Literary Weekend

Cutting the ‘bladiblas’ short, Saturday evening found me at the CelebrityRead held in Terra Kulture. It was really refreshing for me. I’d rather be at a literary event than go to the movies.

I got to the venue around the close of Tee Mac Iseli‘s talk. Gosh, the last few seconds I met got me biting my tongue and wondering why I didn’t come early enough. I never heard of him till … I got back home to google him out.

Timi Dakolo read from Chinua’s Things Fall Apart and Ibiyemi, who released her album same day, read from another book.(And yes, I got an autographed CD from her. Only God knows when I’d listen to her songs though. No screeching guitars!)

Our own blogger, Plumbtifex performed his ‘Baba mi owon’ poem. Really awesome poem about a (in my opinion) suicidal boy writing to his father about his challenges in school.
Efe Paul Azino, one of my favorite spoken word poets did two poems, Revolution and The Word. Aweeeeeeeeeesome performance. I recorded it over my phone. Another poet called Chinelo who I have met on several poetry events did hers too. I think she gets too dramatic though.

I also met Onyeka Nweleu. Chiedu Ifeozo sat to my left and Eghosa Imasuen sat beside me while I exchanged one or two comments about an argument that almost caused a fight between two ladies about Nigerians not reading. The first lady said Nigerians read. The other said Nigerians don’t read. The first lady then said Nigerians do read. The other lady then said Nigerans don’t read. The first lady then buttressed her point by saying Nigerians read motivational books and sports newspapers. The second lady argued that that itself is not reading. And then I said it was reading, and yes it was not real reading and then …the place was noisy.

Then I concluded it was because of the economy.

But in all, what this event did was make me realize how unserious I am. SMH! I have been compiling my own writing for ages now and haven’t put a timeline to it.

I bought a book titled Starbook by Ben Okri. The first page got my approval! I can’t wait to read this when I am well tucked in bed. {But then, when does that happen}

I have a confession to make: I have not read any book of fiction in 8years. I am so so crazy about books especially well written fiction but then, i’d rather pick up my geeky books.

You know, when I told someone I hardly read literature, his jaws almost came out just before he asked, ‘How come you write so well’.

Honestly, I think I can attribute that to my mother. My mother was into literature way before I was born. She has a first and second degree in this field. She has written several books, some of which are used in the Nigerian secondary school curriculum. In fact, while I was in secondary school she was my literature teacher. She was good at dissecting poems. Chai! And all those Shakespearean books! OMG!!! O_O. In fact, at a point I was getting disgusted at her enthus
iasm for Shakespeare. In fact, at a point I was beefing Shakespeare because of her. In my mind, “Who the heck is shakespeare! All these people just like wasting their celebration-energy”.

My ‘moda’s english? CHAI! In anything I write, she will find mistakes. In fact, I fear she’d find my blog one day and tell me how crappy my sentence constructions are.

When I first started my business, I had her go through every single document I wrote. From business plans to proposals.

Oh well, I think I seriously need time for myself AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER! Another thought that comes to head: How does Myne Whitman even have time to read blogs?!

I really can’t wait to publish my books. Not because I want to earn something for myself but because I want talk to the world about what I have seen, what I have felt and what I know.

So, after leaving the event, I went to the Silverbird Galleria, waiting and reading. I was on the first page for 1hour. What was I reading for one hour? Crafting ideas from this page into poetry while I chewed on some fries, constantly watching the time

and waiting for the tomorrow of my dreams.

In other news, watch out for my video, Banky W’s Strong Thing played on Violin by yours truly.

Just in: I decided to help Youtube test HTML5 support for videos. It’s just awfully sad that I spent good years of my life learning Macromedia, now Adobe, Flash and right at this junction, they are throwing it away. Flash is dying mehn!

Beautiful week ahead y’all!