Editor: Keith Davis Writers: Alex Dippold, Dave Maley Publisher: Office of Public Information Volume 22, No. 5   October 18, 1999

Nigerian Poet to Present Multimedia Performance Kole Ade Odutola, a Nigerian-born photographer, poet, and graduate student in the Roy H. Park School of Communications, will present "Revolution and Remembrance — People to the Power!" on Monday, November 1, in Park Hall Auditorium. The multimedia performance, which will include poetry, chanting, video clips, and African drumming, will begin at 4:00 p.m., with a reception to follow in 220 Park Hall. Both events are free and open to the public. Though the presentation is dedicated to Ken Saro Wiwa, an author and environmentalist executed in Nigeria in 1995 despite protests from Amnesty International, Ade Odutola says his performance is intended to go beyond strictly political concerns. "I’m using Ken Saro Wiwa as an icon," Ade Odutola says. "He believed there was a need for a change in this world, a breaking forth, a new way of seeing things. I want people who come to this performance to be so engaged in it that they abandon the old contexts in which they’ve always lived and come to another kind of place. I want them to be taken back to a time before boundaries." In addition to video clips and chants, Ade Odutola has used, in past performances, candles and installations of ropes hanging in front of mirrors to engage his audience and create a sense of wonder. "I want to engage as many senses as possible to bring people into the experience," he says. "Sound is especially important. When the drums speak, they need a medium to explain them. That medium can be a voice reading poetry, a voice chanting, a voice singing." Ade Odutola is a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors and a founding member of the Coalition of Nigerian Artists. He has worked as a photojournalist and has coordinated the film forum for the Goethe Institute in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. His first volume of poetry, The Poets Fled, was published in 1992. His second book, The Poet Bled, appeared in 1998. He earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental ecology and genetics from the University of Benin in 1984. In 1989 he received a master’s degree in video production from the University of Reading, which he attended on a Chevening Scholarship. This award, given by the British government, enables some 2,400 young professionals from 150 countries to do research or graduate study in the United Kingdom each year. For more information call the Department of Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design at 274-1025.

Created by Andrejs Ozolins. Updated 2 Nov 1999