In “The Constituency of Your Lips”, love goes further than romantic attraction; it becomes a search for truth, an attempt to, as the author himself puts it “interrogate that fragile space where love and leadership intersect — where the personal meets the political.”
SATIRE AND SEED: THE UNENDING BLOOM OF COLONIALISM | A Review of Tares Oburumu’s ‘Flora’s Love Colony’
The poems are an adventure into the vast world of interracial affairs, producing for their immediacy the obsession with cultural integrity and boundary sensibility. This in itself is not the ultimate denunciation of the interference so addressed; rather, it undergirds the multiple thematic tours from personal to societal concerns.
STUDIOS OF SURVIVAL: A READING OF MOREMI FOLAKE AKANO’S ‘A WOMAN’S STUDIO’ by Soji Cole
Moremi [Folake] Akano's A Woman's Studio is a slim chapbook of short but impactful poems, what one can call poetic vignettes that transform the often overlooked spaces of women's labour...
Reading Impunity As Nigeria’s Truth | a CỌ́N-SCÌÒ review of Faith Ose Ebhodaghe’s ‘Impunity’ by Izang Alexander Haruna
The thing with impunity is that everyone suffers from its existence… Impunity touches everyone in one way or another.
A Palette of Desire | a CỌ́N-SCÌÒ review Lanre Sonde’s ‘Mellexy: Colours Of You’ by Jide Badmus
Sonde’s Mellexy: Colours Of You is a book of utopian love verses and nimble lyrics, something to get lost in while tucked in bed for the night.
In The Hush Between Lines | a CỌ́N-SCÌÒ review of Folake Adebote’s ‘The Ways We Fought’ by Servio Gbaadmosi
One of the quiet triumphs of The Ways We Fought is its sense of Africanity that does not require assertion. It lives in the rhythm of speech, the weight of names, the presence of community that is, at once, protective in some ways, destructive in more, and always complicit.
ORÍ: Exploring Yoruba Destiny and Culture Through Spoken Word Poetry | a CỌ́N-SCÌÒ review of Aremo Yusuf Balógun’s “ORÍ” by Tola Ijalusi
ORÍ is a success, bringing attention to a long-present but less-celebrated genre of spoken word poetry in Nigeria.
For Fathers Who Went Like This: A Poetic Journey Through Pain, History, and Hope | a CỌ́N-SCÌÒ review of Adedayo Agarau’s ‘For Boys Who Went’ by Tola Ijalusi
For Boys Who Went may challenge readers with its coarse literary style, which lends the poems a rich and raw intensity. While its expression can feel unrefined at times, the profound impact of its message on the reader’s mind makes it a collection worth revisiting—an offering both thought-provoking and unforgettable.
T&Cs of (un)Loving | a CỌ́N-SCÌÒ review of ‘How to Fall in Love Again’ anthology by Michael Chukwuka
The collection demonstrates the practicality of opening yourself to the ultimate possibilities of love even when it is scary. If you think not loving is beautiful, have you ever been truly loved or truly loved?
WARFARE ON PAPER | a CỌ́N-SCÌÒ review of Peter Okonkwo’s ‘How the Demons Leave’ by Jide Badmus
Although How the Demons Leave offers some clarity, it gathers its own clouds of mysteries. Why are these spiritual forces devoted to destroying man? Why does it seem the malevolent spirits are more potent, more active than the beneficent forces?