The editorial team of Cọ́n-scìò magazine includes JIDE BADMUS as Poetry Editor, EHI-KOWOCHIO OGWIJi as Features Editor, EUGENE YAKUBU as Fiction Editor, DAVID ISHAYA OSU as Art and Photography Editor with KUKOGHO IRUESIRI SAMSON as acting Editor-in-Chief.
A BOY IS NOT ALWAYS A BUTTERFLY & OUR MOTHERS ARE NOT ALL MOONS: WHAT IS HAPPENING TO NIGERIAN POETRY?
It is time for our poets to realize that a boy is not always a butterfly & our mothers are not all moons. Poetry is first an expression of self before anything. Be original.
‘ODE TO MOTHERTONGUE’: NIGERIAN POETS DAZZLE POETRY LOVERS IN LOCAL DIALECTS FOR BPPC
‘Ode to Mother Tongue’ is a showdown of choruses of West African voices. In it, we read poets who appealed to the language of their hearts in the composition of their verses, in order to reach the audiences’ hearts. Indeed, the heart-of-the-matter in the edition’s theme ‘Mother Tongue’ is a matter of the heart.
A POET’S PAST MUST ADRESS HIS PRESENT (an essay by Oludipe Oyin Samuel)
One finds a poet who sounds less like his environment or the rest of his remaining works. One finds a horde of clannish poets who have resumed trapping their styles in the net of the other. One finds a literary community that has forgotten to produce the spirit-immersed poetry, the kind that broadly establishes the contaminant emotive will; not the kind that breeds a hive of self-importance—tributes and odes to self—that which undermines the vicarious role of pathos.
THE LENIENT POEM AND SUBTLE MEANING (an analysis by Oludipe Oyin Samuel)
REVIEW: ‘SEVEN FLOWERS OF GRATITUDE’ POETS HELP US COME TO TERMS WITH THE ISSUES AND SUFFERINGS OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
These poets have clearly come to terms with the issues and sufferings the coronavirus pandemic wrought upon the world. They help us to come to terms with it as well.
REVIEW: FAITH’S CHAPBOOK ‘LAGOS DOESN’T SLEEP’ DRAWS INSPIRATION FROM WHAT IS FAMILIAR
Another unique thing about Emmanuel is that he draws inspiration from what is familiar. As such, Lagos Doesn’t Sleep stands out as a testament to how literature remains the eyes of our current events and a concubine to history.
THE CHANGING NARRATIVE OF TOUCH: A REVIEW OF DONNA OGUNNAIKE’S SPOKEN WORD PIECE ‘TOUCH’
“Touch” is a word, and in a larger sense of it – it is a language portraying relationship. Various cultures speak this language, it mirrors the relationship between the virus and human interactions. In Nigeria, amidst our diverse cultural beliefs and traditions, every ethnic group understands the underlying power of touch; from pouring libations to the gods, to exchange of greetings and other realities captured in this performance piece by Donna Ogunnaike called “Touch”
“FACEBOOK IS NOT A SAFE PLACE TO POST YOUR POEMS” & OTHER ISSUES FOR NIGERIAN POETS
Again, by saving your works and releasing them only on foreign platforms, you are inadvertently taking everything away from us and making us have to borrow access. Right now, we can no longer read anything from most of our good poets unless we first access them from foreign platforms.
WHY POETS TAKE SNIPER: AN ESSAY ABOUT SUICIDE AMONG WRITERS (by Sa’id Sa’ad Abubakar)
Today, we have seen numerous death of young promising writers by suicide. Exactly last year, we lost the talented Chukwuemeka Akachi, whose death spreads like a sandstorm. The same year, an online literary blog published the name of five young students writers who died by suicide.