Monday 29 December 2014

In 'Poetry at Christmas', Rainbow Book Club celebrates literary icon, JP Clark







The 2014 activities of Port Harcourt World Book Capital year (PHWBC), reached its crescendo when the Rainbow Book Club celebrated yet another African icon, JP Clark.  
Described as Africa’s most lyrical poet, his book Full Tide, is the PHWBC December Book-of-the-Month.
Reports have it that the evening began with several readings from poets in the audience.  This was followed by a performance from students of St. Andrews School IV.  Child author, Daniella Clinton wowed the audience and JP Clark when she read and analysed two of his poems; Here Nothing Works and Miracle in a Farm.
 Finally it was time for the mixed audience of academics, poets, children and others, to hear from the Guest of Honour, JP Clark, who started off by encouraging children and adults to take up both the reading and writing of poetry. He went on to emphasize that just like any other skill one can only get better at writing through practice. A good poet he added needed to be well conversant with the language in order to communicate their message.
The January book of the month is ‘Say You Are One of Them’ by Oprah Book Club author, Rev Father Uwem Akpan, the reading will hold on January 25th 2014, at the Hotel Presidential and the author will be present to discuss his book and autograph copies of it for readers.
Clark was born in Kiagbodo, in Delta State, to Ijaw parents. He had his early education at the Native Administration School and the Government College in Ughelli, and his Bachelor of Arts degree in English at the University of Ibadan, where he edited various magazines, including The Beacon and The Horn. He graduated from Ibadan in 1960 and worked as an information officer in the Ministry of Information in the old Western Region of Nigeria, as features editor of the Daily Express and as a research fellow at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. He served for several years as a professor of English at the University of Lagos, a position from which he retired in 1980. While at the University of Lagos he was co-editor of the literary magazine Black Orpheus.
He founded the PEC Repertory Theatre in Lagos In 1982, with his wife Ebun Odutola (a professor and former director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Lagos),.
In 1991, he received the Nigerian National Merit Award for literary excellence and saw the publication, by Howard University, of his two definitive volumes, ‘The Ozidi Saga’ and ‘Collected Plays and Poems’ between 1958 and1988.
Some of the poetries he wrote include: A Reed in the Tide, London: Longmans, 1965, A Decade of Tongues, London: Longmans, 1981 (also in Braille), State of the Union, London; Longmans, 1985, Of Sleep and Old Age, Lagos: Crucible, 2003, Once Again A Child, Ibadan: Mosuro, 2003, Still Full Tide Collected Poems, 1958-2012, including Cruising home: University press, Ibadan, 2012 and so on.
Dramas: Song of a Goat, Ibadan; Mbari, 1961, The Bikoroa Plays: The Boat, The Return Home, Full Circle, London and Ibadan: Oxford University Press and University Press, 1985, All For Oil, Lagos: Malthouse press, 2010, Collected Plays 1961-2000, Ibadan: University Press, 2010 and The Twilight Plays: The Hiss, The Smile, The Two Sisters, The Abuse of a king, Ibadan: University Press, among others.
Essays: Poetry of the Urhobo Dance Udje, Nigeria Magazine, no. 84, 1965, The Example of Shakespeare, London: Longmans, 1970, The Hero as a Villain, Lagos: University of Lagos Press, 1978, The Burden Not Lifted, Nigerian National Order of Merit Award Winners’ Lecture, Abuja, 2001 and The Example of Shakespeare and Other Essays, Ibadan: University Press, (in press 2012).
Documentary Films: Tides of Delta (With Frank Speed), 1974, Oil at the Bottom, 2007 and so on.
Music: Songs from The Ozidi Saga in three long-playing records

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