Obii Ifejika on Finding Purpose Through Poetry
In this episode of Odejuma, Harry is in conversation with talented UK-based Nigerian poet and multidisciplinary artist Obii Ifejika for an in-depth exploration of storytelling, identity, and legacy. Obii reflects on her journey, revealing how she found her voice through performance poetry in Nigeria and how she has embraced new creative experiences in the UK.
Their conversation highlights the significance of mentorship, the courage needed for self-expression, and how community influences an artist’s journey. Obii opens up about her creative process and her aspirations to leave a lasting mark in literature, as well as the responsibilities that come with being an artist.
The episode also features two powerful live poetry performances, giving listeners an intimate look into Obii's artistry. This conversation is a celebration of poetry's transformative power and the beauty of Black creative expression.
Subscribe to Obii's Substack: Sober Sundays | Obii Ifejika | Substack
For more information on Harry: About — Harry Itie
Transcript
Hi, my name is Harry, and welcome to Odejuma.
Speaker A:Odejuma recognizes the magic of storytelling.
Speaker A:From personal experiences to stories of adventure, from tales of resilience to finding joy in the simple things, this story seeks to inspire, entertain, and educate because there is power in the stories of everyday people, and these stories are worth telling.
Speaker A:Hey, y'.
Speaker A:All.
Speaker A:Welcome to another exciting episode of Odejuma.
Speaker A:I'm super excited about my guest today.
Speaker A:I have known her for a while, and she is just an amazing individual.
Speaker A:I have with me Obi Ifejika.
Speaker A:Hi, Obi.
Speaker A:How are you?
Speaker B:Hi, Harry.
Speaker B:So good to be talking with you today.
Speaker B:I'm quite excited.
Speaker A:I am excited to talk to you.
Speaker A:I feel like.
Speaker A:I don't know, I'm just moved by your art.
Speaker A:I'm moved by your work, and I feel like when I was, you know, walking through.
Speaker A:Who do I want to have on this podcast, on this new iteration of my creative journey, who do I want to be speaking with?
Speaker A:You know, it was very easy.
Speaker A:I'm like, definitely, Obi.
Speaker A:Because, you know, we.
Speaker A:Even though we've been friends for a while now, your work has deeply resonated with me through the years.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I'm just excited to be here.
Speaker A:How have you been, though?
Speaker A:How.
Speaker A:How's it going?
Speaker A:What's up with you?
Speaker B:So since we.
Speaker B:Since we last saw, there have been many iterations of me, and I've.
Speaker B:I've evolved so much, and I didn't know it, I think, until I decided to take stock.
Speaker B:And you know how it is when you're working and you're putting in things.
Speaker B:You might not know that you're doing something, but then you have to look back and be like, that's who I was before, you know, and this is who I am now.
Speaker B:And it is because of that person before.
Speaker B:So it's been.
Speaker B:It's been really good.
Speaker B:The biggest change in my life now is Moving to the UK, right.
Speaker B:On a global tournament visa.
Speaker B:So starting from Basi IP's natural national poetry slab to this point, like, everything has just been evidence of my work.
Speaker B:And you're like, okay, you deserve to be here.
Speaker B:I guess.
Speaker A:And so.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so I am.
Speaker B:So it's very, very affirming that it is my creative work that brought me here.
Speaker B:It's so, like, so.
Speaker B:Because, I mean, I never would have chosen school.
Speaker B:I have too much trauma there to go back into a classroom, you know, I bet.
Speaker B:I guess the other thing would have been work, but it's so, so validating for it to be my creative Work that brought me here.
Speaker B:And if you look back and if I look back, like, really honestly, it's like, why not?
Speaker B:You know, I took everything that I was learning and I did something with it.
Speaker B:The one woman play evolved into one other kind of show, you know, that I even hope to be doing.
Speaker B:Like, almost every year I've tried to involve myself in projects.
Speaker B:I've tried to create opportunities for other emerging poets as well as in Nigeria.
Speaker B:And I come here and I'm okay saying, like, okay, I could actually do the same thing here.
Speaker B:So it's just always these moving pieces.
Speaker B:And being a creative, it's never like, I know that my work will evolve.
Speaker B:I know that I'm going to do, like, really, you know, cool things with it.
Speaker B:I've just always been one of those people that kind of want to bring some people along for the ride.
Speaker B:Maybe it's in the way that I came into my work.
Speaker B:Like, people took me along for the ride and I knew I was better for it.
Speaker B:So that's kind of, that's, that's, that's what I'm also looking forward to as well.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I'm just curious, like, when you, the moment when you decided to start writing poetry, did you ever imagine that this was where your life was gonna end up?
Speaker B:Never.
Speaker B:In fact, there was no dream.
Speaker B:Can I say something?
Speaker B:So somebody asked me recently, like, how did your family feel about you, you know, writing poetry?
Speaker B:Like, did they ever try to stop your dream?
Speaker B:Like, you came so far, it seems like somebody drove you.
Speaker B:I said, I came.
Speaker B:I got this far, or on my sheer will alone.
Speaker B:And it's not because my family didn't support me.
Speaker B:They supported all the winds.
Speaker B:They supported me because they saw the wins.
Speaker B:Like, it never occurred to them, like, you know, she's doing poetry, stop her.
Speaker B:Because I had a job.
Speaker B:So I'm sure they felt like, okay, she's not actually throwing her life away, but every time they would hear about poetry, I would have achieved something.
Speaker B:I won the poetry slam.
Speaker B:I, you know, traveled places.
Speaker B:I did finding home.
Speaker B:I went to Germany to do finding, like, different things like that.
Speaker B:You're going to the uk.
Speaker B:It's poetry.
Speaker B:So every time they've had poetry, it's been something big.
Speaker B:So there's never been.
Speaker B:They never needed to care enough to stop me because they've just been wins.
Speaker B:And that's very interesting.
Speaker B:I just realized that everything about my being here, everything about my getting to this point has really been by my sheer will of, like, I love this thing so much.
Speaker B:I Can't lose it.
Speaker B:And I just mean it.
Speaker B:I'm doing it.
Speaker B:Like, that was something.
Speaker B:When I realized that, I really held it very strong because I'm like, I had no reason to hold on to poetry.
Speaker B:I had no reason to continue to create work around it that didn't seem like it was going anywhere or that the pattern to sustaining the work was doing some commercial gigs here and there, then going back home, you know, because, like, there's, like, an institutional path to, like, follow was like, there is more to this thing, and I want to do it.
Speaker B:I want to keep doing it.
Speaker B:And here we are.
Speaker A:So, Obi, when did you discover your love for poetry, and what was that process like for you?
Speaker B:I saw somebody else writing poetry.
Speaker B:I would just see, like, scribbles in notes and everything.
Speaker B:And it seemed.
Speaker B:I don't know, it just seemed interesting.
Speaker B:And the next time I kind of went into the library.
Speaker B:This was secondary school.
Speaker B:Next time I went into the library, I started to pull out poetry books.
Speaker B:All these anthologies that you would have with William Blake, Christian Erosetti, all those kind of, you know, all people.
Speaker A:David Diop.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:As well.
Speaker B:So I. I would.
Speaker B:Because I wasn't a. I wasn't an art student, so I had to actually go to the library to get some of this information.
Speaker B:And then I think every writer has this part which, you know, because you admire something, you start to copy before you finally find, like, your own voice or learn how to do it well.
Speaker B:So that's really what I was doing.
Speaker B:And I loved it.
Speaker B:Like, I would just be in the library and be immersing myself in poetry.
Speaker B:And I started writing, and people liked what I write, and I liked that they liked what I write.
Speaker B:So I wrote some more notebooks and notebooks and notebooks of writings that I know, like, the first two notebooks I've ever written were imitations of other people's work.
Speaker B:So I'm okay with it.
Speaker B:But then I started writing, writing for real, for myself, and I just haven't stopped ever since.
Speaker B:I was just always looking for people who would read my work and say something about it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And that was how I started, and I kind of continued.
Speaker A:When did you decide that you wanted to do it professionally?
Speaker A:That, okay, this.
Speaker A:This thing that I fell in love with in secondary school is going to be the thing that I want to pursue now professionally and as an adult and, you know, to fulfill my needs and stuff like that.
Speaker B:Man.
Speaker B:I think even.
Speaker B:Even five years ago, I was still struggling with doing poetry professionally.
Speaker B:And doesn't Mean, yeah, because I never thought of it as the core of my professionalism.
Speaker B:I always had to pay it with something else because, you know, I mean, down the line it was clear that this thing wasn't going to feed me when I was getting paid 5k for gigs.
Speaker B:And, you know, and then I, by.
Speaker A:The way, just to explain to folks, so folks were like, 5k for a gig.
Speaker A:That's a lot.
Speaker A:5000 Nigerian error.
Speaker B:I need to keep my day job, but I can't do this at night, so.
Speaker B:But I would say that.
Speaker B:I mean, because now we're talking about performance poetry.
Speaker B:So Deaf Poetry Jam was the door to ever wanting to be on stage.
Speaker B:It was just so kismet that I have been watching all these videos and all the shoes and you know how these things are when you're watching them screen, you call somebody else, come and see this.
Speaker B:So I just.
Speaker B:It was just something I was really excited about when I discovered it.
Speaker B:I watched as much of it as I could, only to come see that one of them, the only Nigerian one that was there, was coming to do like a natural national poetry slam in Nigeria.
Speaker B:And I have just been writing since then.
Speaker B:I hadn't performed, so the slam was like my first performance.
Speaker B:And it went the way it went because, like, I absorbed all of their work.
Speaker B:I, you know, I was really inside of it.
Speaker B:So even winning, that was just like, oh, like, this is another level of this thing.
Speaker B:We're not just writing now.
Speaker B:We've unlocked something else, you know, and at that time, I didn't even know there was a poetry community in Nigeria, like performance, you understand, like, everything was fully new to me and in, in kind of engaging with that.
Speaker B:I was just saying, okay, still, the art doesn't pay, but, you know, the feeling is priceless.
Speaker B:So we can work, we can do this at night when the opportunity shows it itself.
Speaker B:I think that has forever been my struggle because wanting to, like, you know what, let me do this thing in such a very aggressive, I'm here for it way.
Speaker B:And it's like, yes, I want to do that, but I'm not going to compromise the work that I have.
Speaker B:And not compromising, per se, but just that the work that I have does overwhelm me enough for me to literally put, you know, poetry to the side and everything.
Speaker B:So, like, that's why I can see, like, up to five years I was still, like, professionally professionally.
Speaker B:But you know, how many months ago somebody asked me, oh, hi, so what do you do for a living?
Speaker B:And I said, I'm a Poet.
Speaker B:I wanted to cry.
Speaker B:I had never, never introduced myself as a poet before.
Speaker B:Like I was a poet, full stop.
Speaker B:I didn't have to do, oh, I write sometimes.
Speaker B:I also design, I create websites.
Speaker B:A poet.
Speaker B:And I had to sit with that for a few days and realize what it meant for me because I'm in this country.
Speaker B:Poetry brought me here.
Speaker B:Like everything I have done in the last 10 years led up to this moment builds me up to this person.
Speaker B:So why, why do I.
Speaker B:And I'm in a place where there is a little more appreciation, there's a little more opportunities than where it is that I've come from.
Speaker B:So I'm a poet, that's me.
Speaker B:And I'm a good one.
Speaker B:And you know, it's like there is no need to fold it into anything.
Speaker B:There is no need to justify it, make it.
Speaker B:That's what I am.
Speaker B:That's what I am.
Speaker A:That's real.
Speaker A:That's real.
Speaker A:And it's very interesting that you, I feel like you meet people and you are having a different experience of them than they are having of themselves, you know, And I'm realizing that the more as I, you know, do this podcast and I just remember when I met you, I met you in the performance circuit, right?
Speaker A:I met you at Tarua.
Speaker A:And those were like really great memories for me because I felt like I was, you know, I was immersed in the creative community.
Speaker A:I feel like I am a creative by association.
Speaker A:Like I want to curate, I want to, I want to curate the art.
Speaker A:Whether it's the poets, it's the singers, it's the rappers, it's the, the playwrights, the theater people.
Speaker A:Like, I want to be in that space.
Speaker A:And we were in that space together in Nigeria with like Tarua and you know, with like Lydia and all the great things that they were doing.
Speaker A:And then Ifipaul with like, with like the Lagos Poetry Festival and with like finding home that you, you, you referenced and with Wana and Titi and all these amazing people.
Speaker A:Very interesting to hear you say that throughout that period of time when you were doing this amazing work, you did a one woman show at the Lagos Theater Festival.
Speaker A:You know, I was at the inaugural, inaugural, inaugural show.
Speaker A:So it's just interesting to hear you say that you, you know, throughout that period in time didn't see yourself as a professional person.
Speaker A:And you know, and that is very valid.
Speaker A:I'm not, I'm not trying to take that away from your experience.
Speaker A:What I'm saying that like, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker A:I'm here being like, oh, this is an awesome creative who's just doing amazing work.
Speaker A:I'm here like falling over, like fan g, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:I remember, I remember I have a story.
Speaker A:So, God, this is interesting.
Speaker A:One of the people that I dated, one of the people I dated in Nigeria, I remember, oh Lord.
Speaker A:I remember your one woman show.
Speaker A:And I was going there and I met them on the way and I was like, you have to come see this person.
Speaker A:They're amazing, they're good, you have to come.
Speaker A:And this was like my first time meeting them in person, engaging with them and I dragged them to your show.
Speaker A:So I'm just trying to let you know, like the impact that you had or that you have always had basically, you know.
Speaker A:But I, I hear what you're saying.
Speaker B:I want to say something about that because, you know, this is crazy.
Speaker B:I was doing a one woman show that was backed by the British Council, right?
Speaker B:And I was still telling you that maybe up to five years ago.
Speaker B:I don't know about like fully being professional as a poet or fully embracing that title.
Speaker B:And it wasn't because people couldn't call me a poet, but I needed you to know I was 10 other things so that you would find some value in me as a person.
Speaker B:Like, I was putting out all of this work.
Speaker B:I was working and associated with like so many amazing people that were doing other amazing things.
Speaker B:But I needed you to know I was 10 other things apart from just being.
Speaker B:I'm not just a poet or I'm like this, this, this, this, that.
Speaker B:So it's really interesting, like you said, like people, you could be seeing people through one eye and they're having like a completely, you know, different experience with what it is that is going through them.
Speaker B:But I think I'm just glad that I am here and I'm able to be here because I think I could still be in Nigeria and have that same impression of myself.
Speaker B:Because if I.
Speaker B:The part of what gives me this audacity is like, I turned my life around or I completely abandoned everything I have been and have ever known to be a poet.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That's exactly what I am.
Speaker B:Like, yeah, it's fine.
Speaker A:That is real.
Speaker A:That is, that is so real.
Speaker A:And I think that a lot of people go through that phase where it's like, you know, I am doing things, I'm adding value to the world, but I'm not sure if my value is being received in a way that I want it to be received.
Speaker A:And so when we are in that space where we are a little bit unsure.
Speaker A:We tend to have those moments where we have to add layer upon layer of the things that we do so that people can be like, oh, I am not just a hairdresser, but I'm also a. I also work at the bank and I also style on the side.
Speaker A:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:And I feel like I'm just really happy that you've been able to fully sit in your power now, because now you are a poet, you know, and you are part of a mentorship program, a very highly sought after mentorship program, you know, with the hundred of applicants trying to get in.
Speaker A:And you got in, you know, being like the only black African woman in that experience.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Talk to me about, talk to us about that.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:Let's sit in your power for a little bit, you know, let's have that conversation.
Speaker B:I was.
Speaker B:It's still crazy to me, right?
Speaker B:Because this program you're talking about is being hosted, I don't know if that's the right language by nine Arch Purse here in the uk and it's called like a dynamo.
Speaker B:I'm like, what I'm.
Speaker B:What you call me now is like a dynamo mentee, Like, I'm a dynamo poet.
Speaker B:And what it means is 18 months of mentorship support and guidance from them, whether you're trying to create like a body of work or whatever, take you as an early stage poet who, you know, lives, works, and, you know, studies in the UK to whatever it is you're trying to do, publishing contemporary poetry, just in general.
Speaker B:And when I got this, I was like, I never get picked for stuff.
Speaker B:What do you mean?
Speaker B:Like, I have gotten into this program.
Speaker B:So it was very empowering to be part of something like this, to be the only African in the mix.
Speaker B:It's like I was asking myself, what did I write?
Speaker B:What did I write that, you know, got me picked?
Speaker B:But it's one of those things where it's like, you know what?
Speaker B:It's my time.
Speaker B:I've worked for this thing, I've built myself up, I've managed my platforms, I have continued to write and continue to share my work and the work itself.
Speaker B:I am always thinking of ways to improve it.
Speaker B:So why wouldn't a mentorship program feel like this is the person they want to help take to the next level?
Speaker B:Like it is.
Speaker B:It is something so incredible.
Speaker B:And to also be in that lineup of women who I just like, gotten a peek of some of the work that they've been doing and it elevates it even more for me.
Speaker B:Like, these are the people I'm in the midst of very.
Speaker B:Yes, thank you.
Speaker A:And how would you say that your, your work is changing been in this program?
Speaker A:Like, what, what are the visible changes you're seeing to how you approach your art right now?
Speaker B:So, you know, everything about my process as a poet is I did not go to school for poetry.
Speaker B:I got into a library.
Speaker B:I started studying and I never stopped.
Speaker B:So I always say something like, I wanted to move from kind of self taught, self taught to like, well thought.
Speaker B:And with the program, I am paired with like a mentor who is like, you know, what is what, what, what do you want to do?
Speaker B:What are some of the things that, you know, if I'm giving you 40 minutes right now, what is that thing that you're going to step up to the stage to do or like you want to write about?
Speaker B:And it allows you just be in a space where you're like, I'm in a place where anything is possible.
Speaker B:Like, just.
Speaker B:And I don't have to write one kind of story.
Speaker B:I don't have to explore one kind of narrative.
Speaker B:So being in this program just opens that.
Speaker B:I know it's like cliche or something.
Speaker B:It's not just opportunities now.
Speaker B:It's like you can think differently and it's okay.
Speaker B:You can like be more daring with what it is that you would have written.
Speaker B:You don't need to confine yourself into the things that you've taught yourself all this while.
Speaker B:Like, there's so much more.
Speaker B:Like, one of the things they had done recently was share some books, you understand, with us.
Speaker B:It's not like, I've not been reading before, but now is like, okay, now that you're trying to read to create your own work, what about this thing, you know, say something to you?
Speaker B:And then working with like such a mentor that has gone through all the paths that I have gone through is very, very like somebody's holding my hand through this entire process to see how I can be on the other side of it.
Speaker B:It feels very like it's one of the greatest things about my time here so far.
Speaker B:I really enjoy it.
Speaker B:And, you know, they always tell me, like, whenever you're putting yourself forward for something, whenever you're doing anything, always mention that you're a dynamo poet.
Speaker B:Like, it's going to lock some doors.
Speaker B:And that also, like, so this is even this powerful.
Speaker B:I'm, I'm for it and I just want to make sure that I'm taking full advantage right as possible.
Speaker A:What what is taking full advantage looking like for you in this moment?
Speaker A:What are like, some of the things that you are doing or you want to or you're hoping to do right now with this platform that you have currently?
Speaker B:I think all.
Speaker B:I think right now all I'm doing is making my mentor's job difficult because he's trying to get me to like, obi, can we narrow down to some things?
Speaker B:I'm like, sir, I want to do everything.
Speaker B:I want to do this.
Speaker B:No, no, we can do like.
Speaker B:So I'm making his job difficult, but I think it's also in a good way, because what he can tell me is that, okay, you know what?
Speaker B:You will do this, but we will shelf this for after.
Speaker B:Can you take off these things first?
Speaker B:Because that energy of anything is possible when you settle into it.
Speaker B:You don't even sleep the same.
Speaker B:You don't sleep the same, you don't think the same, you don't wake up the same.
Speaker B:It's like you want to do something.
Speaker B:And like, let's.
Speaker B:Let's change how we think about that because why anything is possible now with this project.
Speaker B:So with working in it, I don't have to say I'm just working on a book or I'm just working on a performance.
Speaker B:I'm actually doing both at the same time.
Speaker B:So I could be telling you like in the next year, because it's for 18 months, which even before then, like, oh, in the next year you could probably see like a production from me.
Speaker B:At the same time, my book that everybody has been beating me about might be on its way or, or at least we'll start having legs so I can come out of this thing with a fullness, you know, to validate all the stuff that is in my head.
Speaker B:Like there's a place for them to go that feels really.
Speaker A:That's real.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker A:Are you ever going to do Swallow again?
Speaker A:Do you think that there's a possibility for that?
Speaker B:I know I will do Swallow again.
Speaker B:I know I would do Swallow.
Speaker B:I'll probably do it with the same poster.
Speaker B:I like, I love.
Speaker A:But, you know, you know, I feel like, you know, I probably wouldn't even jump in the gun.
Speaker A:Can we tell the audience what Swallow is?
Speaker B:So Swallow is a one woman show I had written.
Speaker B: for Lagos theater festival in: Speaker B:Um, it's a one woman show where I play eight characters.
Speaker B:And the premise of Swallow is that, you know, it was on this idea and just the Reality that I understand, which is, you know, women are often taught to be silent, to be quiet.
Speaker B:And it's not just in the literal way of don't speak up.
Speaker B:It's also in the things that concern or quiet women.
Speaker B:It always needs to be hidden, never said too loud.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So that's like the full concept of swallow.
Speaker B:And So I play eight characters from a 15 year old child, even to a woman, a widow, who's lost her husband.
Speaker B:So I explore themes of teenage pregnancy, all these barbaric rites of widowhood and pregnancy, and it gets really light.
Speaker B:It's not because everything isn't a tragedy.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So there's a narrative there about a woman who's.
Speaker B:Okay, I don't know if it's great for the podcast.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'm just saying, like, there are light and fun stories within it, as.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, I play eight characters on stage and I use like different elements on the stage to like change to each character because I never actually leave the stage.
Speaker B: nce for me when I did this in: Speaker B:I'm just like, I have to do it again.
Speaker B:So I always know that I will do swallow again.
Speaker B:I just know that, you know, I am a different person than I was then.
Speaker B:And there are more stories that I want to tell and share right now.
Speaker B:So I'm looking forward to what that will look like with everything that I know.
Speaker B:I think the more I wait to do it, the more difficult it becomes to do it because I'm like, no, this story.
Speaker B:No, this story.
Speaker B:No, that's theory.
Speaker B:So I think I would save that problem for my mentor.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I feel like just the work is.
Speaker A:The work is amazing.
Speaker A:The work is beautiful.
Speaker A:Your work is so.
Speaker A:It feels like a hug, you know, And I am so happy that I got to experience it in person.
Speaker A:I got to experience experience, to have that experience being the audience as, you know, receiving that.
Speaker A:And everybody who was, you know, in that room could feel the power of the work that you wear or part of the work and the power of your art.
Speaker A:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:So that was really good.
Speaker A:And I really hope that, you know, obviously it's going to evolve, it's going to change.
Speaker A:It's like different iterations or something, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think that there's room for that.
Speaker A:Do you feel?
Speaker B:Yeah, no, go ahead.
Speaker A:Did you want to say something?
Speaker B:No, I'm gonna say like, even with.
Speaker B:Even with like swallow.
Speaker B:Then I remember when you do something like that, you're wondering, like, have I Done.
Speaker B:Have I actually.
Speaker B:Has it gone somewhere?
Speaker B:Because you want that validation from somebody other than yourself.
Speaker B:And I think the president of the festival at the time was just like, oh, you know, that's actually maybe our top three shows at this festival.
Speaker B:And I was like, okay, you did that.
Speaker B:I was like, okay.
Speaker B:Because there is nothing I love about poetry than somebody who is not into poetry telling me that they liked my.
Speaker B:Because I feel like, okay, it's gone beyond myself.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:That is.
Speaker A:That is very real.
Speaker A:I have a question about, like, your poet, your poetry.
Speaker A:Is there, like a poem that you have that is therapeutic for you?
Speaker A:Like, you go back to.
Speaker A:And it's like healing for you.
Speaker A:It's like, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:Like, I find a level of solace there.
Speaker A:Is there any poem like that?
Speaker B:Yes, that happened.
Speaker B:That happened actually quite recently in my early years of poetry when I just finished Islam.
Speaker B:The poem I was finding a lot of comfort in was God is in My Bones.
Speaker B:And I was telling somebody recently, like, that's like, I have like three poems.
Speaker B:I used to enter this.
Speaker B:This business, right?
Speaker B:God is in My Bones was such a core one because he talked about my journey with scoliosis and all of that.
Speaker B:I was like, you know what?
Speaker B:I'm going to actually post it on my Instagram because it doesn't exist anywhere else.
Speaker B:You know, there are no recordings of, like the slam and stuff.
Speaker B:But I've had this newsletter that I have been running for the past three years, and there was a poem that I published in January.
Speaker B:And the way that I go back to it, I've never had my own poem comfort me before.
Speaker B:It does.
Speaker B:So I was.
Speaker B:I'm still surprised by.
Speaker B:You can hear that in my voice.
Speaker B:Like, I wrote something for myself and my.
Speaker B:My.
Speaker B:That my newsletter is actually, you know, I write from poem from prompts.
Speaker B:So I'm either writing like a poem this week, next week it might be like a story.
Speaker B:So it coming out at all, you know, without me thinking too much is almost like, you know, it's like, it must be true, you know.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I do have it.
Speaker B:I'm trying to.
Speaker B:I'm going to.
Speaker B:I'm going to find this for you right now.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And the newsletter is Silver Sundays.
Speaker A:I would link it in the description for folks so they could subscribe.
Speaker A:It's powerful.
Speaker A:Every Sunday I get it.
Speaker A:And if you know how to, you know, work an RSS feed, you can actually get it on like, Apple Podcast or something.
Speaker A:So, like, just comes as a podcast.
Speaker A:Yeah, just FYI.
Speaker A:For the folks listening.
Speaker B:Okay, so I actually have it here.
Speaker B:And yes, it is sober Sundays, every Sunday.
Speaker B:And I haven't missed a Sunday for the past three years.
Speaker B:So it's been this meditative practice in writing.
Speaker B:Because now I can never say I'm going through writer's block or anything like that, because now I have a way through it.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So the prompt I was working with is, she was surprised.
Speaker B:And here goes the poem.
Speaker B:I have learned to vanish, to disappear into the moments that color each day without the crotch of a clock leaning on it or stopping my wandering eyes from darting to the doorway or the window or any crack of light that promises escape.
Speaker B:I have learned to stand in a room, to bear the weight of its silence without feeling for the exit sign, without the body alarm clock ticking into another anxiety.
Speaker B:I do not justify each bite.
Speaker B:All I know is flavour and relish and the sweetness of forbidding touch and the gasps they set free.
Speaker B:Not holding back my moans or denying the cartographer his wage, orgasmic or otherwise.
Speaker B:No weaving myself into stories, no asking to be remade.
Speaker B:Instead, I open my mouth and let the wind carry my name to corners I will never see.
Speaker B:And to my surprise, I am still here.
Speaker A:That was beautiful, Obi.
Speaker A:That was beautiful, Obi.
Speaker A:What is it about that poem that comforts you?
Speaker B:I mean, it's.
Speaker B:First of all, the poem itself is a surprise, you know, because like I said, I write from prompts.
Speaker B:I don't think about what I'm trying to write.
Speaker B:I just put it out there, then see what I have put out there.
Speaker B:So, like, we would normally say stuff like this still needs to be edited and all those things, but before I even get there, what resonates deeply with this poem for me is the ability to sit in stillness, to sit in worry, to also sit in joy, and not try to move on to the next moment.
Speaker B:Like, it's what we easily do.
Speaker B:Like, every time you're crying, somebody comes to say, stop crying.
Speaker B:It's okay.
Speaker B:Maybe I need to cry for 10 more days.
Speaker B:You know, Maybe the someone somebody won't tell you.
Speaker B:Like, I've been in situations, even when I was younger, and someone's like, oh, you know, you laugh too much.
Speaker B:Like, it's okay.
Speaker B:Like, you laugh too much.
Speaker B:Maybe I need to laugh some more.
Speaker B:Because it is for this moment and this moment only, and the next moment, I don't know what will happen.
Speaker B:And it also speaks about stifling in every way, you know, stifling in expressing yourself as a person, as a writer, as A woman as a sexual being.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:It just seems in very few words to some of this idea, like everything can happen and you are just this transient person.
Speaker B:Like, things will move through you.
Speaker B:He will still survive.
Speaker B:And it's something that I need to hear that I would still survive.
Speaker A:That's real.
Speaker A:That's really real.
Speaker A:And I'm really happy that you shared it.
Speaker A:You know, it was.
Speaker A:It wasn't planned, maybe we were going to do this conversation.
Speaker A:You know, there was no plan for you to perform a poem.
Speaker A:But you know, like I always, like I've said before, I am very moved by your art and I feel very moved in this moment.
Speaker A:So thank you for sharing that.
Speaker B:Thank you, Harry.
Speaker A:I mean, it takes me back to a poem that, you know, I love.
Speaker A:And you call it the doorknob poem and you've performed it, you know, for a while.
Speaker A:But it's one of my favorite.
Speaker A:Like, it's one of my favorite poems.
Speaker A:You know how you have an artist that just has a particular poem that you just really, really, really love so much.
Speaker A:Like, wanna has catfish.
Speaker A:I love catfish.
Speaker A:Till.
Speaker A:Till tomorrow.
Speaker A:But you have this poem, the Donna poem.
Speaker A:And in the poem, you know, there's a line about capturing fireflies and putting it in the bottle and everything.
Speaker A:And it's such a beautiful poem.
Speaker A:And I'm like, since we're here, we are here in this world, we're here now.
Speaker A:And you've done one, you know, by off the cuff.
Speaker A:Wasn't planned.
Speaker A:You decided that.
Speaker A:Okay, fine.
Speaker A:I want to give this people listening a taste of the OB magic.
Speaker A:I would like to ask kindly if you would like to share that poem with folks.
Speaker A:And you don't have to.
Speaker A:You have free will.
Speaker A:You have age.
Speaker A:Effective.
Speaker A:Like, nope.
Speaker A:Subscribe to the newsletter if you want to hear it or, you know, wait till the book comes out.
Speaker A:But yeah, I feel like that is a poem.
Speaker A:I feel like everybody needs to hear.
Speaker B:It's interesting you said that because when I got here to the uk, the first circuit of performances I was making, I was using that poem.
Speaker B:I felt like it was one poem.
Speaker B:Like no matter what I was doing, it connected me straight back into my humanity.
Speaker B:And you know, I would be in the moment of it.
Speaker B:Like, it's a poem that holds me until it sets me free.
Speaker B:So I felt like, okay, if I had to show up like my best self here, this would be one of the things I would like people to hear from me.
Speaker B:I don't know if you remember that it started a song.
Speaker B:It starts with A song that I wrote.
Speaker B:I never wrote it into, like, a full song.
Speaker B:Just those few lines.
Speaker B:And what it does is.
Speaker B:Speaks to, like, the mindset of the character of the poem.
Speaker B:I guess we can talk about that when I'm done.
Speaker B:So the poem, the donor poem.
Speaker B:That poem was entitled For Years.
Speaker B:Then I was like, the door knob poem, Definitely.
Speaker A:Why did you call it the door knob before you perform?
Speaker A:What was the reason for that?
Speaker A:Why Doorknob?
Speaker B:If I could make this poem into a movie, into a short film, it was about this person standing at the door.
Speaker B:And, like, the entire poem occurs with that person standing by the door, waiting to just walk right out, not having a conversation about, like, right there.
Speaker B:So it was like, yeah, why not?
Speaker B:Like, it doesn't need to have.
Speaker B:I felt like I'm fine with it having this kind of literal name and not something.
Speaker B:Because it already has a lot going on as a piece of work.
Speaker B:And I think when you also hear the donor poem, you're like, what's that?
Speaker B:Then you hear the poem and it surprises you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that's.
Speaker B:That's about it.
Speaker B:So the poem.
Speaker B:Tell me, tell me what's tomorrow?
Speaker B:I didn't know.
Speaker B:Didn't know how you change.
Speaker B:One minute we were kissing under covers.
Speaker B:Next thing I know, you're walking out the door.
Speaker B:You're walking out for sure.
Speaker B:One day we will both wake up to a reality that I cannot love you anymore.
Speaker B:When that day comes, I want you to brave my decision.
Speaker B:Sit me down and tell our story again.
Speaker B:Because we should always be together.
Speaker B:Like glue or just like two people should be.
Speaker B:Start from the beginning, leave nothing untold.
Speaker B:Tell me of the future we planned.
Speaker B:Tell me of the first things I saw in your eyes.
Speaker B:Remind me why we laughed and how we laughed.
Speaker B:Just leave nothing untold.
Speaker B:You know that I've always been impatient.
Speaker B:So while you're talking, I'm standing at the door with my hand on the doorknob waiting to turn it.
Speaker B:I'm standing at that door with my heart peeking from my sleeves, waiting to escape us like I did once before.
Speaker B:Tell me about that time.
Speaker B:The time I stood holding this doorknob like a lifeline, wearing the same boots, looking the same way like I endured open heart surgery for anything you say.
Speaker B:And I believe I'll take a step back.
Speaker B:So tell me about love.
Speaker B:Not how you love me.
Speaker B:How I promised to write your name on each star so I will always find my way home.
Speaker B:That I broke every compass we had to be sure I followed my heart.
Speaker B:Remind me of the time I Convinced you that I trapped sunrays in an empty vodka bottle because you hated the duck so much that I like to be funny and her life that way.
Speaker B:You've always known.
Speaker B:It's my biggest fear.
Speaker B:That I am dead inside.
Speaker B:That I am paralyzed.
Speaker B:That no one told me.
Speaker B:Tell me it's not true.
Speaker B:That I have used poems to write all the milestones in our lives, and we've only had five.
Speaker B:Like the time you bought me the moon for Valentine's.
Speaker B:Because I always wanted a gift my clumsiness couldn't destroy.
Speaker B:So it had to be big, larger than life.
Speaker B:Because doing the impossible was my Hail Mary.
Speaker B:Show me how I prayed and check if my hand is still on the doorknob.
Speaker A:I was gonna sit in that for a bit.
Speaker A:Just sitting it.
Speaker A:Sit in that for a minute.
Speaker A:That is the brilliance.
Speaker A:That is your work.
Speaker A:Everybody has been in that space before, and everybody connects, which is why it resonates so much, which is why I've heard it so many times, and it still feels like I'm hearing it for the first time.
Speaker A:The same feeling of connection to an artwork.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's very irreplaceable.
Speaker A:There's nothing.
Speaker A:There's.
Speaker A:There is nothing like it.
Speaker A:When you hear something so beautiful and you just connect instantly, you know?
Speaker A:And that is your work.
Speaker A:That is your work, Obi.
Speaker B:I mean, it's just what I was saying about the poem, like, even as the person who is reading it, it's.
Speaker B:I respect this poem to hold me in and just keep me there.
Speaker B:When I did, like, I did something else with the British Council recently, just like roughly a year ago is I created a show from what I decided were it was all about love now, about the different chapters of what it was.
Speaker B:And I was doing my research.
Speaker B:So we have the part where you start falling in love when things get conflict.
Speaker B:When there is, like, you know, there's conflict and issues and there's, like, a resolution to it, and then there's all these other familial kinds of love, right, Friendship.
Speaker B:And I wanted to write about each of them in chapters.
Speaker B:And I called it Lovers and Others.
Speaker B:And the British Council supported the show.
Speaker B:And I put it together with, you know, poetry, and I used nostalgic music to move it from.
Speaker B:From chapter to chapter.
Speaker B:And I still featured, like, this poem in.
Speaker B:The musician I was working with sang the poem, like, the music part of it.
Speaker B:Like, he sang that part.
Speaker B:And it was so surreal hearing somebody else, because I've always had to do that myself, hearing it from somebody else.
Speaker B:Like, feeling like a real song.
Speaker B:I was just in that moment with him.
Speaker B:Like, I forgot that I was going to lead in with the poem itself, because the way the song comes across is just to basically say, okay, this is what we're thinking about.
Speaker B:There's a friend of mine that said, obi, please, why do you keep singing this song?
Speaker B:You can't sing.
Speaker B:I said, that's not the point of it.
Speaker B:It's not really about my voice.
Speaker B:There is a broken person in this poem that is singing that they have to sing at all, is the conversation.
Speaker B:It's not.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's not about a showcase.
Speaker B:I'm a poet.
Speaker B:I'm not confused about that.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's.
Speaker B:I really respect this piece of work.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And, I mean, I was talking to you now about why it's called the Donald poem.
Speaker B:And so now I'm thinking about making it into a film.
Speaker B:So here we are.
Speaker A:You know, I feel like we've.
Speaker A:We get our inspirations in different ways, and I'm happy you feel inspired to do a film from it, a short film from it that will be very powerful also.
Speaker A:And I'm also just very thankful that you share your art, you know, willingly and voluntarily for people to experience.
Speaker A:You did that on this podcast, and I really appreciate that.
Speaker A:So thank you.
Speaker B:I'm always down for that because you never know why.
Speaker B:You never know why.
Speaker B:It's not like, what am I saving it for?
Speaker B:Do you understand?
Speaker B:What am I saving it for?
Speaker B:You never know why I'd been doing these things where I would share.
Speaker B:Like, I go to open mic events and because, like, imagine all the open mics I went to in February, for example, I did this poem.
Speaker B:So all of them, like, maybe somebody helped me record myself, and I had to put that up on social media.
Speaker B:It's like putting the same video of myself in different T shirts, Right.
Speaker B:So when I posted my story, I just mute out the poetry and I put music over it and just let it run out.
Speaker B:Somebody was like, why do you keep putting music over the work?
Speaker B:And I'm like, it's the same thing.
Speaker B:Even I had some anxiety about performing it because sometimes I would see the same people I saw in another open mic.
Speaker B:Like, it's like doing it to the same crowd.
Speaker B:And I just said, obi, if this was music, you won't say the same thing.
Speaker B:If this was music, you won't feel that way.
Speaker B:So even though I've come to my own and sitting in myself as a poet, I'm still learning a lot of stuff about how I consume my own art and how I choose to express my own art.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I.
Speaker B:It's just been like.
Speaker B:It's an experience navigating.
Speaker B:Navigating that in another.
Speaker B:Another world entirely.
Speaker A:That's amazing.
Speaker A:That's really amazing.
Speaker A:I'm going to lighten things up a little bit before we wrap up.
Speaker A:I'm going to do some fun trivia questions.
Speaker A:And I know this is where you shine, really.
Speaker A:I mean, you've been shining since.
Speaker A:You've been shining since.
Speaker A:You'll shine brighter, you know, Obi has very interesting taste, so we're gonna hear what her tastes are.
Speaker A:So what are the top three songs on your playlist right now?
Speaker B:Top three songs.
Speaker B:Picture you, Chaperone.
Speaker B:Is it Picture your.
Speaker B:Picture Me.
Speaker B:A Picture each other.
Speaker B:Wrong.
Speaker B:For some reason, at least for the past three, four.
Speaker B:Three years.
Speaker B:Just.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's not.
Speaker B:Can I say an album?
Speaker A:You can say an album, yeah.
Speaker B:Entire Hamilton playlist.
Speaker B:The soundtrack, like, for the past three years.
Speaker B:Once I have work to do, I just put it on and I'm going to replay Uptown, Quiet Uptown and Satisfied like, two, three times before I let the play discontinue.
Speaker B:Then the other one is, we're not going to do this.
Speaker B:Simi's first album, the entire thing.
Speaker B:I have to listen to the whole thing back to back.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But, you know, the chaperone one, that particular song, Picture you, then I will see me.
Speaker B:Like, I would just stop everything I'm doing and replay, replay, replay.
Speaker A:That was a good album.
Speaker A:You know, I've been a fan of Steamy since, you know, we went to Covenant together.
Speaker A:I've been a fancy since Covenant days, her gospel days and all of that good stuff.
Speaker A:But, you know, on that album, my song is.
Speaker A:Oh, I'm there.
Speaker A:That song is.
Speaker A:And it's very.
Speaker A:It's just.
Speaker A:It's a very nostalgic song.
Speaker A:I don't know why.
Speaker A:There are some songs that I feel are very nostalgic for me.
Speaker A:That's song is not Statue.
Speaker B:Write that.
Speaker B:Like, I didn't know that.
Speaker B:That was like, you know, if a song like she covered that was.
Speaker A:No, no, no, that was the one that she covered.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I think Owen Bell was written by her.
Speaker A:Ayomasico is.
Speaker A:But yes, that was in Brazil Bay.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's a good song, too.
Speaker A:But the Oambe very nostalgic for me.
Speaker A:Make Believe by Omahomi.
Speaker A:Very nostalgic for me also because, you know, I'm Misha Kiri.
Speaker A:Well, I'm part ishakiri But I like to claim Shakiri fully.
Speaker A:My mom is Shaqiri.
Speaker A:I'm is Shaqiri.
Speaker A:So Mikbele also is very nostalgic.
Speaker A:So I get that.
Speaker A:What's.
Speaker A:What's the TV show you are hooked on right now that I'm on right now?
Speaker A:Yes, they are hooked on hacked.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:You're like the fifth person saying hacks to me in like my entire sphere of life.
Speaker A:Like, hacks, hacks, hacks, hacks, hacks.
Speaker B:I've been telling people about hacks.
Speaker B:Nobody wants to listen.
Speaker B:I'm tweeting about it.
Speaker B:I'm talking about.
Speaker B:It's fine.
Speaker B:You guys don't listen.
Speaker B:You're going to come back in two years and be like, nobody said anything about hacks.
Speaker B:Then I'll be like, I have started hacks.
Speaker A:To be fair, I haven't.
Speaker A:Just I'm like in episode four of season one.
Speaker A:But we'll see how it goes.
Speaker A:There's just so much to watch and it's hard to keep up.
Speaker A:And there's work and there's life and you have to be present for all of these things.
Speaker A:And so I'm sorry.
Speaker B:Is part of my life.
Speaker B:I'm so sorry.
Speaker B:I can't do this work.
Speaker B:I can't watch tv.
Speaker B:I can't cope.
Speaker B:I don't know that it's adhd.
Speaker B:I don't know what it is, but I can't cope.
Speaker B:I have to, like, after this one now I know the next thing that I'm going to be watching.
Speaker B:So what are you gonna be watching after Hacks?
Speaker B:I'm going to watch.
Speaker B:And just like that.
Speaker A:Yeah, there's a new season out now.
Speaker A:Yeah, I need to check that out too.
Speaker A:Just so much to watch.
Speaker B:I think I'm just going to go right to that because I'm not interested in binging it so I don't get too annoyed.
Speaker A:That's real.
Speaker A:That is real.
Speaker A:The next one is who are like dream collaborators?
Speaker A:Like, who's like an artist that you really want to or who are artists you really want to collaborate with?
Speaker B:Artists I really want to collaborate with.
Speaker B:Artists I really want to collaborate with.
Speaker B:I want Anna Bevere Smith.
Speaker B:I hope I am pronouncing her name correctly.
Speaker B:I want her to direct my one woman show.
Speaker B:When I wanted to swallow, I took myself and consumed like some of the, like clips I have seen about her about like some of her theater productions because she does like a one woman show.
Speaker B:But the things that she does is different, which is that she imbibes the entire person.
Speaker B:So it could be a real person and she would just transform, use the person's voice, everything until, like, I want her to direct me at, like, I want to collaborate with that woman.
Speaker B:I don't know how it's going to happen, but I've.
Speaker B:As far as I'm concerned, I followed her from Nigeria, so I'm closer to her now as much as possible.
Speaker B:I mean, you.
Speaker B:I think Nurse Jackie, she showed up in after Blackish.
Speaker B:What was that one?
Speaker B:Mixed dish.
Speaker B:She was the mom stage as well.
Speaker B:But, like, none of the work she kind of does as an actress follows through with what she does on stage as a playwright and, you know, so, like, she's one person that I don't need to think too much.
Speaker B:I don't know the other person.
Speaker B:I'll have to think, yeah.
Speaker A:And she could be the only person you want to collaborate with.
Speaker A:And that's okay, too, you know, in this moment in time, in your journey.
Speaker B:I have this.
Speaker B:I don't have a vision of what it is, but I can imagine what collaborating have, like, the kind of work to be so sick.
Speaker A:From your lips to God, to God's ears, you know, it will.
Speaker A:It will happen.
Speaker A:It will happen.
Speaker B:If they want to understand what I'm saying about this woman, she has a TED Talk.
Speaker B:She does some of her stuff on that TED Talk.
Speaker B:It's an advanced M. Yeah, I'll put it.
Speaker A:I'll put it in the description so folks can check it out and folks can see what you're talking about.
Speaker A:Where is a dream destination for you?
Speaker A:Where you want to go?
Speaker A:Like, where do you want to go to, like, unwind or.
Speaker A:You know, when people say, I want to travel to the shores of wherever so I can write by the waters.
Speaker A:Do you have a place like that or do you just have a place you want to just go to and just, like, chill and just unwind from everything?
Speaker B:I want to go to Vietnam.
Speaker B:I've always loved Asian culture.
Speaker B:Yeah, definitely Vietnam.
Speaker B:I just like Asian culture.
Speaker B:So Vietnam has been, like, in my mind for the longest time.
Speaker B:It's like an easy choice.
Speaker A:Okay, cool.
Speaker A:And finally, what is your guilty pleasure?
Speaker B:See TV shows.
Speaker B:I will not apologize watching them for, like, I.
Speaker B:Having a television.
Speaker B:I don't know if it's actually having a physical.
Speaker B:Okay, yeah, it's not just having a physical television, but being able to watch, like, TV shows.
Speaker B:I like that I can get, like, fully immersed in another world.
Speaker B:Like, I am inside of it.
Speaker B:That's why I miss all these other shows.
Speaker B:We used to have that, like, 24 episodes and everything where each character is fleshed out and to their own arc and all those things.
Speaker B:Like, they're a lot of fun because you could be watching the whole show and the.
Speaker B:The reason why you like somebody is not just because of how they look or something, that they dress like story and you.
Speaker B:You're cutting on to it.
Speaker B:I was talking about Mad Men the other day.
Speaker B:I was like, we're not going to see anything like Mad Men again.
Speaker B:Where each character had, like, a story.
Speaker B:Like, we would follow sometimes.
Speaker B:We would follow, like John Ham sometimes.
Speaker B:And it was.
Speaker B:It was really, really cool to see something like that.
Speaker A:So even Old Grey's Anatomy, you know, was that way.
Speaker B:Anatomy was our theme, man.
Speaker B:Like, even.
Speaker B:Yeah, Grace.
Speaker B:Anatomy was that way as well, you know, but it still had this whole.
Speaker B:I mean, of course they were still focused on, like, one person, which is like Meredith and stuff.
Speaker B:Well, yeah, I didn't feel guilty about it.
Speaker B:I'm not even apologetic about it.
Speaker A:Well, Obi, the final question is, what do you want your art to be the legacy of your art to be, like, in, like, the next 20 years, 30 years?
Speaker A:What do you want?
Speaker A:How do you want your art to impact the people?
Speaker B:That's a simple one.
Speaker B:The way I discovered poetry was going to the library, pouring over these books, discarding my own education and pouring over these books and reading them and just really finding a lot of.
Speaker B:You know, like, my brain opened up in a different way.
Speaker B:And I knew even then that I wanted my poetry to be read in school.
Speaker B:I wanted the.
Speaker B:Which is why, like, when people are like, obi, your book has not come out, and all these things, like, I know what that book will be.
Speaker B:You know, I. I want my work to be so alive that years after they are debating it, they're writing thesis about it, they're having conversations about it, is moving through the world in different ways.
Speaker B:They're tearing it apart, saying they hate it.
Speaker B:You know, I want that work to be alive far longer than I have ever lived.
Speaker B:And that's what I want from it.
Speaker B:You know, people.
Speaker B:It's art, so people will have their interpretation, criticism, but I want them to have them.
Speaker B:So it's not about, oh, they read my work and they love it.
Speaker B:They don't know.
Speaker B:It's fine.
Speaker B:But I wanted to have a conversation.
Speaker B:I don't think there's anything worse than not being in the conversation.
Speaker B:So when my book in schools, I want my work in schools.
Speaker B:I wanted to be in places where people are finding new interpretations of art and they're Like, Obi's work fits into this thing we're trying to do.
Speaker A:That's real.
Speaker A:That's real.
Speaker A:Thank you, Obi.
Speaker A:Really appreciate you for coming on.
Speaker A:I'm excited for people are going to get to experience your art, getting to know, you know, you and the gift that you have.
Speaker A:Thank you for the impromptu performances that you gave us.
Speaker A:Very appreciative of them.
Speaker A:And I'm excited to see where your journey leads.
Speaker A:I know it can only get bigger and better from here.
Speaker A:And, yeah, I'm just excited for your.
Speaker A:For what's ahead.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:Harry is like, everybody that is listening, just go and subscribe to my sub stack because I want to get, like, 1,000 subscribers this year.
Speaker B:Maybe I can make some money from writing every Sunday for you guys.
Speaker B:But, Harry, I'm also very proud of you for having.
Speaker B:For giving yourself permission to do this, because I feel like you could have said, I've done this thing over and over again.
Speaker B:Can I do something else?
Speaker B:But I like what this is.
Speaker B:I watched your conversation with AJ And I went to, like, watch the whole thing, and, you know, we're talking about your decision to do this, and I really, really felt that because I understood it maybe from one migrant.
Speaker B:You know, it's not really just moving houses and moving your apartment.
Speaker B:Like, everything is changing and you're seeing the world differently and saying, how do I fit into this narrative?
Speaker B:So when you're saying you're doing this for you, that's exactly where Soba Sundays came from.
Speaker B:Like, people are always on me.
Speaker B:Like, oh, maybe it's time to feature a poet.
Speaker B:You're the only person who's been there for the last three years.
Speaker B:And I said, this is for me.
Speaker B:It's not that it can't be something else later, but when it's done being for me, I will know that and I will shift the cost.
Speaker B:I. I didn't do it because I needed to be popular, because there was something that I needed to take off out of it.
Speaker B:There was.
Speaker B:I did it because I.
Speaker B:It felt like breathing right.
Speaker B:This was what I needed at the time.
Speaker B:So I'm very proud of you for taking this on in such a special way and having the conversations you want to have.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's really special that you can always tell yourself, I'm doing this, and you do it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:I really appreciate that.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker A:And, of course, we're going to keep connecting.
Speaker A:You know, we always.
Speaker A:Everywhere we can connect, we will connect for sure.
Speaker A:But, yeah, thank you all for watching if you watched on YouTube or if you're listening on your social media, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you're listening.
Speaker A:Really appreciate you.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Odecuma.
