Iquo DianaAbasi Unveils Debut Poetry Album

Yinka  Olatunbosun

As the world celebrated world book and copyright day, writer and performance poet, Iquo DianaAbasi unveiled her debut poetry album ‘Beyond the Staccato’, on April 23, 2022.  The long anticipated album which is currently in CDs and online stores is a product of years of resilience and introspection.

Inside Didi Museum in Victoria island, Lagos, the event showcased an array of conversations and performances, including poetry, dance and music by different artistes.

The opening act Clementina Solutionist Owumi performed The Staccato was no Firework – one of the poems from the album. The performance was greeted with rousing applause for Owumi’s delivery and the poignant verses which drew listeners into the reality of a night in the grips of herders’ attack.

In place of an album review, the audience was treated to a panel discussion around the album, ‘the Staccato Conversation’. This conversation involved the poet, activist and social commentator Aj Dagga Tolar, poet and compere Brenda Nwafor, as well as Habeeb Ajijola, an economist and spoken word poet. Together, these three analysed the album on its production quality, political messages, poetic style and more.

While reflecting on the album, the discussants shed light on different poems, from the cynical and upbraiding tone of Crumbs, which speaks about the despoilation of the Niger Delta to the comforting and motherly tone in Calabash, and the evocative lines in The Staccato which speaks to the herder’s crisis in the middle belt of Nigeria. Just before the discussion ended, the audience got to savour another one of the poems, Answers That Will Not be Swallowed, a tribute to the shooting at the Lekki venue of the #EndSARS protest in October 2020. 

As the day wore on, Oyin Gbade (Oyin Sax) was invited to titillate and serenade those present with tune after tune from his saxophone, including an interesting cover of the national anthem. 

The unveiling and launch of ‘Beyond the Staccato’ was moderated by Aj Dagga Tolar, with support from the business men Chief Kayode Aderinokun and Toju Amorighoye; the immediate past president of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Toki Mabogunje; filmmaker and cofounder iRep documentary film festival, Femi Odugbemi; Linguist and researcher, Kola Tubosun and others.

The audience was also entertained to a contemporary dance interpretation of a poem titled When no Drums Can be Heard, with energetic and expressive movements by Rasheed Ijolomo Ibrahim.

While the album launch event was entertaining, the poetry lingers on the mind. Opening lines from the first poem in the album declare; “shaken, but not broken, the poet is victim and survivor…” – a promise that the verses in the album will engage and inspire in equal measure.