Bassey Ikpi

Bassey Ikpi in 2016

Bassey Ikpi is a Nigerian-born American spoken-word artist, writer, and mental health advocate. She has appeared on HBO's Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry five times and her poetry has opened shows for Grammy Award-winning artists. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of I'm Telling The Truth But I'm Lying.

Quotes

• ....The talent is here. The opportunities aren't. And it is the opportunities that foster growth.
  • Description of spoken word scene in Nigeria

• Poetry has been an instrument of change and revolution since it existed. It is protest and defiance and celebration and a love anthem. It is how we communicate so of course it is also how we enact change.
  • #Dothewritething for the missing school girls in Nigeria

• It is the poets who tell the stories in a rhythm that forces the masses and the aristocracy to listen.
  • During her interview

• Poetry, and art in general, allows us to take what is around us and set it on fire. It is the tool we use to enact and document change.
  • Poetry as a form of advocacy for the rescue of the girls

• I don’t profess to be any one religion, I think all religions are flawed because people are flawed. But we have the potential and capacity to be bigger than our flaws.
  • Her reply when asked if religion or spirituality play any part in her compositions or performances (10 September 2015)