FAREWELL TO MY KINGDOMorA KING’S LAMENTATION Of once renowned ruling ancestors bornSo early forested great race of Glory to runLate to me revealed by that aging sageSoon born, soon by uncles engageBut enviable crown of Kingship was in latter years to wear Still toilsome now in this crowning yearSo from hand to hand this Kingship […]
Philosophical Poetry I TIV Ason ShandeIor mba ve whum mbelaVe hemba ga, ka Aonda ahembeKwaghi adi wihin we zeoIta wan kpev ju yoMba Mongo hembeMan tume nom yongu nguharKpev ase aseo Tor Labe Gyuse tar u hegenWangbian kanan lu sha pywigwau va ieren.M va me dzor ieren. ENGLISH Ason Shandethose who locked me are notabove […]
Exhibition appraisal. Originally included in the “Appraisal Highlights” section of the Atun Ra Wa Bi catalogue, page 9, credited to Adetimilehin Inioluwa Victor. The work also sits inside a specific civic moment. It was created around the presentation of a sculptural portrait to the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye, shortly after his formal […]
Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah Is a Beautiful Book Olumide Holloway (King Olulu) · March 2026 It’s funny that I think of it as being beautiful given some of the tragic events therein. The book’s main themes seem to be love, tradition, belonging, and cruelty. The book is history repeating itself in different generations because every […]
On Saturday, January 31st, Kinora Restaurant by the Assembly in Ogbomoso hosted the first-ever slam poetry competition in the city. Branded the Motoni Olodun Slam, the event marked the 4th anniversary of the rebirth of Open Mic Ogbomoso, a community that has steadily grown from casual expression into a more intentional creative space. Hosted by […]
Over the past decade, I have read poems that were, in many ways, memoirs of everyday people. Not memoirs in the traditional sense, but little records of ordinary life: poems about growing up, falling in love, losing someone, being broke, leaving home, finding faith, questioning God, navigating friendship, surviving heartbreak, watching a country change. Some […]
An Open Mic Ogbomoso Anthology: Volume I, Year Four EWÌ ’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. ARCHIVE AND ELIGIBILITYVolume I was open to poets who […]
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. […]