mood london
29.april
After the light of Lagos, for London we went dark.
My friend and I walked into Landor Space, with its pitch dark walls, curtains that slowly drop the room into complete blackness, dark slabs of smooth wood on the floor so polished they gave off an echo of light at the centre of the room. I wanted to sit down, cross-legged and drink tea. I also wanted to do a pirouette then bow. I stood at the natural spotlight, a slight fading circle and I knew this was the place. [1/3]
That is how I choose the spaces that MOOD inhabits.
I have to walk in and feel something.
I suppose I’m trying to invoke that feeling I get when I walk into the Roman Empire exhibit of any museum. That echoing of history, the thickness of lives already lived, stories already told and forgotten yet pulsing. I move around those exhibits with the clasped hands of a monk. I also simultaneously feel grander, as though I am larger than the life I purport to live outside those museum walls.
In that dark room, I instantly saw MOOD London. I saw the pirouette and the floor sitting. I wanted everyone to walk in and be both. [2/3]
I wrote ‘What Do You Know About Being A Man?’ (the first poem in MOOD London) because of it.
Most of the poems and the layout of the show stay the same but, for each new city, I try and listen. I try and hear what I am to say.
In the swell of the darkness, and the lights and the expectation, I felt the burden of maleness, of womanhood, the burden of trying to come together in spite of those differences and I felt the failing.
After the Light of Lagos, we went dark
Not in doom, not in hopelessness, there will be other poems for that and my aim is that you leave MOOD lighter than when you came in, but in London, I wanted you to know
that your darkness, the discomfort of your days, is also seen
And felt
And understood.
[3/3]
for more about MOOD click here
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Simi A - Producer
Phoebe - Host
SUTRA and Sallie Foyeh - MOOD Choir
Moe S, Wonu A, Omolola C, Bami C - MOOD Team
Poster and Visuals- Abiola B
Images: wolfofnewstreet
Video: Rosegold Group
Landor Space: Venue