| Profile |
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Personal Info |
| Age: 39 |
| Name: Olutunde Chisom Olufemi |
| Location: Atlanta, Georgia |
| Occupation: Griot\Writer\Social Activist |
| Favorite Poet: The great, great grandfather... |
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| My Guestbook Sign | View Contact Me: Olu@BabaOlutunde.com
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Olutunde Chisom Olufemi was born in 1968 to a father of Igbo heritage and a North
American mother. He was the fifth in a family of seven children. Like most
colonized African/African American children, he was converted to Christianity
at the age of 11, and was religiously taught he would amount to nothing without
living in the faith of the church. At the age of 12 Olutunde faced an sudden life and
death changing experience that followed him to this day. In the midst of a suicide
attempt he found and began to develop his gift in seeing and communicating with
spirits, and the ability to discern the negative from the positive ones. It was a long
and lonely journey to face alone, with his peers and siblings not taking him seriously,
his only guide was his faith in his God, guardian angels and ancestral spirits.
He left the church at the age of 13 and began to explore his buried talents. In the act
of doing so not only did he discover his inner and outer strengths and weaknesses, but
also his powers to think/design/create the drive behind his talent to write, and this is
where Olutunde found his hidden voice.
Everybody who knew him in the early and late seventies when he was in primary school, agrees that he was restless, very active and
intelligent, ready to take a pugnacious stand at the slightest provocation from his mates.
Something of a truant, too, he preferred reading, drawing, exploring the world then
just sitting around. As an young adult Olutunde knew that there were more to his
existence so he began to travel to learn more about his father's roots. Like most children
of Igbo blood, Olutunde had discovered he was born with something special, most
would say, a calling. But what makes him different in so many ways is his upbringing
in African, American and Caribbean culture. His cultural ethnics of Igbo, Yoruba,
American and West Indies is the creativity in his writings. This is why mysticism,
Gods, Orishas, Cherubs, social consciousness and rituals play a dominant role in his poetry.
In 1993 he was accepted into the radio/film and theater program at Temple University
in Philadelphia Pa. It was at Temple that he first developed the interest in combining
poetry with tradition African, Cuban, Jazz and New Age drum rhythms. Thus leading
to the creation of "A Poet's True Love" a five character one man staged play written
and performed by himself. The success of his first play inspired a follow up for a
second title "When The Time Comes" a six character one man play about a popular
revolutionary poet's last request to his friends in honoring him before he is politically
assassinated by the CIA.
In the next two years Olutunde worked on finishing his first
full length movie titled "The Streets Speaks Of Blood" but was never produced due
to its very conversational context. Olutunde moved to Atlanta in 1996 and began a long
career in the Black Arts. In 1997 he helped design and hosted a spoken word radio
show on WRFG 89.3 called reflections. He has appeared as a guest artist several
times on PBS television, at local universities, community festivals, and the West End
performing Arts, as a poet and musician. He was an active member of a local poetry
troupe called Club Kuumba for four years and has performed his work through out Atlanta.
In 1998 he wrote, produced, and performed "The Spirit Of Nat Turner" a one man 6 skit
black history play. In 2005 he created Roaring Lion Publishing and in 2007 self-published
a collection of poetry titled "The Compositions Of A Griot". Also in 2007 he began building
a non profit organization called "The I AM A VOICE Movement" aimed at helping
young inner city children to find their voices in the performing Arts. Olutunde has revised
his previous published book and has added Folktales and Fables to his collection and
will have them released and marketed by Asta Publications in the spring of 2008. He now
lives in Atlanta Georgia and is a member of "The Black Storytellers of Georgia".
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These are live lines. They arrived when they were sorely needed by a grieving world
That knew not how to be comforted, and their siblings are already on their way.
Anacle Charles Ihuoma - Updated Monthly
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