September 21, 2024: Anne Szumigalski Lecture, delivered by Titilope Sonuga

Szumigalski banner

Saturday, September 21, 2024

7:00pm doors, 7:30pm start (MDT)

Join the League of Canadian Poets in partnership with the MacEwan University Arts and Cultural Management Program for the annual Anne Szumigalski Lecture, to be delivered in 2024 by celebrated poet Titilope Sonuga. This event will be held in person at the Tim Ryan Theatre, as well as livestreamed and recorded. This is a free event, although registration is required.

The League of Canadian Poets would like to thank the Access Copyright Foundation for their generous support of this event.

"Call and Response"

This lecture explores the dialogic nature of poetry and the ongoing co-creation of the work when expressed as the spoken word. Drawing on oral traditions, call-and-response rituals, storytelling and performance cultures, Sonuga illustrates how real-time audience interaction serves as a crucial refinement process for the artist's work—a dynamic edit through which poetry emerges as a sacred communal act.

Titilope Sonuga

Titilope Sonuga headshot

Titilope Sonuga is a Nigerian-Canadian poet, playwright and performer who has captured hearts across the globe. She is a leading voice in global literary communities, with work that dazzles from page to stage. Her poetry concert, Open, has shown to sold-out audiences in the UK, Canada, South Africa, and Nigeria. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Down to Earth (2011), Abscess (2014), and This Is How We Disappear (2019). Sonuga has released three spoken word albums, Mother Tongue (2011), Swim (2019) and Sis (2024).

A versatile creative force, Sonuga has scripted campaigns for Google, Intel, Samsung, UN Women, White Ribbon Alliance, and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She was an ambassador for Intel's She Will Connect, a program dedicated to empowering women and girls through technological literacy across Africa. Sonuga has written three plays: The Six (an intergenerational exploration of womanhood), Naked (a one-woman play) and Ada the Country (a musical). Sankofa, Sonuga's libretto, which reimagines Igor Stravinski's Opera, L'histoire du Soldat, will premiere in Toronto, Canada, in the fall of 2024. Sonuga made history as the first poet to perform at a Nigerian presidential inauguration and was the 9th Poet Laureate of the City of Edmonton, where she currently resides.

Tim Ryan Theatre

Located in Allard Hall, MacEwan University

11110 - 104 Ave NW

Edmonton, Alberta

T5K 1M6