ToKillaMockingBird
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: ToKillaMockingBird
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Date: 2018
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: ToKillaMockingBird
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Date: 2018
Dear Kicking Fetus
For Saidiya Hartman***
Why kick your mother
so hard, so relentless
right in the center
of her tender navel?
Is there something
you know about life,
about the impious ways
The Birth
Of a New Year? New opportunities? New visions? New directions? New hopes? New tools? New thoughts? New leaf? New step? New energy? New start? New move? New song? New voice? New motive? New motif? New dance? New question? New answer? New mission? New me?
SAY IT NOW
When you speak to yourself at night
be not afraid to speak truth
to thunder using the language of proverbs
to deliver music to homeless soldiers
eating from street dumpsters
with long spoons dining with the devil
wearing rifles loaded with a silver lining
HOUSE OF THE HEAD: ÒRÙLÉ ORÍ
The latest addition to the Àkòdì Òrìṣà
is the ÒRÙLÉ ORÍ,
the House of the Head.
Órí is the most important òrìṣà
in Yoruba divinity.
TWO ROCK STARS
ROCK 1:
I wish I were a rock of salt.
Then I won’t be so insulted.
Here I sit at the bottom of the stream
pelted by water
pecked by fishes
pinched by crabs
unseen, uncelebrated by man
useless to him and his art.
I wish I were a rock of salt
Teacher: Nigeria means NIGGER AREA. Spell it.
Student: I-T.
Teacher: River Niger means NIGGER river. Spell it.
Student: I-T.
Ghana was named Gold Coast.
The people were smart enough