PurpleSilver Session: Saturday, January 25, 2014 by Kurannen

Saturday, January 25, 2014
Aper Aku House,
Makurdi.

I have struggled to attend any of the reading sessions in Makurdi, hosted either by BENUE ANA or the new kid on the block Purple Silver. Out of great desire and the fear of having to rue missing the best opportunity I'd have in a long time to gather among the amazing literary community in Benue, I left Kaduna on Jan. 25, 2014 and arrived Makurdi just in time for Purple Silver.
I thought the program started late, but I guess I had been misinformed about the time. Anselm Ngutsav, a well informed and interesting fellow, the same fellow who had ushered me in, ran the show. I can tell Anselm is energetic too.
But before it all began, I and Anselm spoke about life generally, about the Nigerian state, how we are still struggling with the basics, and about careers (whether there was a relevance for most of them in the Nigerian setting).

Anselm carried about what I reasoned to be a sophisticated camera (the type a professional photographer would carry). He loves photography. I do too, only that he is on another level.
It was a day for poems. That forced me to read one of my short stories, CEMETERY ROAD, out in the just released NaijaStories short story collection LAGOS HANKY PANKY and Other Stories -www.ns-publishing.com. My memory holds very little of the poems. The poets either read their poems from memory or their electronic devices, and without hard copy references among us, little distractions were all it took. Love and heartbreak, hopelessness and despair dominated the themes. Maik Ortserga thought writers should be more optimistic when he commented on one of the poems Suicide Note. After the rain would come sunshine. Night could last only as long.

Two hours of engaging presentations and conversations. It was a lively moment, one that was capped with juice and red wine courtesy of an adorable lady among the crowd (you ask me what I had and that is obvious, but don't go there. Don't tell me Soyinka said something about alcohol enhancing creativity. I take red wine because I like it). She did not only that but rendered a lovely poem that X observed was coming from a trademark theme (X is mischievous, I could tell). She earned The Quest from me. Another fine, rather small lady, who, in a satisfyingly expressive manner, told a beautiful poem also went away with The Quest. And I won S's collection Bring Our Casket Home (for being a ten-second genius).
I had announced my coming and if I had announced it earlier, I'd have managed to have the African Original, Ada Agada attend. S did not wait for me to get on the road this time. He was already in Abuja.
The program started before X breezed in, in a rather dazzling fashion looking like he'd been wandering Makurdi that day for fun.
Having been one among the first to arrive, the first, of course, to my knowledge, being Anselm, I took a vantage point, where I could see Sewe Leah, Debbie, Mercy...every other person else, before they saw me. This was not a mischievous tactic, as maybe Ada might want you guys to believe, but so much had been said already. I would meet the pretty ladies.
I guess Sewe Leah has mastered the act of sneaking into lectures when late. It was a fluid walk, one that was rather slippery. If 'hips lied', I'd have had to look closely.
Later I told Sewe Leah she looked slimmer. X said pictures made people look big. I squinted but did not argue. Debbie has not employ me to shoot her photos.
After Purple Silver was the round table, somewhere around Gyado Villa, that place university students have hijacked. It was my idea. I refused to leave without taking Sewe Leah out. X would come as well. X did not drink beer and opted for an energy drink. And what he said was Soyinka's direct opposite. I do not drink beer. I don't like it.

Sewe Leah said I had a great smile and X tore out of his skin. X had been fighting over Sewe Leah, in what battle and enemy I am yet to comprehend. I agree that should be his complement. I have only been learning how to smile recently after intense reproach and had no idea I was learning fast.
We all said adios some two hours later.
I returned home, where I would lay my head for the night before proceeding to Gboko, knowing that though the friends were not complete, I could gladly go, for that long, and would not have to kick myself the whole time.