#olumide popoola

[queerafricans]

“Here are honourable mentions in my to be read pile that I think are worth mentioning and of course, reading. Comment with more books by and about queer Nigerians that you'd like me to read in time for Pride 2025!”

NIGERIAN #PRIDE READING LIST PART II 🌈

[literary-flaneuserie]

When We Speak of Nothing - Olumide Popoola

I love the way she writes, in a kind of punchy stream-of-consciousness way with little...poems? Sayings? at the top of each chapter, and random definitions which sometimes look like they come from the dictionary and sometimes don’t but work to resonate with that moment in the story.

The character development is so wonderful. Every single character is alive and breathing on the page, and I love that Karl & Abu’s friendship takes centre stage, and evolves, and the romances happen in smaller ways but never feel sidelined or irrelevant. 

The end scene is my favourite.

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Queer Nigerian MCs Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta She Called Me Woman ed. by Azeenarh Mohammed, Chitra Nagarajan, and Aisha Salau When We Speak of Nothing by Olumide Popoola For Sizakele by Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene

[kunthug]

“ I had first begun to ponder the existence of queerness in Igbo spirituality after reading When We Speak of Nothing, a novel by Nigerian-German author Olumide Popoola. Narrated by the Yoruba gender-nonconforming trickster god Esu Elegba, When We Speak of Nothing has as one of its lead characters a seventeen-year-old trans boy born in London but seeking to explore his Nigerian origins and build a relationship with his Nigerian father. In explaining the inspiration behind her work, Popoola points out that gender nonconformity isn’t a contemporary idea – that, much like the Igbos, the Yorubas, on the western coast of Nigeria, also have mythological figures that play with otherness and difference. Popoola writes that ‘Esu Elegba, the Yoruba god of the crossroads, was my writing patron for When We Speak of Nothing. Esu is widely accepted to be androgynous, simultaneously a beautiful woman and a potent man. If you thought through the mythology from a contemporary standpoint, with current discussions around gender in mind, it is easy to see Esu as a possible patron for trans persons.”

Emeka Joseph Nwankwo~

[that-bookworm-guy]

Trans Rep in fiction

I took these for my Instagram (that_bookworm_guy) and thought I'd share them here as well

I've split this into two photos, so swipe to see them and the labels. But I'll make sure to include all of the labels in the image description below, and update them if there are any errors. I have included some books that I didn't enjoy because although I didn't like them, someone else might. These are all the fiction books I have with transgender rep in.

Books in order, top to bottom:

📚 Symptoms of Being Human - Jeff Garvin (Non-binary main character, Contemporary YA)

Trans Masc Representation:

📚 Trumpet - Jackie Kay (Psychological Fiction)

📚 Crimson - Niviaq Korneliussen (Contemporary)

📚 Parrotfish - Ellen Wittlinger (Contemporary YA)

📚 When we Speak of Nothing - Olumide Popoola (Contemporary YA)

📚 When the Moon was Ours - Anna-Marie McLemore (Fantasy, Magic YA)

📚 Proud - Edited by Juno Dawson (Queer Anthology)

📚 We Were Always Here - Edited by Ryan Vance & Michael Lee Richardson (Queer Anthology)

Second Photo - Books in order, top to bottom:

All books contain trans fem representation:

📚 Pet - Akwaeke Emezi (Fantasy MG/YA seems to be different age range everywhere I look, non-binary author)

📚 Wonderland - Juno Dawson (Fantasy YA, trans author)

📚 George - Alex Gino & Rick - Alex Gino (Contemporary MG, genderqueer author)

📚 FreakBoy - Kristin Elizabeth Clark (Told through verse YA)

📚 The Art of Being Normal - Lisa Williamson (Contemporary YA)

 

[lunaslittlelibrary]

When We Speak of Nothing #BlogTour

How to speak when we speak nothing by @msolumide #WhenWeSpeakofNothing @CassavaRepublic

London-based Nigerian-German Olumide Popoola presents internationally as author, speaker and performer. Her publications include essays, poetry, short stories, the novella ‘this is not about sadness’, the play ‘Also by Mail’ as well as recordings in collaboration with musicians. She is a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of East London and the recipient of the May Ayim award…

[destinybutleranthro-blog]

Field Work 7-

Destiny Butler

10/18/18

Fieldwork 7:Ethnicity

Professor Howell/Brelyn Brooks

Ethnicity is a sense of historical, cultural, and sometimes ancestral connection to a group of people who are imagined to be distinct from those outside the group. Ethnicity is a small percentage of one’s culture, and different values are shared among the same ethnic groups still. “How through our instilled patterns and perceptions, we hurt each other. Through colourism, homophobia and other forms of exclusion also have an effect in our contexts…” These hateful groups make it harder for those who are black and a part of the LGBT community, they make it harder for those who don’t necessarily look like us because they are of a darker skin complexion, they make it harder for us as a whole ethnic group (African Americans) to be able to stand against our personal beliefs and differences and to stand for equal rights together, as brothers and sisters. From this exhibit, I learned a little about multiculturalism, colonialism, genocide, and diaspora. Olumide Popoola, a poetress/ayurvedic practitioner said “Germany is not one of my favorites, because a multicultural (normality) doesn’t exist there, and neither is Nigeria, because there I get forced into a certain role which just isn’t me” She didn’t have the chance to gain traits from both of her ethnic backgrounds (Germany and Nigeria) which is horrible that she has to bury a piece of her culture because of their unidealistic values. I learned a lot about Germany’s negative attributes of colonialism and genocide,“1896, Participation of Africa in the first German colonial exhibition in Berlin (An important, prestigious event for the supporters of colonial political practice.). 1904-1906 was the rebellion of Khloikhoim, Nama, and Herero in German South-West Africa, genocide or around 75,000 Herero.” I also learned a lot about African Diaspora, “The history of African men and women and people of the African diaspora is greatly influenced by colonial violence, the roots of which are to be found in the European expansion into Africa, the slave trade, persecution and murder.”

[queerafricans]

Books by LGBTI Africans

[jamesmurualiterary]

African writers to feature at stimmen afrikas Short Story Festival

African writers to feature at stimmen afrikas Short Story Festival

The stimmen afrikas Short Story Festival, featuring among others Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Sinzo Aanza, Nafissatou Dia Diouf, Karen Jennings, Olumide Popoola, and Jo Güstin, runs from April 23-25, 2021. The festival theme is “Imagining the Future: Against the Oblivion.” stimmen afrikas, which my Google translate tells me is “voices of Africa” in English, is a short story festival aimed at…

[literary-flaneuserie]

You can't know everything by looking at it. Impossible. You cannot know what the other sees. When the time comes, you can ask. That's all. And listen.

When We Speak of Nothing, Olumide Popoola

[lgbtqreads]

Exclusive Excerpt: When We Speak of Nothing by Olumide Popoola

Exclusive Excerpt: When We Speak of Nothing by Olumide Popoola

Today on the site we have an exclusive excerpt from When We Speak of Nothing, a newly released novel by Nigerian German author Olumide Popoola about being Black, male, and queer in London that commemorates 50 years since the partial decriminalization of homosexuality in the UK:  Best mates Karl and Abu are both 17 and live near Kings Cross. Its 2011 and racial tensions are set to explode across…

[i-cordelia]

Rules: tag 8 people you want know better or just because you feel like it.

I was tagged by the amazing @mrdinglesugden and @indigo--disco thanks  😘✨

Relationship status: in a relationship

Favourite colour: blue

Last song listened to: Clean by Taylor Swift (only because my uber driver was playing it. He lost two stars for that.)

Last movie watched: The Black Panther (I highly recommend it)

Top 3 TV shows: Insecure, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Veep (why can’t I list more)

Top 3 characters: Titus Andromedon, Molly Carter of Insecure, and Robert Sugden

What I’m currently reading: Like any typical bookworm, I always have about 3 books on the go but the one I am currently engrossed in is Olumide Popoola's When We Speak of Nothing. 

I tag these fabulous people:  @smittenwithsugden @smugdensugden @charitydingle @idealuk @iamuselesssowhat86 @nooneelsecomesclose17  @kayceecruz  @amandaj718 @captainhedda

If you were already tagged, please disregard. 

[jazzbreak]

Edward Maclean - Still (feat. Olumide Popoola)

50,000 #Jazz & #Blues Tracks & Pics https://twitter.com/JazzBreak1

jazzbreak.tumblr.com/

[megamercedezmitchell-blog]

Thinking Through Ethnicity

Olumide Popoola

The exhibit on the first floor of the Morgan State University: Behavioral Social Sciences Center is filled with many heroic figures that paved the way in many fields. One of the heroic figures that captured my attention is Olumide Popoola. Her race is black. Her ethnicity and nationalities are nigerian and german. Popoola’s profession consist of but not limited to; writer, public speaker, and performer. She states, “The process of embarking on that journey and being able to deal with different continents, different cultures, and different people was an important experience”. She describes her journey of finding a place to live after realizing the absence of multiculturalism in Germany and Nigeria. She created a diaspora when traveling to other places as she continued to cultivate ties to her countries even when away. Popoola has frequently mentioned that her love for writing is infinite in that it captures her creativity in the best light. Although she loves writing, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Complementary Health Science with a focus on immunology, lifestyle, and stress management from an university in London. She has a masters and PhD in creative writing. In 2004, she received May Ayim Award in poetry. Popoola is still active in her art till this day. She has citizenship in London and resides there currently.

[f3nd1musdotcom]

Nigeria turns the page on literary past

Mention Nigerian literature and the first names likely to spring to mind are Chinua Achebe, the author of “Things Fall Apart”, or the venerable Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. But Africa’s most populous nation has a new crop of writers whose work is a far cry from the post-colonial era of their esteemed predecessors. Olumide Popoola’s novel… (more…)