The Boys Are Not Stones Initiative (BANSI), is a movement founded by John Chizoba Vincents, Maazị Jaachị Anyatọnwụ, Adéwálé Àlàdé Ebubechukwu Nwagbo and Onyemaechi Maxwell Opia-Enwemuche in 2018 to highlight the ignored plight of the boy child.
you sit by a river of flooding ideas
and watch your your thoughts run wild
a boy hangs his shoulder a bit higher
than his father’s
i know boys
who are trying to fit in a bowl
of social norms like
new wine in a broken glass
For Boys Like Us I was in Ulasi Road Primary School with Naeto Uche Njie for a video shoot of his spoken word piece. We had just finished the first and second scenes and sat on the school football field to review the video when I suggested a third scene. Uche desired to feature a […]
POEM 342: THERE’S A BOY RUNNING DOWN THE ROAD there is a boy running down a dusty roadin his tiny arms, a dying dream yawns he pauses for a while, gasping air and biting dustgritting teeth to fight off colddusting worries off his cloak he takes off again his mind dazed by the blinding lights of […]
POEM 315: TO THE BOY CHILDdear boy,tattooed over the heart of every girlare words that read thus:“handle with care”don’t bore holes into her skinwith your penile eyes:she’s more to admire than trips to cloud ninedon’t flip your tongue to coin sweet wordsjust to get her laid and run away:she’s more to you than a pleasure […]
POEM 314: BE FORMLESS his emotions are scattered stars, dangling from cloudless skies,forming their own constellation, light years away from the normsthat feed the stereotypes,threatening to engulf him,in the arms of presumed masculinity, he, like the rest, whose lips,have been sealed,from uttering words emotion laden,lest ‘weakness’ becloud his manliness this, my boy, is how for […]
