Description

‘What a joy to see a new sun rising in the poetic sky!’ Nikki Giovanni

Exploring naming and its power, the remarkable second collection from the award-winning poet and former Young People’s Laureate for London

In Yoruba culture, newborn babies are welcomed into the world, and ushered into the social fabric, through naming ceremonies filled with songs of praise. The names bestowed are communicative both of where the baby has come from – the circumstances of its birth, the atmosphere in the home – and of where its future will take it. Both are forms of destiny.

Far-reaching and musical, Theresa Lola’s second collection explores the act of naming and its role in shaping our identities, our aspirations, what we carry and how we belong. Lola conjures and questions the realities of her dual Nigerian-British identity; traces the lineages of names; asks why some deserve to be named while others are treated as though invisible; and explores the ways our journey through life might require us to cast off old expectations – both others’ and our own – just as at other times it can bring us back, strangely and unexpectedly, to where we first began.

In lyrical, joyful and moving poems, Lola breaks down the complexities of the diasporic experience and the way it is woven through family life, history and memory. Ceremony for the Nameless is an exquisite collection from a thrilling contemporary voice, described as among “the ranks of an exciting new wave of young female bards who are widening the appeal of poetry for a new generation” (Sunday Times Style Magazine).

Publisher Review

What a joy to see a new sun rising in the poetic sky! We all will enjoy this collection, Ceremony for the Nameless, following the questions and answers with which Theresa Lola struggles. She offers here a wonderful book to add to your collection. — Nikki Giovanni Whether writing about the British Occupation of Nigeria, Immigration, or her family, Theresa Lola is relentlessly inventive and often stunning. She owns the English language — Ishmael Reed An immaculate and moving collection about the divisions and vulnerability of identity from a divine writer — Candice Carty-Williams In Ceremony for the Nameless, Theresa Lola offers a radical exploration of how names shape identity and tradition. With sharp insight and lyrical grace, this collection is both a poetic and intellectual inquiry into the protocols of naming-what it reveals about power, propriety, and the essence of being. An intricate dance of language and lineage — Malika Booker Ceremony of the Nameless is a lyrical exploration of naming and identity that intricately weaves history and personal discovery to offer a transformative experience. Get it now — Roger Robinson We join the congregation as Theresa Lola takes to the pulpit. These poems hold the weight of history, retold to future generations. Ceremony for the Nameless is a realignment, to the many who have been othered — Yomi Sode, author of Manorism In Theresa Lola’s Ceremony for the Nameless I find myself a grateful student of history, of formal dexterity, set to stunning lyric. These poems teach me, and move me — Safia Elhillo, author of Girls That Never Die A fascinating meditation on how a name is worn – within a culture, a family, and our own minds. — Florence Knapp, author of The Names