Akeem Lasisi

The MUSON Centre, Lagos, will on December 10 host a unique programme tagged African Citations. It is the new product by experimentalist performance poet, Akeem Lasisi, who says it is an exhibition of multimedia poetry tributes to outstanding dignitaries and institutions from different parts of Africa.

The project is a continuation of his engaging and strategic journey in oral forms as it experiments with the Yoruba’ oriki praise poetry – according to Afrocitations, on the platform of which the exhibition will be launched.

“AFRICAN CITATIONS pollinates the past with the present, the traditional with the modern,” it noted in a statement.

It added it was also about celebrating icons who have positively impacted society.

“In some instances, the poet has had memorable encounters with the subjects. In some others, he only pays tributes from a distance, with their services to humanity being the bridge,” Afrocitations added.

It recalled how Lasisi had experimented with some other Yoruba poetic forms. In WONDERLAND, for instance, he projects ijala, the hunters’ social poetry, while his award-winning NIGHT OF MY FLIGHT is a recreation of the Yoruba bridal poetry called ekun iyawo. The African Citations series, which echoes oriki, is thus a continuation of the trend.

African Citations

Afrocitations said, “Of course, his musical and video poetry works that include ELELETURE, UDEME, ORI AGBE (For Wole Soyinka), JANTOLO and JANGBALAJUGBU are also an engagement with Yoruba oral forms.”