TELLING OUR STORY

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Poetry is as old as communication itself. People have always told stories set in juicy verse, whether they rhyme or not, to convey ideas, pains, joys, victories, memories hopes and dreams. If, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, then we feel it’s okay to say that a line of poetry is worth at least two hundred words. Always thinking of how to do something differently, we decided to try telling our stories using poetry (two hundred words) combined with video (a thousand words on steroids!). When we embarked on this journey earlier this year, we knew we wanted to change the culture narrative, and to reignite the minds of our people. But we didn’t know then that we were on our way to becoming exposed to the sultry beauty of our history and heritage. We didn’t realise that the pure stroke of spoken word artistry will leave us wanting to tell more stories to dig deeper into the essence of our collective colourful past, our dramatic present and the hope of a melodious future.

Our decision to partner with some of Nigeria’s most brilliant professional poets on this project was driven by our desire to not create advertising, but rather to capture a dewdrop of what we believe in, what we stand for, what we care about, and where we want to go. We want to change the way we all see ourselves, and where we are coming from. We are supremely confident in what we offer as a financial institution, and we know that our service culture is unmatched in this market. But we believe that love and friendship are always at the heart of the sort of relationships we at Heritage Bank have always believed in building. It has been our sincere hope that these Spoken-Word videos will find something in each member of our esteemed audience that speaks to our personal story, both the parts that we share openly, and those that we can’t find words to relay.

We are indeed proud of our Heritage (any way you choose to look at it), and we will continue to give people reason and opportunity to express the same sentiment for the world to see.

 

I am gap tooth, black girl
Back corner of class
Scribbling left-handed poetry on blank paper
Save the school’s curriculum for later
I am overflowing tales by moonlight
That informal education
Trickling off the tip of my grandmother’s tongue
You’ll find my mother’s tongue here
A fast & fluent Yoruba
Crisscrossed in English
Hidden messages in prose & proverbs
Call it YORUBANGLISH

I am the miracle of melody
Nestled deep in the groove of rich highlife rhythm
A child of the marriage of hip-hop & afro beats
You can hear our voices
Pulsing beneath the skin of a talking drum
Commanding hips to move without caution
I am the sky-high gele-bold and beautiful
We redefine fashion
Wear our stories around our neck from our ears
So we never forget the voice of our ancestors.

This HERITAGE
This heartbeat
This is who I am…
HERITAGE BANK… your Timeless Wealth Partner

 

Watch more spoken word videos on our YouTube Channel[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]