A prolific writer and poet, James Eze has been honoured with the title of “the People’s Poet” by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State.
Presenting the award plaque at an elaborate event last Wednesday in Awka, the state capital, the university’s English Department said that the gesture was in ‘honour of Eze’s poetic excellence, laced in memory and conscience’.
The event, described as the first-of-its kind evening of poetry titled, “Fire & Memory: Celebrating the Poetry of James Eze”, was a town and gown arrangment that brought scholars, students of English Language, and academics up close with the literati from Awka, Lagos and Enugu in spellbinding sessions in which Eze’s poems were deeply read, turned into spoken word performance pieces, dramatised, deconstructed for better understanding and performed as songs.
The ceremony, which enjoyed the physical presence and participation of the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Kate Omenugha and other notable literary scholars and teachers from the university, gave the students a chance to learn directly from the poet, watch him read his works, perform them, and engage him in one-on-one sessions to gain rare insights into some of his poems and the atmosphere that birthed them.
Eze read from dispossessed, his debut collection, carefully selecting delicate poems that covered the three segments of the book, spanning the themes of “Innocence”, Transgression”, and “Atonement”, which are the three pillars that constitute the backbone of the book.
From “Innocence:, he read an introspective and deeply rhetorical poem, “Searching for Myself”, and from “Transgression”, he read a tenderly paasionate love poem, “Rainbow”, in acknowledgement of the Valentine Week and from “Transgression”, he read the searing Biafran tribute entitled “Biafra”,a call and response poem that had the students chimming in with a refrain.
The memorable evening also featured Omenugha reading a chapter from the manuscript of her coming book.
She then made a symbolic presentation of the award plaque to Eze that clearly designated him as “The People’s Poet”, by the Majority Leader of Anambra State House of Assembly, Hon. Ebuka Igwe, along with the Head of the university’s Department of English, Dr. Ikechukwu Asika.
With this recognition, Eze’s debut collection, dispossessed has not only aged well after half a dozen of existence, but has also placed him as one of the few Nigerian poets whose work has found deep resonance in the Nigerian society and beyond.
The event attracted literary scholars, academics, culture journalists, art connoisuers, poets, novelists, literary enthusiasts and students of English Language.
