An Open Mic Ogbomoso Anthology: Volume I, Year Four EWĂŚ ’MOSHO is the first official anthology from Open Mic Ogbomoso, curated in its fourth year. It documents poems that have lived on the mic—works spoken aloud, tested before a listening audience, and shaped by live performance. ELIGIBILITYOpen to poets who have performed at Open Mic […]
Four years ago, I was out of a job and had just relocated from Maiduguri to Ogbomoso. It was a difficult season. In the middle of that uncertainty, I returned to spoken word poetry, something that has steadied me in my darkest moments. Through Vic’Adex Concepts and Aesthetic Resources, I scraped together Open Mic Ogbomoso. […]
Young Vic’Adex, 2009 There are parts of my childhood I can only understand backwards. At fifteen, understanding wasn’t available to me. Only rebellion. I had lived lines like, “I was 13 when I chose death over my father.” I meant it. Everywhere I turned, people insisted that honouring my father and mother was the secret […]
On Hilda Baci’s Jollof world record, a viral post mocked Nigerians: while other countries were winning Nobel Prizes, it claimed, Nigerians were “cooking rice.” On the surface, it sounded like clever social critique. Look closer, and it was a lazy contrast that reduced a country of 220 million into a caricature. The Illusion of Nobel Parity […]
“Grant me chastity and self-control — but not yet.” — Saint Augustine, Confessions Tweet There are books that tell you what a man feels, and there are books that tell you what a man believes about himself when no one is looking. Poetry Has All My Pain belongs firmly to the latter. It is not simply […]
Men, Not gods – Vic’Adex I see men dangling Upon the pikesOf a sentence called lifeMan treating her like a despicable imprisonment And in prison good behaviour gets you paroledMaybe that’s why good people die early Too often we pray to a god to pay our priceWhile we poise poignantly to proclaim the PrizeWe trade […]