Revelations Within Tara's Eyes

She was 22years old when she was diagnosed with leukemia
She started loosing form
Her hair started falling off but everyday my sister Tara will stand in front on the mirror and admire her baldness. She will smile at the protruding veins on her face and tell me how beautiful they are.
She was not beautiful in my sight but she was beautiful in her sight and I had to begin to see  her like that.
Then on the night of her transition, my sister Tara willed her mirror to me and she said "If you do not remember me for anything, you'd at least remember that I looked into this mirror everyday and called myself beautiful even when I was most un-beautiful" And then I realized that there are so many things that beauty is not.

Beauty is not a pose
It is not that piercing on the nose,
Well painted lips, red  like rose
Beauty is not the colour of your face, it's not a race or a competition of braids and hair lace.

Beauty,
Is more than  the combination of shape or form and size,
Beauty is a light in the heart
It is illumination, that un-doubting sense of possession that gives you the freedom to be you and gives me the freedom to be me.

Beauty is not about how big your breasts are but how much milk of compassion it can carry
Its is not how broad your chest is but how much of humanity it can condone.
Giving hope to this soul and to that soul.

Beauty is not you after the artist has finished the witchcraft he calls makeover on you.
Beauty is you waking up in the morning, looking in the mirror at your sunburn, the lines life gifted you, the bow legs you are not afraid to show, the stunted hair you are not afraid to comb. Defending your smile even when others think it is a crime.

Beauty are the little things that make you Mary or Lizzy or David or even Daisy.
For most of the things we try to change about ourselves are the things that make us who we really are.

So I don't know what you let her call you or what you let him call you or what you let them call you but I call me beautiful.
I am beautiful, not because my face is black or my lips are pink but because each time I stare into the mirror Tara gave to me, I love and accept what I see.

                                                                                           Written By Farida Adamu

Introducing the coal ambassadors (4)

Jennifer Dafwat - Poet/ TV presenter.

 "Though I give my body to be burned, or speak the greatest words, become the greatest writer, or the lowliest of men and have no love or my writings touch no soul then I am nothing"

I am Jennifer; Playful, fun loving, straight forward, thoughtful and industrious.
Literature is first a reflection of the writer-thoughts and beliefs, then her society. Literature is my tool to say what i feel needs to be said.

Kristen Haruna - Poet.

"Poetry is the elixir  to life. The question to All And the answer to all"

I am Kristen, best described as confident, elegant,eccentric and reserved.  literature is my question to all and my answer to all of the issues of life.It is the elixir to life,the one true thing that's firm through changing times.

Farida Adamu - Creative Fiction.

“The stories other have told shouldn't hold you back from telling yours.”

I am Farida;controversial, witty and intelligent. Literature is light. Expressions and inventions, voices that illuminate society.

Patience Attah - Poet

I am Patience, unconventional and adventurous. Literature as an art is how I breathe life into lifeless words.

.

Custodians of African Literature (COAL)

                                   Presents

OPEN MIC

                   AN EVENING OF SPOKEN WORD AND MUSIC

FEATURING

• Short Stories
• Spoken Word
• Music and More                                        

                                                Special Guest Appearance 

• JeremiahGyang
• Joleeta 

DATE- 31st Saturday 2015

VENUE - Vintage Art Gallery, Jos

TIME - 3PM Prompt 

Tickets - FREE

Introducing the COAL ambassadors (4).

Lola Onigbinde - Poet/ Essayist. 

" A real woman does not compete. She knows her job description is unique and everyone can" make a difference.

I am lola, A classic placid sanguine; social, reserved and confident. In my opinion; Literature is a well of knowledge begging to be drunk from.

Justina Shemang Obadiah - poet.

"My words without poetry are a decoy"

I am Amah; soft at heart, quiet, humble and opinionated. Literature is my tool to create awareness to the ills of society and I believe poetry understands me best.

Daisy Odey - Essayist/Poet

                " literature is creation and often whats bad for the heart is good for the art"

I am Dee; Fearless, pleasant and provocative. Literature is an extension of who I am as a person, it is God’s gift to me, and in turn it is my gift to the world. 

Andrew Patience Finye- Poet & Singer

     "Any vision not people oriented with a universal insight based on truth will not stand the test of time"

I am AP, an ambitious lady, a humanitarian who loves truth in its rarest form. Literature is the light that sparks my existence and poetry, the tool for its revelation.

    

Maiden head.

One man savored her virginity

Seven others followed

With no regard to foreplay

Or a consensual pleasurable coitus

Rape!!

Revering not the hymen

Caressing not the vulva

Having a target and a tool

With a penile erection they thrust convulsively

Rape!! Rape of hope, Rape of life, Rape of joy

The hymen-standards set of old

The vulva-lives to be affected

The target-gains, desires, greed, selfishness

The tool-their positions

The culmination of Rape!!

The streets have this characteristic

The schools have this phenomenon

The offices have it going

In the end its all

Rape!!

On the street, one able bodied man

Sycophant living as a war-lord

Admirably foolish

Intelligence, morals, wisdom at point zero

Ironically, he's in a position, with the strength to Rape!!

They decide not to let you go

You decide not to work hard

He decides to cheat through it and fake it

She decides to use her reserved power

In the schools, a showcase of, Rape!!

Salaries over due

Projects unexecuted

Unqualified professionals

What swizz this is,

Another form of official Rape!!

What other form of swiping

Nothing short of that of the mind

More pathetic is,

We let them

Then on and on the cycle goes

So, before you go ahead condemning rapists

Before you go ahead bragging about your manhood

Before your prowess and libido goes ahead of you

Before the darkness is too dark

Give a thought to her feelings

Before everything sour turns bad

Listen to her pleas

Build her her sexuality, uniqueness and brand

Let ego down;remember cunnilingus and felatio

Build something, enjoy it-before its too late

Do not Rape our minds

Do not Rape in our streets

Do not Rape our rape our resources

Do not Rape our bodies

Just don't Rape!!

This is not a lawsuit

Its an appeal to conscience, to emotions

An appeal for hard work

An appeal to live

But failure to listen...

The rhythmic dancing and swaying of her hips

May remind you of one animalistic adventure

May remind her of one beastly night

May prompt her to take action

So do not rape!!

                                                                                                     JENNIFER DAFWAT

NIGHT OF THE SPOKEN WORD: Nigeria’s number one Performance Poetry and Literary show!

Simply Poetry’ in collaboration with The Abuja Literary Society
                        presents
                        the 4th edition of

NIGHT OF THE SPOKEN WORD
  
Nigeria’s number one Performance Poetry and Literary show! 
Hosted by award-winning Performance Poet, Dike Chukwumerije 
FEATURING

Reward Enakerakpor (aka The Storyteller) – ALS Poetry Grandslam Champion (Abuja)
Paul Word – 2014 winner of the War of Words (Lagos)
Anchorman –  Runner up 2012 National Poetry Slam (Jos)
AND
Bash Amuneni, AP, Dami, Bilzee Bilnigma, Eketi Ette, Michael Ogah, Oga Obeya and many others
PLUS

Showing for the first time on the big screen, ‘So, Where Is Jos?’ – a Poetry Video by Dike Chukwumerije
DATE: FRIDAY, THE 30TH OF JAN 2015
VENUE: HALL 10, 4TH FLOOR, SILVERBIRD ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE
TIME: 7PM 
ENTRY: N1500 (REGULAR) N3000 (VIP)

Tickets are available for purchase at:


The Salamander Cafe – 5 Bujumbura Street, off Libreville Cr, off Aminu Kano Cr, Wuse Zone 2, Abuja
The Lifestyle Media Store – 4th Floor, Silverbird Entertainment Center, Central Area, Abuja
Discoveries Edutainment World – Suite 8-9, Grd Floor, Jamnab Plaza, Sapele Street, off Ladoke Akintola Boulevard, Garki 2, Abuja

One: A cry from Baga.

     If you die a soldier in combat you’d be called brave, it is a privilege to go forth a hero.  When you die for a cause you understand, you know without a doubt there are blessings in the grave, No man dies for something if he's certain there’s nothing to gain. But when you die as I did, in the middle of a conflict that is not your own, you die a figure; "One of ten", "one of hundreds", ONE!.

  Caught between the cross fire, you become another anonymous tomb stone. No medals, no mementos.  You get a place in the local dailies, as another random doctored index. Your household will mourn, the nation might  grumble, and life will go on.

     I am one of the many who have gone. I am the nameless bodies littering the streets of Baga, I am the children massacred in the school in Yobe, I lie headless on the streets of Maidugri, I am a captive in the forest of Sambisa. I am in every place blood is shed, reported and unreported. I am one.

    Those conversations you have about how the blood shed  has gone on too long, where you sound passionate but know deep within talk is all it would be, I had them too. I spoke of how "somebody had to do something" I forgot I was someone. A frown creased my brow with every new story, I was livid at the killings but secretly I was pleased neither I nor anyone I treasured was a victim, till I became one.

     I could have spoken out louder, but I didn't. We should have protested, but we didn't. They promised to protect us, but they haven’t. I understand we have to live, and as long as we are alive we think empathy for the dead is enough. Sadly, it isn't.

    I am telling you this today so you would do what I couldn't; save yourselves, save your children. To tell you there is no honor dying a victim of circumstance. You will only be a number in a well written condolence message, a shadow in the beer parlor conversations, a thought behind a broadcast message.  You will only be one. A lingering memory of terror that has fallen. Fire burns as quickly as it burns far when it is left unattended. In the embrace of insecurity we are all potential victims.
                                                                                              Daisy Odey.