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 The annual Sprinng Literary Movement Poetry Contest is here for you. The prompt is easy: Write a simple poem (5-10 lines) on any theme of your choice. Eligibility: only Nigerians Living in Nigeria are eligible for this contest. Prizes include a N25,000 cash prize and a N10,000 gift card to shop at Roving Heights Bookstore. All submissions must be sent via email to sprinngliterarymovement@aol.com.
The subject of your submission via email must be “SLM 2019 Poetry Contest: Your Full Name”. You can either attach your submission or include it as the body of your email. Submission deadline is June 15, 2019.  The #3000BooksIn30Days was sparked weeks ago by a conversation with a brother-friend who recognized the impact of CTCTW in the lives of numerous children across the world, beginning from Ogbomosho. He said, “I can recognize the impact of what you are doing with CTCTW" and asked to know how he could volunteer while highlighting glaring literacy challenges children face in Ogbomosho and beyond.
You, just like this brother-friend are as crucial to the fulfillment of the #3000BooksIn30Days for children of Ogbomoso as a book is window for children to see beyond their limited spheres and reach the world just at their fingertips when they dare to dream. The launch of the #3000BooksIn30Days challenge has been paired with the World Book Day holding on the 23rd of April, 2019. Just one book from you can make a child's day, and even more books can be the key to unlocking their imaginations to potentials and achievements beyond their limitations. Powered by CTCTW (Children That Change the World) For more information on how to participate and donate books to a CTCTW center near you, visit: www.ctctw.org  Some years ago, I fell in love with poetry. Not long after, I sadly realised many people do not share this love for poetry. It was even more startling, discovering that a lot of such people were already avid readers. Poetry to them, is often like a restaurant menu item — the one you wrinkle your nose at and skip with your finger as you run it across the page.
Soon, I found a very simple reason for this ‘hatred’ of poetry. These people often find it ostentatious, intimidating, boring, and obscure. This rings truer especially when they struggle to understand or enjoy what is conventionally considered as brilliant poetry. In 2015, visual artists; Sara Goldschmied and Eleonora Chiari had an exhibition at the Meseion in Bolzano, Italy. It was called ‘Where Shall We Go Dancing Tonight?’. The exhibition later became news. After the event, the museum cleaners went in and got rid of the entire ‘work of art’— but considering the context, I’m sure most people wouldn’t blame the cleaners for throwing the installation away. What’s the average person’s first, second or even tenth impression, on sighting scattered empty wine bottles and strewn party decorations after an event? It isn’t “Oh! What a beautiful art installation; a recreation of a party aftermath”. Yet, this was expected of the unassuming cleaners. An EXCERPT FROM "BUT HERE YOU ARE" Tonight, instead
of planning dinner, a mother planned her daughter’s funeral. Like it is done to sacrifice, she dissected her heart and served her memories to the longing ears of consolations. As her teeth grated seasonings of darkness she tries to scrape out God from all the corners of this moment that she could find. Maybe God needed to pick a few of our sorrows from earth and this mother’s child's feet were the perfect set of f(or)(uc)ks for it. A Discussion about Values: Selfishness and Individualism betweenTolu Akinyemi, Author of "Your Father Walks Like a Crab" & Oyindamola Shoola, Author of "To Bee a Honey" This conversation with Tolu Akinyemi that led to discussing the idea of individualism started from a prompt on millennial values, how it is changing and their extremism. In a recent event at a leadership group, one of the ice breaking questions that a team of about 5 of us answered was, “how many children do you want to have?” We were all millennials in the group. Only one person was certain that she wanted to have children while the rest of us, some uncertain and others declined stating our reasons including “feeling as though taking care of a whole human being is too much of a responsibility.” Another reason was that some of us as high achieving individuals spent a lot of our late teenage years and early twenties taking on adult responsibilities including taking care of other people. So, we want time for ourselves. Another reason was that the world was already terrible enough with numerous children up for adoption, “why bring a new one to this world?”
At the core of all these reasons we gave for not wanting to have children in the future was a form of selfishness or self-centeredness that I could strongly identify with. At this point, Tolu and I elaborated on the consequences of this ideology that being self-centered is profitable which many motivational speakers preach. I have heard stories of speakers who decided to quit their day job, leave their family and travel to many places just to please themselves. I have heard and read about some feminists recently who state that because men have benefitted from women’s oppression for so long, any man that can’t meet the needs of a selfish and self-centered woman - who only wants isn’t worthy of having their time or attention. |
2019 SLM Poetry Contest Winner will be announced on August 1, 2019.
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