With Jelili Atiku’s sculpture of Mandela and wearing Luis Emilio Marin’s Esu figure in my office today, University of Texas at Austin.
My Nigerian friends are going to be so scared!!!!
We’ve been trained to be scared of our own
To the Yoruba Nation
There is a new vision
It is from Odu Irosun
And it advocates the IYEYE plant
Now listen:
We are now near the top of the Gbadi Hill
It is the tallest hill in the universe
So tall, its head is a pointed triangle.
Now the citizens of Iperi were hungry
They cried out from hunger and unhappiness
They were in pain for homelessness
They needed a savior
Who will protect the people of Iperi
A young stranger will shelter the people of Iperi
MAMA
Mother is a tree
with fruits, rooted in
Traditions of nurturing,
watered in the womb of affection
Her milk flows
down the hills of time
from one generation of love
to another recuperation of hope
2020 has been an eventful year.
We will not itemize the list of the horrors of the year.
Can we, instead, highlight the blessings?
Rather than explore the sadness of the year, can we paint images that are sweet?
Can we find the joy hidden behind the sorrow?
Can we squeeze order out of the chaos?
This is one of the paintings I just discovered in my garage.
The painting celebrates Robert Hayden’s poem, “Middle Passage.”
It is a really long poem.
The painting focuses on this excerpt:
“That Crew and Captain lusted with the comeliest
of the savage girls kept naked in the cabins;
that there was one they called The Guinea Rose
and they cast lots and fought to lie with her: ”
The character across the floor of the ship being whipped to consent is the lady called Guinea Rose in the poem.
Words matter.
Choose them carefully today.
Don’t use words to hurt others,
however good it might feel to hurt them.
Use your words to empower others.
Use your words like building blocks.
Words are worthy and useful only when you use them
to build a better world.
ỌDÚN (Year)
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: ỌDÚN (Year)
Medium: silicon on canvas
Size: 96″ x 36″
ỌDÚN is a Time Traveler.