LOVERS of poetry will experience the poetic marriage of Africa and the Mediterranian at the 2012 Lagos Black Heritage Festival on Tuesday, March 3at Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos. Time is 6pm. It is the poetry segment of the festival, with the theme for the segment, 'Black Mediterannian: The Afro-Italian Connections'.The festival of spoken words will features a collection of 16 Nigerian and 16 Italian poets, who worked on varied sub-themes deriving from the main thematic framework, including trade, migration, religion, politics, trafficking among others. The poems will also be published in a forthcoming collection by Book Craft, Nigeria.The Nigerians and some of the Italian poets, who willread or perform their works at the event on Tuesday evening include Richard Ali, editor ofSentinel Nigeria Magazine and author ofDivan of the Four Winds;Gimba Kakanda,whose workshave been published in various local and international media, including the Indian JournalProsopisia: An Anthology of Poetry and Creative Writing;Razinatu T. Mohammed,whosecollection of short stories titled, A Love Like a Woman's and Other Stories,won the maiden prize for the Association of Nigerian Authors/Lantern Book Prize in 2005.Others are Uche Peter Umez,analumnus of the International Writing Programme (IWP), USA, andUNESCO-Aschberg Laureate;Tolu Ogunlesi's poetry, essays and fiction have appeared inWorld Literature Today,Transition,Wasafiri, The Caine Prize Anthologyand translated into Chinese, Italian, Norwegian and Turkish; Jumoke Verissimo, author of the poetry collectionI Am Memory, and winner of the 2009 Carlos Idzia Ahmad Prize for a first book of poetry, second prize 2009 among other prizes; Ify Omalicha (late), author Amidst the Blowing Tempest,They Run Still and Now that Dreams are Born; Tade Ipadeola, author of two volumes of poetry,A Time of Signs(2000) andThe Rain Fardel (2005).Not left out on the Nigerian poets to perform are Ben Omowafola Tomoloju, dramatist, poet, singer and author of Jankariwo, Askari among other works, and producer and director of the yearly poetry programme, P.L.A.Y.; Olufunmi Aluko, winner of first prize for poetry in the Poetry/Painting Competition of the Communion and Liberation Movement; Deji Toye, whosecollection of poems Millennial Liege is awaiting publication; Chiedu Ezeanah'sfirst book of poetry, Solar Energies (Book 1 of The Tristia Trilogy), is soon to be published; Chris Abani is author of the collections Sanctificum(2010),There Are No Names for Red(2010),Feed Me The Sun - Collected Long Poems(2010) andKalakuta Republic (2001) among others.Others to make the list include Ogaga Ifowodo, poet and writer, teacher of poetry and literature in English at Texas State University, USA is author of three collections of poetry: Homeland and Other Poems, Madiba, and The Oil Lamp; and Odia Ofeimunwhose numerous collection of poems include The Poet Lied (1980), A Handle for the Flutist (1986), Dreams At Work and London Letter And Other Poems (2000).Also included in the collection of poets are the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, playwright, poet, essayist and human rights activist, and Prof. John Pepper Clark Bekederemo, renowned poet and dramatistand recipient of the Nigerian National Merit Award for Literary Excellence (1991).The Poetry Project is coordinated by Alessandra Di (Univeristy of Palermo, Italy) and Culture Advocates Caucus (Nigeria) for the LBHF.
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