Resident Showcase: Ajibola Tolase

Ajibola Tolase is a Nigerian poet and essayist. He graduated from the creative writing MFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His chapbook, Koola Lobitos, was published as a part of the New Generation African Poets Series, edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani in 2021. His writing has appeared in LitHub, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry, and elsewhere. He is a former Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford University and has received a creative writing grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. He is the 2023-2024 Olive B. O’Connor Fellow in Poetry at Colgate University. He is the author of 2000 Blacks and the 2024 Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner.  

What drew you to apply for a residency at Monson Arts?

Monson has the charm of a small town, a place to work without the distractions that cities have. It’s a world of its own. The residency provides the spaces and essential needs required for artists to do their work. I was also drawn to the residency for the possible eclectic mix of artists in a cohort. I was fascinated by the possibility of being inspired by their practice. It turned out I was right. 

What was the best part for you about being at Monson Arts? And what, if anything, did you learn about your creative process while being here?

The cohort of artists I was there with. They were supporting in a way that was natural to my writing practice. The window from the common area that overlooks the lake. Most mornings, I stared at the frozen lake until I had clarity about my work. Chef Lulu’s culinary expertise and hospitality. Monson reaffirmed my belief that the creative process feeds from community even though it looks like a solitary practice. 

What was your focus during your residency? 

I came to the residency with the intention to write a draft of an essay for which I have made notes for over a year but never quite got to writing a draft. I wrote my first draft at Monson, and also wrote poems that might be the start of a new poetry manuscript.

Who are some artists that inspire you and your work?

Artists that inspire me: James Baldwin, Roger Reeves, A. Van Jordan, Yona Harvey, Aracelis Girmay, Burna Boy, and Passenger, among others. 

Ajibola graciously shared a poem with us that he wrote while here for his residency: 

The North Woods of Maine

I am here in my grey sweater
wondering what poems to
write in this small New
England town where the
locals gather on snowy
nights with their drums
and guitars. And because
I’m a believer in the power
of sound, I think their songs
scare away the cold. I don’t know
any of the music, but I am
not alone. There are other artists
like me who have left their lives
in big cities to make art here.
Some of them are painters,
poets and playwrights but
not music makers. I wonder
about the children who are
waiting to grow up so they
could leave for the big cities
to see the world or whatever
cliché they’ve fallen for. They
must feel the border of the town
closing in on them. I was born
in a town far from here, it never
left me regardless of how far
I have traveled. I look to the older
residents playing their instruments
for what they might say about
the town they never left.

Find more of Ajibola’s work on his website: https://www.ajibolatolase.com/