I look up nude men on Google. A gathering pulls inside me, dies as quickly as it started. I try nude women. I soak in their fullness and curves. I wait, for the heady momentum of arousal. The fire in my chest rather grows hotter—I close the tab.
SELF-PORTRAIT AS A HELIUM CONTESTING FLIGHT WITH THE SPIRITS | an essay by Taofeek “Aswagaawy” Ayeyemi
Some nights, I am a wanderer. Clutched to my bed yet my mind breaking borders like nocturnal birds. Tonight, I peep through the window to see the sky– starless, moonless, with no glee except the sheen of a stray cat’s eyes.
I SAY MY NAME | an essay by Ayomide Ruth Oluwagbenga
Somehow, I’m tired. I don’t even want to prove anyone right or wrong anymore. A simple step in front of another took me out of the chair of boredom and desperation, and straight through the doors onto the sunny passage.
THE STATE OF NIGERIAN LITERATURE AND THE NEED FOR YOUTH INVOLVEMENT IN MANAGING THE AFFAIRS OF THE INDUSTRY by Ahmed Maiwada
Nigerian literature is not in the state that it ought to be, given the enormous Nigerian population; we need to do more. We need to develop a conscious policy towards enhancing the results achieved by our books out there in the market across the world.
HAIKU: AN INTRODUCTION by Taofeek Ayeyemi
Haiku originates from Japan and there, it is their oral form and usually in a sequence or linked verse form (called renga, renku or haikai no renga) up to 100 verses and more. The introductory verse to the sequence is the hokku which is now called haiku.
WHO IS TO BLAME FOR A BADLY PUBLISHED BOOK: AUTHOR, EDITOR OR PUBLISHER?
The fault for a badly written book lies with the writer while the fault for a badly published book belongs to the publisher’ while the shame is a joint venture. A respectable publisher should never knowingly publish a bad book.
A BOY IS NOT ALWAYS A BUTTERFLY & OUR MOTHERS ARE NOT ALL MOONS: WHAT IS HAPPENING TO NIGERIAN POETRY?
It is time for our poets to realize that a boy is not always a butterfly & our mothers are not all moons. Poetry is first an expression of self before anything. Be original.
A POET’S PAST MUST ADRESS HIS PRESENT (an essay by Oludipe Oyin Samuel)
One finds a poet who sounds less like his environment or the rest of his remaining works. One finds a horde of clannish poets who have resumed trapping their styles in the net of the other. One finds a literary community that has forgotten to produce the spirit-immersed poetry, the kind that broadly establishes the contaminant emotive will; not the kind that breeds a hive of self-importance—tributes and odes to self—that which undermines the vicarious role of pathos.
THE LENIENT POEM AND SUBTLE MEANING (an analysis by Oludipe Oyin Samuel)
A Big Airplane Crashed Into the Earth. I read Soyinka’s first collection of prison poems sometime in 2009. Categorically, I need not ‘push dumbfoundment to beg simplification; I hate a...
THE CHANGING NARRATIVE OF TOUCH: A REVIEW OF DONNA OGUNNAIKE’S SPOKEN WORD PIECE ‘TOUCH’
“Touch” is a word, and in a larger sense of it – it is a language portraying relationship. Various cultures speak this language, it mirrors the relationship between the virus and human interactions. In Nigeria, amidst our diverse cultural beliefs and traditions, every ethnic group understands the underlying power of touch; from pouring libations to the gods, to exchange of greetings and other realities captured in this performance piece by Donna Ogunnaike called “Touch”