Niyi Osundare International Poetry Festival holds July

THE 2019 edition of the Niyi Osundare International Poetry Festival (NOIPOFEST) will hold from July 15 to 17 at the University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State.

The eminent critic and academic, Professor Biodun Jeyifo, who recently retired from Harvard University will deliver the keynote speech entitled ‘Popular Poetry and the Search for Development in the Modern State’.

A statement signed by the Festival Director, Tunde Laniyan, disclosed that other academics that will speak at the fifth edition of the festival include Professors JOJ Agbada, Saleh Abdu and Joe Ushie. Others are Dr Obari Gomba and poet Odia Ofeimun.

Laniyan added that the festival would, as usual, feature poetry, music, theatre, dance and drumming.

• From nothingness to a star

NOIPOFEST started five years ago in honour of the multiple award-winning Osundare, a world-class academic, dramatist and poet who previously taught at the Department of English, University of Ibadan.

He is the author of exciting poetry collections including ‘Songs from the Marketplace’, ‘Village Voices’, ‘Waiting Laughters’, ‘Tender Moments’ and ‘City without People: The Katrina Poems’

Executive Vice Chairman of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, Professor Tunji Olaopa delivered the keynote address at last year’s festival held at Lead City University, Ibadan. It had ‘Literature and Governance: Finding the Convergence for National Development’ as its theme.