Enugu hosts Chukwumereije’s performance poetry

LOVERS of arts and entertainment across the South East are warming up with anticipation as Nigeria’s foremost performance poet who is also winner of the Abuja Literary Society Poetry Slam 2011 and the National Poetry Slam 2012, Chukwumereije Dike, makes a stop-over in Enugu on March 25 at the Oakland Centre with his Made-in-Nigeria, a stage poetry production.

“It is a great joy for us in the South East to know that Chukwumerije Dike is coming and he is bringing his very famous “Made-in-Nigeria” poetry show to Enugu and the South East in general for the first time,” Mr. Ken Ike Okere, South East Zonal Director of Radio Nigeria said. 

The popular two-hour poetry show which tells Nigeria’s history over the last 120 years was last performed in February 2017 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja after previous showings in Lagos in December 2016 and at Merit House, Abuja in September 2016.

“Performance poetry is like the fuel that is driving poetry appreciation in Nigeria at the moment. We believe that Dike is an ambassador of ours and we believe that his show is great, creative, compelling and highly recommended for everyone. I will really encourage everyone to get ready and get set and be ready to come out that day and come and have fun, come and learn and come and see to what length creativity can go,” Okere added.

 “Gradually, we are plugging performance poetry into mainstream pop culture. Infusing drama and dance in story form has made poetry less abstract and more attractive and enjoyable to the audience,” Dike Chukwumerije, the brain behind the show told journalists recently.

We are not stopping at Enugu. Once we are done there, the tour continues to Kaduna later in the year. Our choice of these locations is predicated on the fact that they were all capitals of different regions of Nigeria at some point in our history and played prominent roles in our journey to nationhood. We are also hard at work packaging an international show. Hopefully that should happen before the end of the year,” he added. vanguard