Griot

Olutunde Igbala 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 Kumuba 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 8 skit black history play. In 2005 he created Roaring Lion Publishing and in 2007 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, now Baba Olutunde lives in Atlanta Georgia with his youths and is a member of the Black Arts council.

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