They merged all the way from my childhood and became the flame in my rocket today. It is only natural that, like murals, their portraits keep surfacing in my works, and yet, they leave me whole, undefiled, true, the writer child they had raised.
A LETTER TO MY MOTHER | a short story by Abdulrazaq Salihu
Mother, I fear I have lost a whole lot of contacts and relationships as a mango tree loses its leaves. Our street looks smaller now. It is now a strange place even to people like me who once had only its scent inflected in their nostrils.
A STAR & A SUN: TRIBUTE TO CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE | art by Kukogho Iruesiri Samson
Chimamanda has been a Star & A Sun [from the East] lighting the path for many Nigerian writers, myself inclusive.
BEHIND THE SPECTACLES: WOLE SOYINKA & CHINUA ACHEBE | art by Ibrahim Ajani Lawal
This set of artworks on the other hand attempts to recreate yesterday and reimagine tomorrow under today’s watch. Since literature is a mirror of society, this series strives to project the views, thoughts, and imaginations of leaders—writers—who see through the lenses of others.
OSOFISAN | a poem by Overcomer Ibiteye
my matchbox world gives my family light from my moon
for we are soluble in this water of being
VERSES FOR SAGES | a poem by Peter Itanka
D is for D.O. Fagunwa, the bullroarer who rode in his pen horse for an Expedition To The Mountain Of Thought. D is also for Dele, the town crier whose large bell rings out: Do Not Die in Their War.
PACESETTER | a poem by Adedire Adekunle Peter
If You Must Set Forth At Dawn
Rise before the sun will smirk at your courage
Of a poet that birthed this madness
CHIMAMANDA OF THE EAST | a poem by John Kote
You are not a single story
Patience and pain have courted you to the gravestones of dearly beloved
Grief is not brief, take notes
A BIRD OF PANEGYRICS SINGS OF LEGENDS | a poem by Olajuwon Joseph Olumide
these souls live on,
with immortal footprints on this terrain of african poetics
embodying our narrative experiences.
COMMUNICATION WITH KASHIMAWO | a poem by Dr Stephen O Solanke
I kept
the mandate of my people
I died
the death of self