WAPi

Was invited to be a guest speaker today on WAPi, (Words & Pictures), an initiative sponsored by the British Council and produced by Emem Emma, former member of the Girl-Band, KUSH. The theme of the programme: Who you be? And the target audience- young men and women from all over the city (and some from outside) who are into the Arts. Venue was the grounds of the British Council, Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi.

There were hundreds of youths gathered, and there were music performances, very good and some not very good as well as drama, rap, graffiti, performance poetry and dance. Notable amongst the songs today was Tosyn Buckner’s “Hidden Motives”, her soft rock release that’s currently playing on the airwaves now. Maybe it wasn’t such a hard task for Tosyn producing such great music, her father being the Nigerian music legend, Segun Bucknor, “adan ri sogba sogba, oko ’ya la mala”. If you don’t know who that is, ask your parents. My father loved the man.

I told the gathered crowd what I could, of the journey to the point I stand today in the arts and gave advice as how to manoeuvre in the thorny fields of artville . Apparently, I’m considered a person of note in the things I do, and several told me they came because they heard announcements on the radio, I’d be speaking. Seasoned “youths” like the TV presenter, Denrele Edun were around as guests too as was “Ibiyemi” the female vocalist who sang her “Can you love me?”

WAPi comes up once a month on the grounds of British Council.