Overview

"The debut collection of poetry by Gboyega Odubanjo. 'On 21 September 2001, the torso of a black boy was discovered in the River Thames, near Tower Bridge in central London, clothed only in an orange pair of girls' shorts. Given the name ""Adam"" by police officers, the unidentified boy was between four and eight years old. What comes next cannot without a story of water and offering. The sun shines and we gather because the river allows it. Na from clap dem dey enter dance. We enter with, and as, Adam.' - Gboyega Odubanjo Haunted by the discovery of the remains of a young Black boy in the River Thames in London, 2001, Gboyega Odubanjo's Adam builds from the Genesis myth and from Yoruba culture to examine with an unflinching eye the disappearance of a child and its implication for all Black lives, and for the society in which we live."

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9780571390403

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Reviews

'Odubanjo's Adam simultaneously explores beginnings and endings/the ends, birth, death, the made and unmade. Drenched in religious ceremony and allegory, haunted by British and Nigerian colonial history and enlivened with Yoruba myths; all constructions of the poet's East London manor-made sound, syntax and perspective. Think of Fred Moten's theologies, D. S. Marriott's Duppies, Fela Kuti's Zombie and Puck's mischievous dialogue in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Here is a heavy, mystical, humorous and lyrical Black British voice that will live forever.' - Raymond Antrobus 'Adam is a watery chorus, spirited and kinetic. These poems crackle with love and risk, submerging us into rivers, backstreets, bedrooms, playgrounds, and other underworlds. They stride, swagger, linger, nudging under the skin. Odubanjo was a singular voice in British poetry, one which will endure. Adam is his full-throated legacy.' - Momtaza Mehri 'A poetry collection of deep reverence, offering moments to mourn, and moments to celebrate life. Gboyega's gift in storytelling probes and interrogates, drawing attention to much-needed conversations, past and present. Adam is an anticipated debut, from a poet rooted in community. A poet whose name and charm will continue to live in our hearts and minds for generations.' - Yomi Sode 'With Adam, it feels like Gboyega Odubanjo excavates traditions to create a new world with a language and texture completely of its own. Its words somehow spin tragedy into light, Yoruba into cockney, Nigeria into London. Each poem is self-assured and precise, holding a voice that feels both fresh and like it's existed for centuries. The collection does this all while carefully interrogating the death of a Nigerian boy, claiming him as self rather than other, making him a universe, and miraculously turning a harrowing ending into the beginning.' - Tife Kusoro

Author Information

Gboyega Odubanjo (1996-2023) was born and raised in East London. He is the author of three poetry pamphlets: While I Yet Live (Bad Betty Press), Two stops short of Barking (The Alternative School of Economics) and Aunty Uncle Poems (The Poetry Business/New Poets List), winner of the Michael Marks Poetry Award and an Eric Gregory Award. A Barbican Young Poet alumnus, Odubanjo was an editor at bath magg journal and Bad Betty Press, co-chair of Magma and a member of the Roundhouse Poetry Collective, after which he later became a Roundhouse Resident Artist. He was a creative-writing tutor on the Creative Future IMPART programme, supporting writers from underrepresented backgrounds. His UK garage single 'LDN GRLS' with Love Remain is out with the Sony Music UK label Black Butter Records. The Gboyega Odubanjo Foundation for low-income Black writers was established in 2023 to honour his legacy. Adam, published posthumously in 2024, is his debut poetry collection.

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