Award-winning performance poet, Akeem Lasisi, has released a new video titled ‘Ada, Ada’.
It is off his same-titled new album and celebrates love along with other values.
He said of the album: “Primarily, ‘Ada, Ada’ is a celebration of a lady called Ada. Because she is the object attraction, her name is endlessly chanted in the accompaniment song by Edaoto, a fantastic artist I often work with.
“But as ‘Ada, Ada’ is a celebration of love, it is also a celebration of poetry. I want to continue to present the art in its entertaining and enjoyable form. It is actually about selling the art to more people so that they can savour its beauty.
“Yet in the process, we try to pass some other messages, which discerning ears and mind will readily grasp – killing multiple birds with the same stone, kind off.”
Lasisi, a seasoned journalist and lecturer/public relations officer at the First Technical University, Ibadan, Oyo State, added that the track also recreates a Yoruba folk song about a dog and greedy tortoise.
In the tale, the tortoise begs the dog to take it to secure food during a famine. The dog takes the tortoise to heaven – in the sky – where its dead mother now resides but remains benevolent. While returning, however, the tortoise takes more food than it can carry and thus has to beg the dog to relieve him of some of the baggage. It now sings, ‘Aja, aja o, ran mi leru …”
The new video shot at the First Technical University stars Teemiesamuels, an Ibadan based up-and-coming dancer and actress, who gives a good account of herself in the performance. She is supported by some dancers whose act, as usual, gives Lasisi’s poetry a total experience: poems, music, dance and theatrics.
The production features three short poems interjected with songs.
Lasisi, who had featured movie stars including Yomi Fash-Lanso, Kabirah Kafidipe, Bukola Awoyemi, Okele, Pa James, Ropo Ewenla and Oyin Elebuibon, had released several poetry videos. These include acclaimed ‘Eleleture’, ‘Udeme’ and ‘Asabi Alakara’.
The Ibadan-born poet is the author of award-winning poetry collections that include IREMOJE: Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa and Night of my Flight: The Poetry of a Lady about to Wed. Both won him the Association of Nigerian Authors/Cadbury Poetry Prize.
