Bassey Ikpi has been performing poetry for over 10 years with the “Def Poetry Jam.”
Tuesday evening in Bengal Lair, she performed for the second to last time in her career as part of an event for the African Students Association’s Africa Week.
“I feel like I’ m taking up space,” Ikpi said. “I’ m not writing poetry as much as I used to, and I also don’ t think my work is as good as it used to be. I’d rather put off quality than just do it. There are a lot of up-and-coming poets and now, they should be up here. Not me.”
Ikpi was the featured performer among the 10 who performed throughout the spoken word night. Junior Stephine Nwaneri performed her self-written poem “Overcoming the Struggles in Nigeria,” the same piece she read as she took the crown of Ms. Africa Mizzou in 2009.
“I wanted to let everyone know how things in Nigeria are,” Nwaneri said. “Everyone needs to know about how people struggle there. These are my personal experiences that happened to my family and I in Nigeria.”
ASA President Patricia Vewenda said she was glad to see a diverse pool of performers, ranging from poets to guitarists, come to the event.
“ I was really happy to see a lot of the opening acts,” Vewenda said. “They made the show great as well.”
Because of Ikpi’s lifelong friendship with former ASA President Doris Agwu, the organization was able to schedule her attendance at the event. This was her first time visiting MU.
“We’ ve been thinking about bringing her in to Mizzou for a while now,” Vewenda said. “ We thought it would be a great event for Africa Week, and it happened. It was a complete success and we’ re really happy.”
Born in Nigeria, Ikpi was a perfect embodiment of what ASA is hoping to advocate throughout Africa Week, Vewenda said.
“The whole point of Africa Week is just to promote Africa in general,” Vewenda said. “ Any time we see someone doing something good in the African community, we want to promote it. Bassey always represents Nigeria in everything she does. We wanted to promote that. We wanted to promote her.”
Freshman Symone Lenoir has seen Ikpi before on tour, which made her even more excited for the event Tuesday.
“I thought she did very well,” Lenoir said. “ She’ s really down to earth, and it showed. You could tell from the beginning that she was great.”
Ikpi began performing in college, after learning that poetry is something to be spoken instead of just written. Now, she is working on her first book, “Too Cute to Be Crazy.”
“ It wasn’t until I went to an open mic in college, like this one, actually,” Ikpi said. “I was walking by and I had just gotten food and I was like, ‘ What’ s going on?’ I worked up enough nerve to perform, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”