No flyers, no Instagram ads — just a WhatsApp broadcast list and word of mouth. That's how UNILAG's Thursday night spoken word sessions have survived three academic sessions without a single sponsor.
How It Started
Two literature students started it as a way to practice performance poetry for class. Eighteen months later, it regularly pulls 80-plus students into a lecture hall after hours, performing everything from heartbreak poems to political commentary.
"This is the only space on campus where nobody's trying to network with you. People just come to feel something."
Why It Matters
In a campus culture often defined by hustle culture and grades, organizers say the sessions have become an unofficial mental health outlet. "People say things on that mic they'd never say to a counselor," one organizer told us. "We're not trying to be a clinic. But we know we're doing something a clinic can't."
The sessions remain free, unsponsored, and proudly low-key — which, organizers say, is exactly the point.
