Gecko pause [Chèré ǹgwèrè]

Our family pet is a gecko, but not the sort of gecko I grew up with, which were always running around walls indoors and outdoors (Kụ̀ọ́ra nụ nwá ǹgwèrè áká érénté!…) Ours, Luna, pretty much just mopes about, and probably couldn't get 2 cm up her fishbowl walls. Oh, she's actually male. We're evolving towards gender skepticism in our fam, anyway. Hmm, and you know, ǹgwèrè is more commonly lizard than gecko, but in my head it's gecko first.

Where was I? It's been busy, and not just in the doing, but also in the mental space. I thought I'd drop a note, since I've missed at least one newsletter cycle. I'll be back, though. Loomiverse space is the place!

Just a couple of nuggets, meanwhile. Next week I’ll be at Elizabethtown College, in Pennsylvania, invited to speak to students and faculty, as well as deliver a performance, “A Walk Down Nchéfù Road”. The overall theme is poetry meets engineering, in which I’ll give my perspective as one who’s made a career in both disciplines. Finding tragedy in the reflex separation of the two. I hope to communicate, especially to the young people in attendance, how much each has enriched the other in my own life. Yes! Loomiverse stylee—poetry, music, culture, language, and tech.

I have a couple of tracks in the March Beat Garden tape, opening with my bit of whimsical fun with some Cameroonian flavoring. I have a second track on the tape as well, and both are my first ever releases created on the SP-404 MKII. The accompanying video is something of a whimsical lark itself.

The tape also got picked up on the Brunch Collect label, so it's on Spotify, Apple Music, etc.

For the African music recommendation, how about a film with a song attached?

We all know there are innumerable, unsurfaced gems in African film, including sci-fi. I happened to catch one on the popular theme of alien contagion through the senses, but with a decidedly African flavor. It's just a 17 minute watch, and you can thank me afterward, especially as you're listening to the hypnotic Afro-Trap theme, "Ungay’Vusa" by Luminous, with a cameo in the opening credits and fully played for the end credits.

I'm always down for some new Tall Black Guy, Detroit soul keeping it smooth as an oiled, boiled egg. But the track it calls the bonus, with rapper Phonte getting his croon on? Stop playing, TBG, that's that main feature on the real!

Another producer/emcee hookup for the Hip-Hop track. Aw yeah, Kool Keith in the house, on L'Orange's fly new project. Diamonds glitter on the Ampex reel! Plus some hot bars from lyrical politico Mr. Lif.

I'm expecting to be back to the full newsletter in a couple of weeks. Until then, enjoy National poetry Month (whether or not you're in the US). Please do consider sharing with others, and subscribing, if you haven't (button in the lower right). Ever new sounds for the listening, new plays on the field of words, fresh takes for tech's sake, with the side sauce of odd juxtapositions. Dá àlụ́-nu!

❧ Égwú 🪘 Ókwú ✍🏿 Ígwè 📡 Ńdụ̀ ❣️