Nigerian Literary Community Awaits World Poetry Day

Yinka Olatunbosun

The Nigerian literary community is set to join the world in celebrating this year’s World Poetry Day on March 21, 2025.

Sponsored by Providus Bank since 2020 under its CSR initiative, the 6th Providus Bank World Poetry Day is curated by Jahman Anikulapo for the Culture Advocates Caucus (CAC), with a nod from Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who is a former UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

The celebration, instituted by UNESCO on March 21, 1999, is marked every year in celebrating humanities through poetry, especially to “give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional, and international poetry movements.” It highlights reading, performing, writing, publishing, and teaching of poetry throughout the world.

Christened ‘ProvidusBank World Poetry Day Café: An Evening with Wole Soyinka’, the past editions of this event have explored themes relating to humanity’s existential concerns, among them preservation of the environment, education, youths and female empowerment. migration and socio-cultural pluralism.

The 2025 edition, which is the 6th in the series, is dedicated to commemorating the beginning of the United Nations Second Decade of African Descendants (2025 – 2034), hence the theme: ‘Sand Dune and Ocean Bed: The Template of Dispersal’.

The theme is also in the context of the ongoing UN Anniversary for Enslaved Peoples and Reparatory Justice.

The 2025 edition is scheduled to hold on March 21 at the Terra Kulture Arena, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island in Lagos, and will feature among other items, poetry reading, performances, workshops, and a reception for guests.

Significantly, the edition will host a delegation of poets and a 15-piece musical orchestra from The Republic of Cuba, which has been designated the “Special Guest-Nation.”

The invitation of the Republic of Cuba as ‘Special Guest-Nation’ for the 2025 edition, as advised by Professor Soyinka, the patron of the project, is singularly apt at a time of the 30th anniversary of UNESCO’s programme, ‘The Routes of Enslaved Peoples: Resistance, Liberty and Heritage’, a conference that will hold on March 25, 2025, in the USA.

Comprising a 15-man team accompanied by some senior government officials led by Alpidio Alonso Grau, the Republic’s Minister of Culture, the Cuban delegation will have their first presentation in Lagos on March 21, 2025, which is the main day of the World Poetry Day. However, in line with the expressed desire of the visitors to have an immersive experience of aspects of culture and heritage of Yoruba people, Professor Soyinka has advised that the 15-man troupe members have a second presentation in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on March 23, 2025. They will also tour cultural and heritage sites, including the Olumo Tourism sites and the Adiire market in Itoku, among others. They will be accompanied by a few other officials from the embassy, including chaperons from Providus Bank and the Culture Advocates Caucus.

Additionally, five Nigerian poets have been selected to headline the edition, and would be joined by four poets from Cuba.

Commenting on the rationale for the choice, Jahman Anikulapo, the curator of Providus Bank Poetry Café, said that the Nigerian poets were chosen based on their varied styles of presentation that would expose the visitors and the guests to a rich taste of poetry delivery, performance techniques in Nigeria.

“Since the Cuban guests are mainly presenting contents rooted in their performance culture and heritage, the choice of the local poets has been carefully made such that the guests would have a variety of Nigerian cultural contents, even as they stay faithful to the theme of the festival,” Anikulapo said.

The poets include Yusuf Alabi Balogun, Evelyn Osagie, Kafayat Quadri, Tijani Usman and Chinelo Nwora.

Wole Alade, a multi-instrumentalist, will be the special guest artiste.

Meanwhile, the Cuban delegation includes Camerata Cortes, a musical project created by José Luis Cortés ‘El Tosco’, legendary Cuban flautist, Sinecio Verdecia Díaz, a performing poet, singer-songwriter, oral narrator and cultural promoter; Alex Pausides, a poet and editor; Edelmis Anoceto Vega, a poet, essayist, narrator, literary translator and editor, while Israel Dominguez, a poet and translator, and Emliano Sardinas, an improvisational poet.