back

LITERARY NEWS™

Volume 1, Issue 1

November 1999

Yet Another Night Of Fun At Godi
Ike Anya

The fifth ALS\GODI Night was again a night of fun for lovers of the arts in Abuja. Featuring an audience which Included. M.J, Salah, Arts correspondent for the Voice of Nigeria, Liz Taylor of the British Directorate for international Development, Alan Knight of the Volunteer Service Organization and old regulars like Mr.& Mrs. Kelechi Oji of the NYSC

The evening featured poetry by famed Africa-America poetess Maya Angelou (And still I Rise) and the Lagos- based lawyer- poet, Ladipo soetan (I wear my Africaness Light). A capella renditions of a number of contemporary and popular songs also featured, wit Roselyn Omogiale-Awomolo's rendition of Nat King Cole's Mona Lisa receiving sustained applause.

The night also featured readings by a trio of players from Ajo Productions. They read from Fred Agbeyegbe's play "The King must Dance Naked" The trio was led by Chris Paul Otaigbe.

Ajo productions will be holding a drama festival early next month, beginning wit a commad performance.

The audience participated actively with humour, banter and lively conversation, and helped to create a most wonderful evening.

Songs of Gold, an art exhibition to celebrate the triumph of democracy in Nigeria held let month at the National Council for Arts ad Culture and the Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers.

Jointly organized by Le pan African Circle of Artists ad the Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the exhibition featured the work of over thirty ahta The exhibition we fittingly declared open by former Vice president and Statesman, Dr Alex Ekwueme.

Artists such as E.L Anatsui, Jerry Buhari, Ayo Adewumi, Krydz Ikwuemesi,Opan Oyeohu and Ozioma Onuzulike displayed paintings, ceramics, sculpture ad mixed media works. Worthy of note were the presence of a number of functional art items- Lamp bases (pottery) textiles and ceramic tea sets, vases and vessels of various shapes and sizes.

Nigerian art afficionados will however not be surprised to note that this exhibition curated by artist and critic, Krydz Ikwuemesi, Featured No installation art.

The ALS was glad to assist the artists with publicity and facilitation.

We would like to call on individuals and organization planing to hold art and culture events in Abuja to contact the Society for any assistance we may be able to render.

 

I Wear My Africanness Light

I, offspring of antelope and gazelle
Wanderer in glades and in the Sahel
Washed and fed on sugarcane stew
Wear my skin, my Africanness light

When our history was new like dew
Careless hands sweeping sallies
Of warrior- kings into dusty crypts swept
And dark was our view and our plight

Those elder griots, my compariots
Upon whom these warrior spirits leapt
Upon whom these spirits ate and slept
Sought to smite what was then a blight
Crept with feline feet into crusty crypts
Repainted the faded glories of exploits
past in an incandescent yellow hue

I offer now thanks and proffer regards
My inheritance lives and is mine again
And now I can because of those upright guards
I can in the noontime heat of our story
I can when all our money is borrowed
I can when all our brews are fi~rrowed
I can when backs are bent from worry
I can wear my Africanness light.

Ladipo Soetan
(from Monologues and other formings- Dredew Publishers)

Kuramo Waters

Vast expanse of endless space
Extending to infinity, where sea meets sky
In eternal embrace.
Your endless calm broken only
By waves crashing in rhythmic sequence
In foamy effervescence against the whiteness
Of your pale sandbar
Ripples skim across your cool surface
In endless, timeless, ageless rhythm
Calm breezes blow salt-tinged and whisper
Of the delights of an unfettered existence
All pervading, all- investing, they enfold
Our hearts and minds
In lasting peace

Ike Anya
(from Rhythm from Within an unpublished collection)