Full Description
Winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets
The poems in Leaked Footages carry urgent subjects, ranging from death to disappearance to grief to memory. Not only do the poems fulfill the tradition of witnessing often manifested in contemporary poets such as Garous Abdolmalekian and Ilya Kaminsky, but they extend that tradition by the medium through which they witness: the technical and the technological. Here, the camera, the closed-circuit TV, cinematographic techniques, and the cyborg are trusted for truth telling. Reality is represented in footage seen through the eyes of multifaceted speakers.
In Abu Bakr Sadiq's exploration of northern Nigeria in speculative poetry, the lyrical meets the chronicle. In this fusion of Afrofuturism with experimental poetic techniques, the reader witnesses a country ravaged by terrorism and the consequences of war, as well as the effects of these on those who survive. While the tone is grave with concern and conscience, the poems do not take the easy route of sentiment. Instead, attention is paid to structure—from the erasure poems that are informed by the theme of disappearance to the contrapuntal poems that are influenced by the testaments of leaving.
Contents
Foreword by Kwame Dawes
Acknowledgments
Introducing Bhabi to the Cyborg
wormhole
road map
maqtoob
Explaining Bot Fights to Bhabi
Uncensored Footage of the Cyborg in an idps Camp
flight theory
crane shot
After Bhabi Dreams of a City Filled with Light
Ars Poetica with a Broken Shahada
Report from an Inkblot Test Reveals
displacement theory
The bbc Explains the Country's Challenges to the Cyborg in Sixty Seconds
rhubarb shot
A Patrol Officer wants to know
in conversation with bhabi
my god swears / by the fig, by the olive, by the brightest star, by the prophet who penned no ghazal
Uncensored Footage of the Cyborg at a Shooting Practice
drainage
apocalypse
mutilation theory
video village
6pm at AbdulHameed's Barbershop
Everything I've Lost Returns to me as Wind
Second Encounter with Bhabi in a Dream
reading bhabi's diary
driving downtown
Uncensored Footage of the Cyborg Leading a Protest in Lagos
News Reports Confirm the Cyborg is Missing
The Cyborg asks for my Excuses
In Defense of Burnt Cities
Leaked Footage of the Cyborg in an Interrogation Room
While a Newly-Elected President is being Sworn-in
reaching an endpoint
After a Conversation about Janazah with Bhabi in a Dream
Uncensored Footage of the Cyborg at the U.S. Embassy
survivor'S gift
estrangement theory
translation
re-shoots
Midnight in Maiduguri
rebirth
dronecode
cyborg's diary
post massacre psych evaluation
director'S cut: Recovered Footages from the Cyborg's Disk Drive
recaptcha asks the Cyborg to Confirm he's not a Robot
After Escaping Fire
homecoming
evensong
cast (In Order of Disappearance)
Notes and Source Acknowledgements
