Skit 01: I need some encouragement
I have been in a bit of a funk over the past few weeks. There have been a bunch of stuff that I have wanted to write about but just couldn’t. I couldn’t stay in one place long enough to set down the thoughts I have had — at least not in the elegant or propulsive (or at the minimum, the half-decent) way I think I like to write. So I would like to publicly announce some of the things I should have written that I would write about within a week (by the grace of almighty God, amen, amen, amen):
- A review of Citation by Kunle Afolayan
- A review of Made in Lagos by Wizkid
- Why the quality of Made in Lagos may not matter
- A review of Davido’s album dropping on Friday
- Five Musical Notes on the End SARS protest
Away from these, have you signed up for my newsletter? I have kept this page alive for around 2 years and it only just occurred to me that it is not really a good idea to be doing so and building readers (I hope!) like to read my work without having any sort of way to reach them if for some reason Medium gets tossed away. And when I release a book next year, this wouldn’t be an ideal way to reach you — if you don’t mind, that is. So please, take a few seconds and:
Subscribe for my newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/2dd54326e9f8/oris-newsletter
I have considered putting a donate link beneath my pieces here. If you do donate, I promise to fight away the blues and present you a new piece of writing more regularly. Deal?
In the meantime, once again, please:
Subscribe for my newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/2dd54326e9f8/oris-newsletter
While I was away from here, I got published by one of my most beloved publications in the whole wide world. Unfortunately, I wrote about a tragic subject: the events of 20–10–2020. That kind of muted what really should have been a separation. The New York Review of Books is almost certainly “the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language” and only a handful of Nigerians have ever been published by them — in fact, not a lot of Americans have published there either, so...
In any case, it’s quite a thing for a kid raised in Lokoja and with a degree from a Naija university. Maybe I’ll celebrate when a happier piece gets published. In the meantime, you can read the piece here: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/11/01/nigeria-protest-against-police-violence/
You might need to register and/or subscribe to read it. If you are the reading type and curious kind, NYRB is always worth it.
Take care. I should be back with normal service tomorrow. I hope you subscribed for my newsletter. It’ll be worth those few seconds. Trust me.
And thanks,
Oris.
PS: I kinda miss comments, even from those people that wanted to take my head off. If you have the time, drop one…or 56.
