Category: Essays

Broadcast Pop Culture

If You’re A Real Hip-hop Head, Listen to Coast Contra

Post author By Afapinen
Post date Sep 18, 2022

Album Cover, Apt. 505 / coastcontra.com

by Carl Terver

Tags american hip hop, apt. 50, coast contra, eric jamal, give up the goods freestyle, raj austin, rap music, ras austin, rio loz

Essays

Avant-Garde Theatre: Segun Adefila’s Dis Loyal Judas

Post author By Afapinen
Post date Jul 24, 2022

Image: Cropped flier of Segun Adefila's "Dis Loyal Jesus" (top); Segun Adefila (bottom) / Illustration by Orndir Fanen

by Bestman Michael Osemudiamen

Tags avant-garde, bestman michael Osemudiamen, dis loyal judas, easter, mel gibson, oko owi ocho, paradox, passion of christ, performance, resurrection, segun adefila, the marquee

Essays

Samuel A. Adeyemi’s Confession of Unbelief

Post author By Afapinen
Post date Jun 11, 2022

The poet Samuel A. Adeyemi

by Ancci

Tags ancci, applying psalms 121 to a gentile, Arasi Kamolideen Oluwapelumi, christianity, dante, epiphany, faith, faith in god, god, harold bloom, heaven is a metaphor, helen vendler, metaphysical poetry, Nigerian poetry, poetry criticism, samuel a adeyemi, spirituality, the divine comedy, walt whitman

Essays

Peaky Blinders: Our Secret Love Affair with Violence

Post author By Carl Terver
Post date May 31, 2022

Still from the motion picture Peaky Blinders.

by Carl Terver

Tags art and machines, coppola, gangster, great gatsby, mafia, new yorker, niccolo machiavelli, peaky blinder series, peaky blinders, the prince, thomas shelby, violence in movies, walter benjamin

Personal Essays

A Brief History of Fear

Post author By Afapinen
Post date May 2, 2022

Illustration: Orndir Fanen

by EBELENNA TOBENNA ESOMNOFU

Tags attahiru jega, biafra nonfiction, boko haram, buhari, Ebelenna Tobenna Esomnofu, fear of death, goodluck jonathan, life of pi, nigeria election 2015, nysc, nysc stories, spirit of death, yann martel

Personal Essays

A Childhood Epiphany

Post author By Afapinen
Post date Apr 14, 2022
Sticky Post

Photo: Orndir Fanen

by MICHAEL CHIEDOZIEM CHUKWUDERA

Tags achebe, amu nnadi, baldwin, childhood, epiphany, Michael Chiedoziem Chukwudera, nonfiction, pablo neruda, reading

Music

The Kinetic Poetry and Spirituality of Obongjayar

Post author By Afapinen
Post date Apr 11, 2022

Obongjayar. Artist Photo via INSTAGRAM

by Carl Terver

Tags african music, afrobeat, Bob Marley, calabar-born, Carl Terver, fela, gONE gIRL, message in a hammer, Obongjayar, SARZ, Some nights i dream of doors, which way is forward

Music

The Joie De Vivre of Aṣa’s V Album

Post author By Carl Terver
Post date Mar 31, 2022

Illustration by Orndir Fanen

by Carl Terver

Tags afapinen, Afro-soul, afrobeats, Asa, Carl Terver, nigerian music, V

Culture

Defending Naira Marley to Elitists

Post author By Carl Terver
Post date Feb 2, 2022

Image via Naira Marley Twitter/The singer in America during his Sep. 2021 "Marlian USA Tour"

by Carl Terver

Tags afapinen essays, afrobeats, American pop culture, Carl Terver, cultural criticism, elitism, ethnocentricism, Eurocentricism, high art, inside life, lois tyson, nigerian music, soapy, sub-altern, susan sontag

Essays

A Critic Fails in His Critical Bidding: Nzube Nlebedim’s takedown of Chibundu Onuzo’s The Spider King’s Daughter

Post author By Afapinen
Post date Feb 2, 2022

Photo: Orndir Fanen

by Tọ́pẹ́-ẸniỌbańkẹ́ Adégòkè

Tags afapinen essays, Chibundu Onuzo, Nigerian criticism, Nzube Nlebedim, The Spider King's Daughter, Tope Adegoke