February Favorites

Hey Guys,

How’s everybody doing today? Yesterday, on a whim, I decided to start curating a list of my favorite articles, short stories, news, music, poetry, pictures and the likes on a monthly basis. I come in contact with a lot of amazing content every day and it makes sense to share it with you wonderful people. My monthly picks will not be limited to content that was created or published in a particular month. It will also include content that I discovered in that month, which may have been created earlier. Hopefully, you all enjoy what I put out.

Here’s my list of February Favorites.

SHORT STORIES AND ARTICLES

1.  ‘I’m having a Friendship Affair’ by Kim Brooks – I thought this was the most profound thing I read this month. Just like the writer, I tend to take my female friendships to a whole other level of intimacy. Read here.
2. ‘The Husband stitch’ by Carmen Maria Machado – I love reading stories that leave me puzzled when they end. This is one such story and I absolutely loved it. Read here.
3. ‘Inscape’ by Yaa Gyasi – This beautiful story is centered around a daughter’s relationship with her mother and how it was deeply affected by the mother’s religion. It gave me high heartstrings. Read here.
4. ‘Stop trying to be somebody’ by Jon Westenberg – If, like me, you’re looking for some inspiration (read: ass whooping) to get off your butt and create whatever it is you create, this is a good article. Read here.
5.  ‘Love was…’ by Phidelia Imiegha – Allow the self-hype. A short story of mine was published in the latest issue of Tush Magazine. I also put it up on my medium, which I joined about a week ago, and am absolutely loving. Read here.
6. ‘I’m done with African Immigrant Literature’ by Siyanda Mohutsiwa – I thought that some of the points in this article by Siyanda, a writer from Botswana, were valid, and others, not so much. See for yourself, read here.

MUSIC

1. As I write this, I’m listening to Calvin Harris’ 2014 album – Motion. I don’t know how it managed to elude me for so long. My favorite tracks off the album are Blame, Love now and Outside.
2. The life of Pablo – I’ve never been a big fan of Kanye west, but for some reason, I was very excited about his new album even before it dropped. I wasn’t disappointed. I have and am still enjoying the life of Pablo thoroughly. It always leaves me feeling hyped and I love that feeling. It is available exclusively on tidal. (Although, according to this, over 500,000 people have downloaded it illegally.)
3. Formation – Beyoncé shocked us early this month when she dropped this song along with its culturally important video. I love the video and all that it stands for. A lot of people seem to think the song itself has zero content, but I actually like its catchy tune.
4. Pillow Talk – When Zayn Malik dropped Pillow talk, the first single off his upcoming album, Mind of mine, there was a lot of buzz on twitter. I thought it was just exaggerated hype from his fan base but decided to give the song a listen. It is an amazing song with even more amazing lyrics, now I’m looking forward to his album which drops in March.
5. llegal Music 3 – And on the last day of February, M.I Abaga dropped his final mixtape. I’ve only listened to it once so far but I already like it. You can download it free here.

VIDEOS

1. Formation – Beyoncé’s formation makes this list as well for its very important video. If you haven’t already, watch it here.
2. ‘The day Beyoncé turned black’ – This is the most hilarious video I watched all month. Just see for yourself, watch here.
3.  ‘Explaining my depression to my mother’ by Sabrina Benaim – This three and a half minute clip felt more like a one-sided conversation with a friend than spoken word to me. Watch it here.

BOOKS

1. I read Elnathan John’s ‘Born on a Tuesday’ this month and I loved it. His simple writing style drew me in and I finished the book in two days. What I love most about the book is how its characters are neither good nor bad. Every character exists in a grey area, possessing some measure of good, and some measure of bad, just like most of us real people. I also loved that it was set in Northern Nigeria.
2. I re-read Buchi Emecheta’s ‘Joys of Motherhood’. I read it first about eight years ago, and reading it now with a more matured mind made me see a lot of things differently. Still, it was an awesome read.
3. I’m excited about Jowhor Ile’s debut novel ‘And after many days’ which hit the shelves a few days ago. I am currently hoping some Good Samaritan gifts me a copy. If you’re interested in buying (for us), you can contact Ake arts and book festival here, they have copies for sale. I read an excerpt and I cannot wait to get my hands on the book. Read the excerpt here.

OTHERS

1. A Nigerian medical student schooling in the UK started a gofundme in an effort to raise money for her tuition which she could not afford, and had to pay or face being terminated from her school. At the time of writing this post, 1,030 people have raised £29,700 in 17 days. This is almost £5,000 more than her initial target of £25,000. Hope in humanity = restored. You can still donate to Dolapo here.
2. The Nigerian publication, Tush Magazine released its 12th issue about a week, featuring the rap brothers, M.I and Jesse Jagz as its cover page personalities. The business-themed issue also features personalities like Denola Grey, Modé Aderinokun, Niniola amongst others. As has been the norm for the last six issues, my short story is featured in this issue too. Download issue 12 here.
3. LEONARDO DICAPRIO FINALLY WON HIS OSCAR! Need I say more?!

That’s it for February. I hope you found at least a couple things on this list that caught your fancy. If you haven’t already, please follow the blog and subscribe for email notifications. Happy new month, and have a great month ahead.

Cheers!