Honesty Is The Best Policy

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Alina Kay caught the wise words of performance poet Olu Popoola.

‘When your life changes, you cannot foresee the impact. But when it does, the things that happen are unstoppable….Like the wind, they bury themselves deep in your bones.’

So says Nigerian-German writer Olumide Popoola in her novella This Is Not About Sadness, a story of social change, personal misunderstanding and dignified resilience.

I first encountered Olumide (‘Olu’) when she was performing at ‘A Night of Afropolitan Dandies’ at Rich Mix arts centre in Bethnal Green. Her strong and soulful presence made a deep impression on me. After the show, we got talking about her writing and how she started out.

Olu was first inspired by reggae poets such Mutabaruka, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Audrey Lorde. It was their honesty which spoke to her. She was 13 when her first poem was published. Since then Olu has lived in Nigeria, Netherlands and Germany. She finally settled on London because of its diversity and liveliness. En route to East London – Olu is now a visiting lecturer at the University – she picked up grants and fellowships from Kunstler Schoppingen, Djerrassi and Hedgebrook, and others. She also won the 2004 May Ayim Prize for literature.

Primarily a performance poet, coming to UEL brought out Olu’s latent interest in fiction. Having completed her novella, she is now working on a full length novel focusing on three teenagers and their rite of passage around King’s Cross. Its themes include friendship, gender identity and ‘political awakening.’ But if all this sounds a tad serious, Olu’s play Also By Mail is surprisingly funny – she herself did not expect it to turn out that way.

‘Honesty’ is Olu’s watchword for aspiring writers. But it can have unintended consequences. Olu warns that writing is a demanding business and a lonely occupation: ‘it’s a lot about being alone and processing, feeling what is happening and putting it out in different ways and scenarios. And it’s a wonderful process, but it can be “full on”.’

Just like literature should be, Olu’s work is a ‘full on’ re-take of reality: it makes you think twice about the society we share.  

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