A catalyst for change: UTM student and Mississauga poet laureate on the power of poetry
When citizens gathered on Nov. 11 at the Mississauga Civic Centre Community Memorial to honour Canada’s military veterans and fallen soldiers, they were comforted by the recital of In Flanders Fields by U of T Mississauga student Ayòmide Bayowa.
Performing the iconic 1915 war poem at the Remembrance Day ceremony was Bayowa’s first official act as Mississauga’s new poet laureate.
“It was a fabulous experience. Until that day, I didn’t realize how much that poem means to people. I wanted everyone there to also feel moved by the words,” says Bayowa, who is completing his fourth year in the Theatre & Drama Studies program.
The Nigerian-born poet and filmmaker was appointed earlier this month to the honorary 30-month position, in which he will focus on elevating the status of poetry, literary arts and writers in Mississauga.
What began as a fun hobby evolved into a more serious pursuit as he understood the power of poetry to capture universal human themes and issues from his own creatively crafted insights and reflections. He also sees the artform as a potent tool to help spark a more just society.
“With poetry, the people oppressing you get to hear about what you’re experiencing, and they may realize how powerful your message is,” Bayowa says. “It can be a catalyst for social and economic change.”
Growing up without internet access at school and with intermittent power outages in his area, Bayowa mainly documented his thoughts, feelings and observations with pen and paper. Committed to the artform, in 2018 he published his first short book of poetry, Stream of Tongues, Watercourse of Voices. In Nigeria, his writing has been longlisted for the 2018 Nigerian Students Poetry Prize and shortlisted for the 2018 Eriata Oribabhor Poetry Prize and the 2019 Christopher Okigbo Interuniversity Poetry Prize.
When his family moved to Canada three years ago and settled in Mississauga, Bayowa enrolled at UTM to build on his previous university-level theatre training. During his time as a student, he produced, directed and acted in the 2019 10-minute film Do I Need To Remind You?, which is about the reconciliation of a young girl with her homeland’s traditions. That year, the film won the Best Picture Award at that year’s UTM Film Festival and a merit award at the Canadian & International Short Film Fest. He also has two other film direction credits to his name, Thus Said Zara (2020) and Home; Nowhere (2019). At UTM, Bayowa established and currently leads UTM’s Scenery Film Club, which promotes filmmaking that follows professional standards among students.
Bayoma’s body of poetry has continued to grow, and his work has appeared in publications such as Barren Magazine, Agbowo, African Writers, Kreative Diadem, Stone of Madness Press and Guesthouse. Some of his accolades include earning a runner-up award in UTM’s Elly in Action award for creative writing; winning first place in the June/July Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest; and being a semi-finalist in the Cave Canem Poetry Prize.
As the city’s poet laureate, Bayowa hopes to nurture the next generation of creative writers by organizing regular poetry contests and publishing the winners’ work. He shares this poetic advice for poets “feeling stuck in between silence and voicing:”
“First, poetry writing begins with the search for something not lost, your voice, ever stuck somewhere in your:
the vocal cord, the gut or gullet!
anywhere in you, somewhat deep in piling impressions, easy or hard to let out. So,
don't quest for authenticity, for it is the most confused fellow I’ve ever known. Quest for that which will touch a deaf and/ blind man, especially when not upon request.”