Crying with words

I am good with words
I want to live in my words
To implicate myself otherwise
They are simply empty words

I love deeply through my words I hurt deeply through my words

I mend hearts with my words And I break hearts with words

My words do not define me Yet I use them to describe me

Then I run short of words

Short of myself
Short of my sense

Who am I without words?

Love is death
Yet it opens up to rebirth Loving without dying is apathy

You don’t stop loving You let go of the beloved
Letting go is part of love

I’m dying. My rebirth will make clear Who’ll I’ll become on the other side

I have a sense of what it is. I am
a bit afraid of stepping into the void

I am worrying less about my scars
I am worrying less about being scared
I am focusing on healing and transformation

I want to be present yet not exist I want to exist yet not be exposed I want to desire the things I fear

I desire eroticism and indulgence I desire closeness and proximity I desire home peace solitude

I disconnect the desire for touch with the desire for commitment
I desire to hold and to let go.

(Awu Ire)

Liturgies silence

Relating ships

A call
A response

A chant A voice

Holding on
Letting go

Falling up
Walking in

Cloth body

earth market square home rebirth sanctuary

akwa back welcome home.

(Afi)

Bayo Hassan Bello (b. 1993, Nigeria) lives and works in Brussels (BE).

Bayo Hassan Bello is a West African artist and curator whose texts and time-based works engage with indigenous practices, regenerative systems of affects and rituals of self-presentation.

He has collaborated with cultural institutions including Africa Movie Academy Awards, Art X Lagos, Borna Soglo Galca Movie Academy Awards, Art X Lagos, Borna Soglo Gallery, Collection Frederic de Goldschmidt, Festival d’Aix, Fondation Fiminco, Institut Francais, Jameel Arts Center, Prince Claus Fund, Sikka Art Fair, Tilga Art Prize, Venice Biennale, etc. He is the founder of AJALA and En Plein Air, both culture production platforms with a focus on sustainable impact for Global South artists and communities.