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Uche Odogwu, a UK-based Nigerian literate and show artist, precocious spoke astir his upcoming novel, Dark Circles Under the Eyes, successful an interrogation with seasoned taste and manner journalist, Olusola Bodunde Sanusi.
In Dark Circles Under the Eyes, Uche Odogwu delivers a haunting yet lyrical meditation connected incarceration, identity, and diasporic disillusionment. At erstwhile emotionally adjacent and politically urgent, the caller explores the communicative of Uzo, a young Nigerian pistillate wrongfully imprisoned successful the UK aft migrating for a amended life.
Source: UGC
Odogwu’s Roy’s lyrical structure, her quality to accidental the astir devastating things beautifully, encouraged maine to constitute Dark Circles with some occurrence and softness, to fto connection transportation emotion adjacent erstwhile the events are brutal. These writers showed maine that stories can beryllium political, personal, spiritual, and creator each astatine once. My caller is successful speech with that tradition
Odogwu, who is simply a postgraduate of Bournemouth University, talked astir the novel’s genesis, his originative process and his increasing publication to the literate arts and show landscape.
According to Odogwu, helium was inspired to constitute Dark Circles Under the Eyes aft noticing the soundlessness surrounding the intelligence toll of migration. He said:
“The caller began arsenic a effect to the soundlessness I saw astir the intelligence toll of migration. There were countless stories of Nigerians traveling abroad, particularly to the UK, lone to beryllium swallowed by systems that neither understood nor valued them. Dark Circles emerged from a spot of grief, observation, and a request to constitute thing some profoundly idiosyncratic and politically charged. I wanted to face however a idiosyncratic tin beryllium physically contiguous successful a state yet emotionally erased by it.”Odogwu besides spoke astir the novel’s protagonist, Uzo, who was unjustly imprisoned. The writer explained choosing the situation strategy arsenic the mounting for Dark Circles Under the Eyes. According to him, prisons are smaller versions of what goes connected successful the larger society.
“Prisons are microcosms of the larger society. Incarceration successful the UK, particularly for Black migrants, is often much than punishment; it’s a continuation of systemic erasure. Uzo’s communicative is fictional, but it mirrors existent lives, existent women who vanish down bars, often without just trials oregon nationalist outcry. I wanted to constitute astir her not arsenic a victim, but arsenic idiosyncratic caught successful a convulsive strategy and inactive warring to reclaim her voice”, helium said.Odogwu past addressed the themes of ancestral memory, visions and spirituality successful his novel. He explained how, arsenic an Igbo writer, spirituality is much than conscionable an idea. He said:
“As an Igbo writer, spirituality is not conscionable a theme, it’s an inheritance. Uzo’s dreams, the beingness of her chi, and the visitations from Nnene (her grandmother) are not fantasy; they’re a mode of reconnecting with powerfulness successful a satellite that’s stripped her of everything. I judge memory, some corporate and ancestral, is simply a signifier of resistance. The mystical aspects of the caller are however Uzo survives what should’ve destroyed her.”Uche Odogwu besides admitted that his blend of realism with poetic imagery successful the caller is intentional. According to him, his background successful theatre and movie makes him constitute with bushed and movement, arsenic helium wants his readers to consciousness arsenic though they are watching a play connected signifier oregon screen.
“I person a inheritance successful theatre and film, truthful I’m ever penning with rhythm, with movement. I privation readers to spot what I see, to consciousness breathless during a combat country oregon weightless successful a dream. I’m drawn to connection that evokes temper arsenic overmuch arsenic it tells a story. I often revise my scenes similar a script, imagining however it would play connected signifier oregon screen”, helium said.Uche Odogwu’s biggest influences arsenic a writer
Odogwu opened up astir his literate influences during the interrogation by naming immoderate of them. He started disconnected with Chinua Achebe and however his heavy taste grounding, the bushed of his language, and the mode helium embeds Igbo doctrine into communicative profoundly shaped however helium thinks astir storytelling.
He said: “Like Achebe, I’m acrophobic with the preservation of taste memory, and successful Dark Circles Under the Eyes, I effort to seizure that done the beingness of Uzo’s chi, her transportation to Nnene, and the ancestral value that travels with her adjacent successful a British prison.”Odogwu past mentioned Toni Morrison, who taught him that penning should spell beyond clarity and scope for truth. In his words:
“Her quality to centre Black womanhood successful each its beauty, trauma, and complexity gave maine the courageousness to constitute Uzo without apology, not conscionable arsenic a victim, but arsenic a psyche navigating systemic injustice with spiritual powerfulness and pain.”Another of Uche Odogwu’s influences is Camara Laye, particularly the mode helium blends autobiography with dreamlike imagery successful The Dark Child.
“I spot echoes of that successful my ain work, wherever I furniture world with memory, visions, and ancestral encounters”, helium said.Arundhati Roy besides influenced Odogwu with her debut caller The God of Small Things — peculiarly successful the poetic mode she captured trauma, silence, and the unsaid.
He said: “Roy’s lyrical structure, her quality to accidental the astir devastating things beautifully, encouraged maine to constitute Dark Circles with some occurrence and softness, to fto connection transportation emotion adjacent erstwhile the events are brutal. These writers showed maine that stories tin beryllium political, personal, spiritual, and creator each astatine once. My caller is successful speech with that tradition.”Uche Odogwu was precocious featured arsenic a writer astatine Heard Word, and helium shared what the acquisition was similar and however the unrecorded engagement with his enactment impacted his penning process:
“That abstraction was powerful. Sharing an excerpt from Dark Circles aloud and receiving real-time feedback from chap writers reminded maine that lit is simply a dialogue. It’s 1 happening to constitute successful solitude, but it’s different to consciousness the resonance of your words successful a country afloat of artists. Heard Word reminded maine that storytelling is some idiosyncratic and communal”, helium said.
Source: UGC
Uche Odogwu shares his originative process from draught to last form
Many writers follow antithetic methods of getting their ideas retired of their heads and onto paper. For Uche Odogwu, his penning begins with him jotting down things, not knowing wherever they would go. According to the author, the existent enactment for him starts erstwhile he’s revising. He said:
“My penning begins successful fragments — moments, images, lines of dialog that I jot down without knowing wherever they belong. I fto them respire for a while. Eventually, thing connects — a thread, a bushed — and I commencement gathering astir that. I’m not the benignant of writer who outlines everything from the start. I determination instinctively, letting the communicative uncover itself. Once the archetypal draught is down, I measurement backmost for a portion earlier returning to it with clearer eyes. "The existent enactment for maine happens successful revision. That’s erstwhile I sharpen the language, physique affectional pacing, and refine quality arcs. I often work my scenes aloud — partially from my inheritance successful theatre, partially to consciousness the pulse of the work. I’m ever chasing resonance. If a condemnation doesn’t breathe, I chopped it. If a country doesn’t echo beyond itself, I propulsion deeper. Writing, for me, is simply a layering process. The archetypal draught is endurance — revision is wherever the psyche of the enactment begins to speak.”Uche Odogwu hopes for his novel, Dark Circles Under the Eyes, to capable a spread and disturbance up a alteration successful the mode radical talk astir migration, contention and justice. In his words:
“I anticipation it fills a gap, that idiosyncratic who has felt invisible, silenced, oregon judged volition spot themselves successful it. I besides anticipation it challenges however we speech astir migration, race, and justice. Too often, African stories are framed arsenic either endurance oregon success. This publication sits successful the hostility between, successful that grey portion of endurance.”Speaking astir his adjacent determination aft Dark Circles Under the Eyes, Uche Odogwu said:
“I’m presently revising a play that brings unneurotic voices from antithetic nationalities, a multicultural formed exploring silence, survival, and the affectional baggage radical transportation crossed cultures and continents. It’s a profoundly idiosyncratic piece, but it besides speaks to corporate individuality and healing. As for my caller Dark Circles Under the Eyes, it’s expected to beryllium published earlier the extremity of the year. There’s already a increasing buzz astir it, readers are reaching out, there’s curiosity, anticipation, and that effect unsocial reminds maine that the enactment is alive, adjacent earlier it’s afloat retired successful the world. Long term, I privation to make a assemblage of enactment that moves betwixt fiction, performance, and ocular storytelling, a benignant of multidisciplinary representation archive.”PAY ATTENTION: Сheck retired quality that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” artifact connected the location leafage and enjoy!
Source: Legit.ng
