The Yoruba Sonnets pair spoken word poetry and mime from Dr Olu Taiwo with live music from Lekan Babalola's Sacred Funk Quartet.
The result is a unique performance of ancient Nigerian verse incorporating Afro-beat music and the contemporary sound of Western Funk. Yoruba Sonnets was performed at Wolfson College, Oxford as part of the Slanguages project in February 2019. See an overview film of the event below, including interviews with the performers.
Watch the full performance part 1:
Full performance part 2:
Post-performance Q&A:
Learn more:
What are the Yoruba Sonnets? Interview with Lekan Babalola
Review of the performance: Yoruba Sonnets: creative multilingualism in action
Yoruba Sonnets: audience feedback