Orò Ilé
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: Orò Ilé
Medium: terracotta
Date: 2010
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Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: Orò Ilé
Medium: terracotta
Date: 2010
Moyo Okediji
Title: Dem Belleful
Medium: acrylic on canvas
date: 2021
48×36″
TO MY GRANDDAUGHTER ON GRANDPAS DAY
I landed a fish last summer.
It begged me to catch and release.
I said I was hungry
It said better to hunger than kill
“We are all fishes”, it reminded me,
“angling in a lake of love.”
I saw the same fish this summer
The rainbow is smearing
pigments on my teeth
as if being colored
is a virtue;
All it does is keep the
cops from trusting me
when I cross
the street from innocence
to dark alleys
where they play hide
There is an ancient Yoruba poem about Àró, the alien.
Listen, the translation is below the Yoruba original.
Mo gbinlá mi sóko
Mo gbinkàn mi sóko
Ewúrẹ́ Àró fi jẹ;
Àgùtàn Àró fi jẹ
Èmi ò mọ ohun Àró ní mo ṣe.
I planted okra on my farmland
Adamants who chase the future are overwhelmed by the past and lost in the present.The heaven you seek lies now under your feet.Take it.
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: Omidan (Damsel)
Medium: terracotta
Date: 2010