MAMA I MADE IT!!

I remember when my parents first tried to understand what spoken word poetry was, this was 2011/2012 and to them what I was doing was going to stand at 'beer parlours' (which was actually Bogobiri) to perform while people drank and smoked. The term my father used then was 'club girl', his little girl wanted to be a 'club girl'.

Over the years I would become 'off and on' with poetry, one minute I am at every event and the next I would go into hiding because I didn't feel like my material was good enough. My last real spoken word performance was in 2015, when I debuted a piece titled 'when love finds you'. 

Last year, I tried to return to the poetic scene but so much was happening and it made me question myself, so I ran again. Until Efe Paul Azino (one of Nigeria's greatest poets) reached out again for me to work on a project for Heritage Bank. 

I struggled, I knew what I wanted but it was almost impossible for me to focus and write. Luckily Efe Paul came to my rescue and put all my thoughts together into a beautiful piece. We recorded it, shot a video, directed by Ayoola Opere and I, sort of moved on from it, not knowing if it would be accepted or not. 

Over the weekend, it was aired on what was the finale of Big Brother Naija (Double Wahala) and the love it received has been overwhelming. Friends in different parts of Africa sent me clips and my parents who once disliked the idea of their daughter being a 'poet', beamed with pride. 

Anyway, here it is :) 

A SPOKEN WORD POETRY PIECE BY SHEILA OJEI.

I spin greatness from yarn
weave your desires into garments of colours that cast you in the centre of the Universe
I live for this! The music of the machines...
the intercourse of needle and cloth
climaxing in patterns fit for royalty.

This is how I make sense of struggle.
When the world is a shriveling autumn of dying things
I withdraw into a thread, design a rainbow and find spring
in the satisfied smile of a customer's eyes
So when they ask me how I do it and why
I tell them "With passion the colour of blood, and a foundation of support green like possibilities
I do it for clothes the texture of history
the smell of an eternal Heritage
A fabric of joy connecting one generation to the next"

All credit goes to Efe Paul Azino for this. Thank you!

Here are a few other pieces from the Heritage Ad Campaign