Wednesday 4 March 12:05
SITOI. Photos by Afopefoluwa Ojo.
by
Afopefoluwa Ojo
The point of a dove is to dove
The point of a dove is too to dive.
And where do doves dive to
I tire for abysses and empty spaces
Or the sounds that they produce
You said you had a dove
In your mouth
I want to see it
And I imagine the back of your throat to be
A secret word
My head wrings like a motor
Clocking into a silhouette
From across my window;
Gathering light
I am thinking of you
Why do you have a dove in your mouth
Or I will see you tonight
But it is not yet tonight
Now is the eternal presence
Outside De Brakke Grond
The (withering) tree is set in golden light
A sixty seven year old man talks to me about the eternal present
Offers me natural grown things to escape the matrix: blue pill red pill
My horoscope says I am meta af
So I will not reference my work in my work
My dream is to defy the stars, align with them
Or be one of them
He calls me Yemọja there is no need to tell him what to call me by he knows the ones who worshipped /worship us
He volunteers himself and we are align alive like squares and circles;
See you next year, he says
I thought we would sooner see!
Yeah I know your pronouns
But what are your nouns
I hope you don’t care for them
I say to man: that he is nothing
See things;
Hollywood voices
A midnight walk
Kisses from the sun
The eternal present!
Raindrops pettle fur coats
The wind hurtling murder
The eternal present..
I want to know why you eat birds
I want to see the back of your throat
And when you feel love do literal feathers flutter in the pit of your stomach
Are you phantom? Reetta I am phantom
See things;
A petri dish of ayamásèé twirling in the twilight Sirens wailing like the city is a crime
Humans resist their progress
The fear feeds the machine baby like Cerelac
This is how to answer the man and woman
Who asks about indigenous groups
Brought over the Pacific for things
Google can find
Quite frankly no one has the time
But if you want they could set a
Table before you and feast
On sweet things
Are you loving me?
Ṣo fẹ́ fẹ́ mí ni?
Love is an interaction with the present
The eternal present;
So modular like music
So here I am The after-night life
A future friend optimises to write an optimism
She finds a dystopia
And blood is running low
Lifelight flash before my eyes
A boy breaks into a secular dance jazz
I am writing at the back of the club
If I drink tonight let me puke my life
I didn’t meet you tonight dove heart of
The eternal present
I am going home
Till we meet again
What is not the sound
The sound is not getting caught up in your own academic research and rhetoric
Sound if anything; is unformulaic
Fills a void; resounds; plays ignorant
Academics sound like capitalists when they talk
About funding and the length of their air b n b s
SITOI you research your soul
Making love songs from the mundane
Or because of the mundane
Or because you hate love songs
They sound like hollow shades of white
Terike Haapoja introduces herself as an artist
“Just?” the moderator asks
“Not just,” she says
What she’s trying to say is that there’s knowledge only acquired experientially
Nabil Ahmed shows a poster of my people saying, “Gas flaring kills Ogoni”
I want to interview him
But if someone says “bYE!” Emphatically
Does that mean they never want to see you again.
Ha! We meet in the lobby
Tall and lovely
Both blonde and brunette
Reetta listen there are no questions only answers
SITOI. Photo by Afopefoluwa Ojo.
You say: hip hop influence, writing; enjoy writing a lot. You say: so you started off as a writer, rap lyrics, contemporary, some acting. Everything is spoken in Finnish. Finnish sounds like Yorùbá. There is neither he nor she in both languages. You say: all the lyrics come from very personal aspects; of your part in activism; understand that words have meanings; a way of shaping language; to actively think about space; the texture of words; language and stuff. It all begins on the page; which is to say it all starts with the text; working with people open to this kind of innovation; the drama is built around the text; the relationship between the tension between the noise and the music and the words
SITOI. Photo by Afopefoluwa Ojo.
You say: I am a bit of a control freak, quite private person. I want everything to be coherent. It comes in the live performance, the improvisations. Playing more with Noah, he has a DJ background. Very nice and easy way of working. In Helsinki, in Finland, sort of a weird act, hard to get bookings. With Noah, feels very natural. Anatomy and biology, surrealism in banal places, taking everything I’m interested in and putting into a story. A weird perspective makes it more interesting to me; abhorring love songs, loving contradictions.
