October 10, (THEWILL) – The first John Pepper Bekederemo Clark memorial lecture begins tomorrow Monday 11, October through Tuesday and Wednesday. The three-day lecture will feature big-name scholars and writers in a zoom meeting starting from 2pm.
Prof. Clark died on October 13, 2020 in Lagos but was buried, according to his wish, in his riverine community in Kiagbodo Burutu local government area of Delta state.
His close friend and contemporary, Professor Wole Soyinka, is one of the distinguished lecturers expected at the meeting. Others are Professors Tanure Ojaide, GG Darah, Femi Osofisan, Hope Eghagha, Mabel Evwierhoma and Saint Gbilekaa.
Other university dons are also expected at the event, namely Doctors Olatunbosun Oke and Kene Chudy-Onwugaje. Associate professor at Carleton University, Ottawa in Canade will join in from North America.
Organised by the Family of the late poet, dramatist, the Departments of English, University of Lagos and University of Ibadan along the Association of Nigerian Authors the meeting is titled Celebrating the Life and Times of JP Clark. Each of the speakers will discuss on different topics. Thus, Darah will expound on JP Clark: Voyager of Our Folkways while Ojaide will tackle What We Don’t Know Yet about JP Clark’s Writings.
Otiono and Evwierhoma will focus on JP Clark and Poetic Expeditions in Mortality and JP Clark: Towards an Agenda for Femocracy, respectively. Professor of Theatre Arts, Gbilekaa has on his hands An Ecocritical Discourse of JP Clark’s ALL for Oil & Women’s Revolt. This is scheduled for the first day of the memorial.
Day two has the pair of Oke and Chudy-Onwugaje taking on cancer-related topics: Colon Cancer The Silent Killer: Statistics and Prevalence in Nigeria will be discussed by the former while the latter focuses on Hidden Cancers: How to Detect and Prevent Colon Cancer.
Of course, a memorial of one of one of the pioneers of modern Nigerian literature won’t be complete without featuring any of the late playwright’s works. To that end, the organisers have included a performance of The Wives’ Revolt by JP himself to round off the much anticipated memorial.
All meetings will be held online on account of social distancing because of COVID-19. While meetings for the first two days will begin at 2pm, the performance of the paly will begin at 3pm.
About the Author
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.
