Well-curated. Prompt. Intimate. To appear reductive, these are words that might, for different guests, describe Obii Ifejika’s poetry event, Love & Others, which happened at the British Council on 18th February, 2024. Four days after Valentine’s Day, the poetry event proved that the celebration of love shouldn’t be occasional.’ And this, for the guests, could be the reluctant or enthusiastic act of pulling their clothes from the hanger or box, booking a ride or entering a public bus, and sitting in the well-lit and redesigned office space and actively listening as Ifejika read her poems.
The guest list is exclusive and it is mostly friends and fellow poets, who partake in the event and randomly move their bodies in obedience to the played songs. ’Intimacy is cultivated. It is bravery for a small-knit group of people in an economy that constantly reminds you how sacrilegious it is to seek the intimate.
We witness a medley of songs and poetry. There is a seamless transition, and communion, between poetry and music which guides the guests’ reception of the performance. Lovers & Others Music Map, the performance, features six chapters with similar subject matter. The poems in each chapter—Love’s Awakening, Love’s Ecstasy, Love’s Trials, Love’s Redemption, Love’s Future, and Love’s Gratitude, are decades-long muses about love. In transitioning between the chapters, Ifejika introduces different love songs. From 2Baba’s (formerly 2Face Idibia’) “If Love Is A Crime,” Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” and “Happier With You,” Asa’s “Bibanke,” Labrinth’s “Jealous,” and John Legend’s “All Of Me.” Spliced in-between Ifejika’s poetry, we hear in these songs not only Ifejika’s longing for love or of the musicians, but also our craving for love and tenderness.
A few hours after the event, probably after most attendees are home, Ifejika sends us an appreciation email. Not only does her email appreciate guests “for your presence, your contribution and your hugs.” The email also contains a gem: A playlist featuring twenty-nine songs. Listening through the two-hour-long playlist, one remembers with fondness something that happened during the performance. A sheet had been passed around asking us to share a song that reminded us of a lover or romantic experience. Willingly, everyone had innocently written down something.
“Also, it’s chaotic but we made a playlist! Songs from the show, songs intended for the show, and songs you listed,” her email sings. I read the email and listen to the playlist as I write about my experience of the poetry gathering and couldn’t help but erupt into calming laughter. Perhaps this is what a post-Valentine moment feels like.
Seyi Lasisi lives in Lagos. He writes about film and literature.