Ucheoma Onwutuebe reads “a name, a condition” by Chiagoziem Jideofor from Shō No. 5.
“I have always been intrigued by names; how they reveal circumstantial truths and are emblematic, almost like self-portraits, capturing particles of our past, future, and sometimes our present. Names, for me, are attempts at creating personal myths and inventing language that makes meaning of our environment and experiences. So when I stumbled on the poem “SARAI” by Sarah Ghazal Ali, it kickstarted something that eventually expanded to become this poem.”
— Chiagoziem Jideofor
Chiagoziem Jideofor is Queer and Igbo. Her poems have appeared or are scheduled to appear in POETRY, Michigan Quarterly Review, Quarterly West, South Carolina Review, berlin lit, The Lincoln Review, Passages North, Commonwealth’s ADDA, the minnesota review, Consequence Forum, Obsidian, and so on.