
poetry. They added that spoken word artists fall into the danger being outright
prosaic in their bid to impress, something they must avoid if they are to make
lasting impact.
WHILE unveiling the online
poetry magazine poetsinnigeria and PIN online, the editor, Mr. Freedom
Olanrewaju Kolade gave a brief historical background to the online publication
just as he stated the vision behind it.
According to him, “In
January, 2015, PIN was born to meet
the multidimensional demands associated with the growing affection for poetry
writing, reading and performances across Nigeria. The aims and objectives of
the magazine include to create a holistic online directory
for poets in Nigeria, create unlimited opportunities for poets to showcase
their poetic crafts, a veritable ground for poets and performance poets to hone
their writing and performance skills via literary projects like poetry
workshops/residencies to be organised by PIN,
protect and promote registered poets and their works to be showcased beyond the
shores of Nigeria.
It will also give poets and performance poets recognizable
voices in the scheme of things in Nigeria and guide poets in the areas of
editing and publishing”.
Young poets that performed at the
event were Ajenifuja Alim who did ‘Who am I?’, Rachel Charles ‘Beyond the
Colours,’ Favour Agom performed ‘Time to rise again,’ Kukogho Samson did ‘Beggar
without choice’ and ‘Little boy, little girl’ from his collection What Can Words Do? Edwina Eleme (NEO)
did ‘In His image,’ Emmanuel Kwapyil performed ‘Portraits of girls,’ ‘After I’m
gone,’ and ‘I have a dream’. By far the youngest poet to perform was Adeyemi
Jeremiah who also did ‘Beyond the colours’ and performed in a band.
By far the most electrifying performers were Graciano Enwerem of the
poet group, Figures of Speech, Paul Word and a young lady, Lawal Gold. While Enwerem
added an interesting variant to spoken word performance with his breathless act,
Word gave a sustained oration that was enthralling.
But it was the lady performer, Gold, who showed uncommon, immense
prodigy, as she entered the stage with a Yoruba chant. Hers was a class act, as
she gave both vocal and bodily expression to piece ‘Social leprosy’ with a
definitive social reorientation of her country in rearranging Nigeria’s old and
new anthems to create lingering luminosity to the country’s current lot. Gold’s
depth of historical perspective is stunning and how she weaves it into her poetic rendition to give a broad range of stimulating
ideas.
TOLA was the guest poet and
he thrilled the youthful audience immeasurably with his socio-political poems.
One such provocative poems he rendered was ‘I’m AK-47,’ which has the people
facing the nozzle of that dreaded gun, as the target of misrule. Another piece ‘Books’
being burned on Third Mainland bridge to draw symbolic attention to the reading
of books was telling. But ‘Wearing your mother’s name’ from his collection Being A Woman Being struck an instant rebellious
cord with the audience, especially the young women who are required to lose
their surnames upon marriage.
In responding to issues about his political
poetry, Tola said there has to be a clear ideological perspective from which to
write such poetry, saying he doesn’t think about his audience or what would
happen to him when he writes. He said Marxism is his take off point, and noted
that the current the socio-political arrangement was stacked against the poor
masses. He urged poets to begin to use their talents to demystify forces
against an egalitarian society.
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