A THEATRE ICON, OMALICHA, SLEEPS IN THE LORD

Death be not proud!

Ify Agwu, actress, performing poet and lecturer at the Theatre Arts Department, University of Ibadan, March 16^th, in a road accident. The author of Now that Dreams are Born, a collection of poems, popularly known as Ify Omalicha, became the latest victim of road accident, died while travelling to Abuja from her base in Ibadan, but her nine-month-old son, with whom she was on the trip, only got minor injuries. Sadly, her father died only three weeks ago.

Being a constant playmaker, she had a way of stealing the show whenever she was on stage. During the recent International Women’s Day, she distinguished herself as a writer, actress, performing poet and a scholar when she participated at a reading and literary interaction organized by the PEN Nigeria in collaboration with the Department of English, University of Lagos to mark the day.

That day, she performed Ego Tripping – the poem of the African-American poet, Nikki Giovanni. Besides, she danced at the prompting of the audience largely from the university’s Faculty of Arts.

 Lovers of the word were also going to have a date with her in April, when she was billed to perform at the Black Heritage Festival.

When the news of her passage filtered onto UI, it immediately spread grief through the rank and file. For the cast and crew of an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, being directed by Tunde Odesanmi, it was a time to temporarily yield the stage to sorrow, as they had to suspend the rehearsal to mourn their own. A candle - light was held for her on the campus, her former colleagues were part of the program.

By Portia