Over 40 poets from Europe, Africa, and North America participated in the World Poetry Day virtual launch of ‘Wreaths for a Wayfarer: An Anthology in Honour of Pius Adesanmi’ edited by Nduka Otiono and Uche Umezurike. The event, which took place virtually on Sunday, March 22, was facilitated by Nduka Otiono and Ndubuisi Martins, an Ibadan-based poet and author of the collection of poems ‘Answers Through the Bramble.’
The event opened with welcome remarks by Mr Otiono, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Supervisor at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University. Also present to witness or participate in the poetry readings and performances, and reflections on mobility and mortality in the time of Coronavirus, were Toyin Falola, the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin; Chinedum Babalola, Vice-Chancellor of Chrisland University, Nigeria; Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, scholar and multiple award-winning writer; Jane Bryce, Professor Emerita of African Literature and Cinema at the University of the West Indies, Barbados; Akua Hope, author of Embouchure and recipient of U.S. National Endowment of the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships for Poetry; and other distinguished scholars, established and emerging poets.
Eghosa Imasuen, co-founder and director of Narrative Landscape Press, unveiled the African edition of Wreaths for a Wayfarer, praising it for its symbolic significance, poetic depth, and global character. Acclaimed poet, journalist, and writer, Uzo Maxim Uzoatu, kickstarted the poetry readings. His reading of his…