Poetic Voices: Ayomide Bayowa

Mississauga’s Poet Laureate Ayomide Bayowa will share his work ‘Alawo Dudu’ trilogy for this special edition of Poetic Voices at the AGM. The term ‘Alawo Dudu’ is derived from the Yoruba language and refers to ‘a person of colour.’ This trilogy of graphical representations features a young black male in various poses depicting arrival, departure, and ascension. The images aim to capture the symbolic significance of water as a purifying agent in cleansing away the historical remnants of racial corruption and oppression that still plague the young male model. Ayomi will share his poetry related to these images and invite participants to consider their own stories to write a short poem.

Biography:

Ayomide Bayowa is an Afro-Canadian theatre practitioner, absurd playwright, and sociologist. He is a distinguished fellow of the University of Ibadan Theatre Arts Department and a graduate of the University of Toronto. Recently, he was appointed as the poet laureate of Mississauga, Ontario for 2021-24. Ayòmi’s literary prowess has earned him numerous accolades, including a top-ten gold entrant of the 9th Open Eurasian Literary Festival and Book Forum, UK, a finalist of the Frontier Poetry Global Poetry Prize, and a long-listed nominee for the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize 2018, 2021 Adroit Journal Poetry Prize to a shortlist of the 2018 Eriata Oribabhor’s Poetry Prize, 2018 and 2019 Christopher Okigbo Inter-university Poetry Prize. His first stage play was recognized as the recipient of the maiden Arojah Students Playwriting Prize, while their poetry has also received first-place acclaim in both the 2020 July Open Drawer Poetry Contest (BrittaD) and the June/July 2021 edition of the bimonthly Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest (BPPC), as well as second place in the June 2020 On-spot Poetry Writing Contest and the 2021 K. Valerie Connor Poetry Contests Student Category in Orillia, Ontario. In his role as a reader for the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize, he assessed over 500 submissions to curate a shortlist of exceptional poems with the potential to earn the $5000 Grand prize. His debut poetry collection titled ‘Gills’ has been recognized as a semi-finalist in the 2021 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. The publication was released by Wolsak and Wynn (Buckriders) in Spring 2023. Gills has been included in the curriculum of the English Department’s Transnational Black Literature course at Queen’s University, Ontario. The course treats other scholarly works such as Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘Raisin in the Sun’ among others..

The Art Gallery of Mississauga would like to thank RAMA Gaming Centre Mississauga and Charitable Gaming, Community Good for their financial support of this program.