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My Brother

  I was blown away by your works.  What a refreshing execution of your craft . I am a black South African freelance journalist and poet.  My interest is to write a profile on you for one of South Africa's magazines, Tribute or Sunday Times Magazine. Let's talk.

Sandile Ngidi

Greetings,

  My name is Marc O. Vinson.  I am seventeen years old and I attend the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics as a senior.  As I browsed your website, I felt compelled to email you and express how helpful the information you have provided is.  I'm preparing for a project for my African History and Literature class.  The project must focus on West Africa.  Therefore, I was in search of some poetry to present to the class, as well as some interesting visual aids, that are representative of familial relationships, struggle in Africa/West Africa, and the rebirth of Africa.  I found your poetry to be superb representations in each of these areas.  As I continue to prepare, I will analyze and interpret your literary masterpieces for myself, however, I would love to explore exactly what you, the author, suggests.  If possible, I would like to ask specifically about only certain pieces, as I will only draw information for my project from certain pieces of your poetry (although I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of them posted!)  If time would permit you to do so, please let me know, and I will send very specific questions. I would also like to ask if you, in addition to posting the website, do conferences for school functions, or would be willing to speak at a school function.  If so, I would like to request information in regards to a conference at my school, or your presence as a featured speaker, sponsored by the Diversity Club, in which I am the President and founder of.  Thank you so much for your time, and if you can help me in any way, (with my project, or with a school function), I would be most grateful.  Once again, thank you.

  Marc O. Vinson  

NCSSM, H440 , 1219 Broad Street Durham, NC 27715

dear Chidi,

it is really nice and refreshing to be on your site. As an artist, a poet and a Nigerian myself I can't explain how excited I am. (I live in Maryland.) My brother sent me the link and I have not finished viewing everything, you will be hearing from me regularly. Keep the cultural touch burning and may God crown your good work.

Sincerely,

Victor Ehikhamenor.

hi there,

I am Bayo Ayoade, and I an executive at the African Students Association at the Indiana University Bloomington, IN. We normally have an African Cultural night every year, but this week we are having an African Awareness week. I saw some of your Art display on the web. I would like to know if you could display those arts for us, and also you will be given recognition on the schedule of events for the day for more publicity for you. Also, the Student News paper might carry it and include your art. I do understand you are in the business of making money. We would like to know how much this would cost us, and from your professional experience the quantity, or substantial amount of displays would be good enough to enlighten people about African Art. Cheers,

Bayo

Chidi,

Congratulations for the wnderful job u are doing....just went thru ur page and the work makes me feel proud as a Nigerian, indeed African God bless your hard work....    warmest regards,

Ovie

Dear Mr. Okoye, Hello.  My name is Jameson Hirsch, and I am a student at the University of Wyoming, United States.  I'm writing to you because I have really enjoyed viewing your artwork, and I enjoy the powerful statements your artwork makes.  I wanted to thank you for your contributions to the art world, and for the enjoyment I received viewing your work.  Sir, I was hoping that you might be able to send me your autograph, or perhaps you have a photo, or something pertaining to your work which you could sign.  I thank you in advance for your kindness, and I wish you the best in the future. Sincerely, 

Jameson Hirsch

257 Sundance Lane #612

Laramie, WY 82072 USA

I Think I'm In Love!!!

  Hello Chidi,

  I happened to be searching for Nigerian forums using the aol search engine, and I found a link to your site. I am a lover of the Nigerian culture, arts, and (men). :) When I started my anxious clicking throughout your site, I found myself lost (a good kind of lost) in your beautiful yet simple poetic style. And your paintings... I just couldn't see enough... they are significantly superb, truly adding to "the land of many colors." I have intention to start saving $$$ for many of your pieces. One more thing...

Dawn

North Conway, New Hampshire, USA

dear chidi,

my name is ami trivedi.  i visit anjali's artbrush.net site often.  i just saw a collection of your paintings on her site; then, i visited your site to get a closer look at your work.
your work stirs great excitement in me.  it is more than just aesthetic experimentation of color and texture.  it is the voice of knowledge and keen observation of the most subtle, but precious beauties of the world.  however, what initially attracted me to your work is the rhythm it expresses of your bold culture.  your expression is powerful and sincere.  in your work, you depict a world, mine and yours, as you first saw it and as you will always see it in your lifetime.
much success in the future.

-AMI-

Absolutely love your work! Your poems are unique and meaningful, therefore I would like to keep in touch with your latest designs and also arrange orders at some point.

Yours faithfully,

Nadia Francis

Chidi,

  I saw your art at the Chapters store in Richmond and fell in love with your "Healing Dance" print.  Do you have a studio here in Vancouver? Would love to see more of your art in person (love the web page, though!).

  Angela M.

hello chi.

 I see all the painting in your "home of African contemporary art" and all are very good in my eyes.  I'm hoping that i can get one of the beautiful painting...

                                            prime

Hi Chidi,

 I have just spent the last hour viewing your works, and I must say the are beautiful. Some of them I can relate to and others would take longer to understand. Nevertheless I enjoyed myself. Please keep up the good work and the culture alive.  Sincerely,

Macaulay Eteli

Hallo Chidi,

I just chanced on your Homepage this evening. I took time to admire your works of art. I permit myself to grant you a wholehearted compliment: You're great. Keep it up. I'll get in touch with you once more. I'd like to have a look at your poems. I'm also a poet. Keep the flag flying.

  Chi Chiazzo.

Beautiful art

I just want to express my thankfulness for seeing your art! Your paintings and poetry are truly works of love and light and beauty!! An inspiration for the world to
join in community! I was driving in a rush of traffic and your bright colours and imaginative landscapes and images caught my eye and I just had to pull over to
take a closer look!! Thanks so much, I will pass on your web address to all of my friends!! Sincerely,
Catriona, Keep up the great work!

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed looking at some of your
creations. Being an African woman and living in Australia can kinda make
you lose sight of a lot of things, such as, who you are and what your
roots are. When viewing some of your work made me feel like you were
personally speaking to me, reminding me of the sheer beauty and strength
of being a woman, an African woman ("Hold On"). Thank you!

Mbide

Chidi, I boola chi?

  We've been engulfed in a dance of hate to appease self. Swam in pools of confusion to find solace. Cultivated in a land of vengeance to be at peace.

And dread the harvest of sin. (When will we learn that evil can never bear good?  When will we realize that when we sow negativism

we should be fearful of what ugly mess (hurtful actions) we will reap or what pestilence (anger, depression, ill of health) breed will have to be destroyed.   They say that at the bottom of anger is really deep hurt...wounded spirit. We have drowned the spirit of joy (what an image) to create sorrow and solitude of self in an attempt to stay king in a world of selfishness.

  (Why haven't I noticed this poem before?  I think I have mostly concentrated on the picture only.   The color.  The movement. (This is the picture I was referring to when I said it "inspires one to want to share it with someone they love".) Stepped on souls of meek and weak; brutalized heads on our way to the top to be rewarded by nature. Look up to the moon (In September, Michigan's harvest moon is magical) and sacred mountain of the sky (One day, I shall see a Nigerian sky...).

(Sometimes we need to elevate our minds above a base humanness’, and look up to heaven and around this magnificent earth to get a new idea about loving each other and living in peace together.  For there are two kinds of peace

1. The absence of war 2. Harmony.    There is more joy in the second.)

  Listen to the songs of the sacred land. Feel the healing wind of the sea.

  Step into the vibrations of energizing songs of sun. Let's dance (yes I want to now) beyond the rhythm of sorrow and lift our legs and hands in praise of life. Dance to the wind of drums for the rejuvenation of souls.

(By just having breath in our body and senses to experience this earth, the elements and God's gifts (each other) we really do have it all.

  This ministered to me today.  And, I wanted you to know.  

Daalu, adaeze

hello chi.
I see all the painting in your "home of African contemporary art"
and all are very good in my eyes. I'm hoping that i can get one of the
beautiful painting... Prime

Hi

We very much liked your lithograph and card designs. We feel there
would be a market for such products at a number of outlets here in
Leicester, UK. We have three questions:

- do you already have a distributor for the Midlands in England?
- what are your wholesale terms for the card designs and tee-shirts
(initially)?
- what would be the next step if we were to want to distribute your
products here?

Mike and Eleanor Callaghan
Leicester
England

Dear sir ,

We are glad to know from the www.wwar.com that your company
supplies the products we are interested in . and we suppose that
other your products also would be very interesting .

That is why we would be glad to receive your catalog to know
your extensive products range in detail .

We have some rich customers that want to buy special ,invest in ,
perfect art crafts so we must looking for new items for them and
have 22 shops for retail in Shanghai .

We hope for long - term mutually beneficial cooperation .

Kindly mail your catalog and price - list to us .

Thank you very much .

Best regards

GENE
Director

Dear Chidi,

I was so happy to find the pencil drawing "Ogbanje" on your website. I
am a PhD student studying abiku and ogbanje in twentieth-century
Nigerian literature at the University of Cambridge, and I've been trying
for ages to find art depicting ogbanje!
I have a few questions about your piece, and I'd be very grateful if you
were able to provide some brief answers for me. Is the drawing intended
to depict the "traditional" or present-day ogbanje phenomenon? I've seen
abiku sculptures from Togo which take the form of a mother with a child
on her back: was your drawing inspired by scupltures like this among the
Igbo? I notice that both mother and child in the drawing have unusual
hairstyles: does this reflect special hairstyles currently or
historically given to ogbanje among the Igbo (as given to abiku among
the Yoruba)? Any special significance of the calabashes and
spherical/elliptical shapes dominating your drawing? What do "ogbanje"
mean to you? To the Igbo? Do you think people's attitude/treatment of
ogbanje now is different than it was in the past?

Sorry for all the questions! Even if you had time to answer a few, I'd
be very grateful. I will also inquire if the African Studies Center here
in Cambridge will fund the purchase of one of the lithographs.

Thanks for you time and attention.

Yours sincerely,

Douglas McCabe

PS--I'm from Victoria myself! Perhaps we can meet in person the next
time I return home?

dear chidi
i am doing a project for school more specifically English and we have to find a poet that's not of the American or English orient and i happened to come across your name.....only problem is i have a few questions and i also need to have 3 of your poems so that i can annotate them....if you can help me i would be
more then grateful....thank you even if you cant be of assistance....
sincerely
trina

Hi Chidi,

Many thanks for showing us your work. We will take one and probably have
decided on the Jazz musical scene. We are moving for sure so will wait to
see what the new house looks like.

Again thanks

Karen & Bob

Thank you so much for giving me all the information on your culture and art
work. It helped me with my research paper more than you could imagine. You
are very kind and generous. Thank you again, Carla Noel Beckwith

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed looking at some of your
creations. Being an African woman and living in Australia can kinda make
you lose sight of alot of things, such as, who you are and what your
roots are. When viewing some of your work made me feel like you were
personally speaking to me, reminding me of the sheer beauty and strength
of being a woman, an African woman ("Hold On"). Thank you!

Mbide

Hello Mr Chidi,
I really admire your rich african artworks and poetry and I'm a frequent
visitor to you webpage. I am writing on behalf of TWESE (swahili for
unity), which is an organization of African students and friends of
Africa at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. I am writing to ask
if you would be willing to share your experience and your rich African
cultural heritage with members of TWESE and the Rutgers Univ. community,
at any of our special events during the academic year. If you would
like to be our guest speaker, we would love to invite you, or you could
stop by whenever you are around this region of the US. Your presence
would be appreciated greatly.
Thanks for your co-operation in advance, looking forward to your reply.

Vivian Nwosu 

Hey Chidi,
I viewed your site and I think it's awesome! I love the sculptures, especially the mask of beauty, also the paintings on your cover page our beautiful. You did an excellent job on your site, too bad I live in Ottawa cause I'd like to see your art in person, maybe if I get the chance to visit Vancouver I'll drop by for a coffee.
Anyways, love the site
Kari

Hi Chidi,
My name is Lola Balogun from Nigeria. I am a member of the African
Students Assocaition (ASA) at Georgia State University. We were just
going through your web page and we decided to promote it on our ASA
website. Your website is very interesting and it would be really
appealing to the Georgia State University students. I sincerely hope you
don't mind? I hope to work with you in the future.
Your web site is outstanding.
Please keep in touch.
Lola Balogun

I really do like the works of your paintings and would like to order two
of those, cedecion seve 1 and art card sorrows of eve enlarged to poster sizes. I would like to know how I would go about paying for these, how long they would take to arrive? and do I pay first or do you deliver first? I am
in Kenya.

regards
Farhana

Hi Chidi,
I have finally been able to see your work at your site. We will feature you as our guest artist for April'99, so do look out for it.
Your work is exciting and rugged. I will be going through your work in more
depth soon. Thanks for the experience.
Kind regards.
-Anjali Arora

HI CHIDI,

Just took a look at your home page. Your art is truly
beautiful, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to
see more. I wasn't able to make it to your open house
this week, but I hope that it went really well. I
will make it work in the future (probably sometime
when finances aren't so...humbling - so that I can
make some purchases).

Well, just wanted to drop you a quick line to say
hello. See you on a dance floor somewhere, sometime.

Rita Dickson

GREETINGS MR. CHIDI,

I HOPE THAT THIS NOTE FINDS YOU WELL AND ENJOYING LIFE.
WE SPOKE BRIEFLY AT THE SUNDIATA AFRICAN FESTIVAL IN SEATTLE WASHINGTON
A FEW MONTHS AGO. I WAS VERY INTERESTED IN HAVING COPIES OF YOUR POEMS
DEALING WITH MOTHERHOOD ESPECIALLY THE ONE THAT WAS WRITTEN TO THE
CHILD FROM THE MOTHER. THIS PARTICULAR POEM WAS PLACED BY YOUR AWARD
WINNING PAINTING AND DEEPLY TOUCHED ME. AS I MENTIONED MY HUSBAND IS
FROM CAMEROON AND WE ARE EXPECTING OUR FIRST CHILD IN LESS THAN TWO
MONTHS. I WANT TO SHARE THIS BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF CREATIVITY WITH DEAR
TANYI WHO AT THIS TIME IS STILL IN AFRICA AND WE WILL READ THIS POEM TO
OUR CHILD.

I HOPE THAT YOU ARE STILL WILLING TO HONOR THIS REQUEST.

IN SINCERE APPRECIATION,

BRIANNA

EMAIL ADDRESS:

Thank You Chidi! You made me smile!!!
God Bless!
Marnyce

Hi,
I am done with the paper and I received a grade already. I got an A
on the paper I wrote about you. If you would like a copy, please send
me the postal address, and I will mail out a copy of it to you. Thank
you very much for your help. I wish you continued success.

Anita Oboh

Hi Chidi, Saw your page on Motherlandnigeria. I am interested in your work. I particularly like the Night Dance. Is it for sale ? How much is it going for ? Pls let me know. You can call me on (530) 688 6332. Cheers Femi

Please I will love to read your thoughts on my works and share it with the world. it means a gold to me. chidiokoye@chidi.com

"The works are apt reflections of both an artistic use of materials and the use of wood, stone, metal and concrete to represent the aesthetic dimension of the world view of Africa." Daily Times, Nigeria.

“… These art works express universal emotions, contemporary art forms, and the global idealism of their creator” The Georgia Straight

Art News - fine art

Art News: Showing Client's satisfactory remarks, thought provoking comments, Visitors Remarks and our up coming event

“He represents a new generation of Artists who  are taking steps further from the black power  and identity concerns of their predecessors  to embrace a global identity.” Diversity News,  Seattle WA, USA.