Iyeoka Okoawo - Bio

2008-05-06T20:59:00.003-05:00

Official 2008 Bio

Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo is one of the most sought after poetry slammers in the country and a recipient of the 2008 National Performance Network/NCCC Artist of Color Residency Award.

Among her lists of credits is being asked to compose and perform a poem for a dinner event hosted for Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, being commissioned by Discovery Channel for their 2008 brand campaign, being commissioned by a top-twenty ad agency to write a piece for a diversity training tool, gracing the inaugural cover of the magazine Leverage, receiving a 2007 Massachusetts Industry Committee Hip-Hop Award for Spoken Word Artist of the year, and a New England Urban Music Award for the Best Female Spoken Word Poet of 2006. .

A 2x National Poetry Slam Individual Finalist, Iyeoka is also the only member of the nationally competing Boston Lizard Lounge Slam team to have earned her position seven years in a row. In 2008, Iyeoka's vocal talents on a cover of U2's 1988 hit song "Desire" was showcased on a compilation of U2 covers that includes All-Star Grammy Award winning African artists with proceeds benefiting the Global Fund. Iyeoka will help you to remember that there is no such thing as "slam poetry", only three minute time slots where a poet tries to inject their heart into yours. Let her. .

Cd's available online www.iyeoka.com: Black and Blues 2004 Phanai Records/ Hum the Bass Line 2007 Phanai Records/ In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2 2008 Sony Records .

need press photos? i have 2 locations for you: http://www.sonicbids.com/IyeokaIvieOkoawo (select photo gallery) http://iyeoka.com/headshots/ higher res. available upon request

2007-09-06T12:11:00.001-05:00

As a vocalist and a poet, Iyeoka's presentations are energetic interactive and always inspiring. Drawing from the spirit of your organization's mission statement, Iyeoka will seamlessly integrate your vision into her theatrical performance. Iyeoka's poetry has a way of touching the hearts of the participants you are aiming to reach and she will create just the right mood in the room.

"Iyeoka embodies such a unique gift, which she beautifully and willingly shares. It is the gift of transmuting one's personal experience into a collective expression of the human condition. She bears witness to experience with her riveting presence, her vulnerability, her joy and her sublime artistry. Her voice stirs the soul to remember what it is to be human and we become connected to all other human beings through her stories and songs."

Margaret Wheatley, author, "Leadership and the New Science" and many other writings

Recent Conferences:

June 2008

Berkana Women's Leadership Conference

Boston Ma

September 2007
Health Affairs/Narrative Matters Conference
This conference is the largest symposium that brings together leading physician-writers in the United States with interested editors and policy makers. The conference is sponsored by the health policy journal Health Affairs and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

February 2007
The Interaction Institute for Social Change presents the second Laboratory for New Thinking on Foreign at the University of Massachusetts
http://www.interactioninstitute.org/

The laboratory will focus on Justice and U.S. Foreign Policy and will explore the major foreign policy challenges the U.S. now faces. The laboratory is being designed to help grantees and Ford staff members generate new thinking on America’s role in the world, expose all of us to alternative points of view and perhaps lay the groundwork for a new consensus on Foreign Policy. The laboratory will focus on learning rather than on strategy.

December 2006
Malaria Foundation International's (MFI) 2nd Annual Business Leadership Conference
At Emory University
http://www.pr.com/press-release/23666

July 2006
Leon H. Sullivan Summit VII in Abuja, Nigeria
http://www.thesullivanfoundation.org/summit/summit/

June 2006
The Identity Mash-up Conference at the Harvard Law School
http://www.identitymash-up.org/

April 2006
SMT Conference
“Youth and the New Pan-African Renaissance: Re-Building Africa for the 21st Century”
Hosted by the Sweet Mother Tour (SMT) and the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University
http://sweetmother.org/?q=conference

2007-09-05T16:35:00.000-05:00

After a short break, the evening’s headliner, Iyeoka Okoawo, stepped up to blow the audience away with her unique combination of musical performance and poetry. Her opening was this:

An ancient Chinese proverb states: May you be granted everything you want, except this one. And may this one take you all your lifelong to achieve. May this be the one thing that you rise with in the morning, that you dream of at night, that one thing that may give your life meaning.

Accompanied by the Jeff Robinson Trio, Iyeoka’s poems, sometimes shocking and always moving, wove the evening together, integrating the strands of hope and despair and possibility that had been expressed throughout the evening.

It was made abundantly clear this night how the arts inspire us to connect more deeply with our potential to create change.

-Review from the Berkana Institute
at Rhyming for a Reason fall 2006

2006-01-26T15:11:00.000-05:00

Performance Resume- Highlights

2006

-On May 31, 2006 Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo was commissioned by the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation to compose and perform a poem for a dinner event hosted for the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame.
-Iyeoka was chosen to grace the cover of inaugural magazine Leverage.
-received a New England Urban Music Award for 2006 "Best Female Spoke Word Poet"

2005

-Iyeoka was commissioned by Arnold Worldwide, a top 20 general market ad agency headquartered in Boston, to create a spoken-word poem to be used as a diversity training tools within the company.
-Iyeoka has 2 music video's that were produced by Arnold Worldwide for poems "Revolution" and "Birth of a Brighter Sun" .

2004

-Iyeoka was the Def Poetry Jam headliner at the TBS Trumpet Awards saluting African-American achievements.
-Performed at the University of Florida in Gainesville with Chuck D. from Public Enemy
-UMASS Boston Conference on Political Prisoners with Dead Prez
-released album Black and Blues with Phanai records

2003

- Opened for the original Tony award-winning cast of Russell SimmonsÂ Def Poetry on Broadway performing at the Colonial Theater in Boston
-first poet to perform on 94.5 BostonÂs hit radio station hosted by morning show personalities Pebbles and Romero

2001

-Def Poetry Jam taped in NYC
-Avalon in Boston opening for Music Soulchild
-Boston Music Awards with the Jeff Robinson Trio
Iyeoka hold the distinction of being the only member of the Boston Lizard Lounge Slam team who has been on all 6 teams.
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2005-10-11T10:16:00.000-05:00

“My goal is simple…I just want to move the world one poem at a time.”

Boston-based Nigerian-American performing artist and award winning poet Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo is at the forefront of creating a new artistic genre that gracefully interweaves spoken word poetry with jazz, blues, gospel and neo-soul influenced song. Embracing the power of words from writers such as Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith and Alice Walker, Iyeoka is a powerful songstress whose lyrical prowess invokes the spirit of the renowned soul-shaker Nina Simone.

Fresh off a 2007 nomination and a 2006 New England Urban Music Award
for best female poet,a second top ten finish at the National Poetry Slam in Austin Texas(she placed 4th in the nation in 2000) and commissioned performances by Arnold Worldwide Advertising Agency and most recently at the 2006 Leon H. Sullivan Summit, "Africa: A Continent of Opportunities- Building Partnership for Success," in Lagos, Nigeria; Iyeoka is currently recording her follow-up CD to her highly-acclaimed full-length debut disc, Black and Blues (Phanai, Records, 2004), while seeking publication of her first poetry collection in 2007.

A story teller to the core, Iyeoka's hope-filled poems come from within and build
momentum with truth transformed into songs that reemerge as unique, emotionally
complex gifts to her audience, touching on a wide range of issues-love, women, culture, struggle, relationships, among many others.

The buzz surrounding her poem-songs has garnered her national attention through
performances at the TBS Trumpet Awards, the CBS hip hop show The Source All
Access and Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam airing on HBO. Iyeoka also has opened
for the Tony Award winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway tour
at the Colonial Theater in Boston. Sharing the stage with recording artists
Chuck D of Public Enemy, Musiq Soul Child and Vivian Greene
to poets Gil Scot Heron, Sonia Sanchez, and Amiri Baraka—
Iyeoka has more than held her own.

Across the nation, at venues ranging from universities, large concert halls, and neo-soul clubs to venerable spoken word haunts like the Nuyorican Poets Café; Iyeoka's warm spirit, stirring lyrics and passionate performances leave audiences not only entertained but visibly overcome with emotion. Widely considered one of the top performance poets in the country, Iyeoka has earned her reputation by performing on the National Poetry Slam circuit for the past eight years, with the Jeff Robinson Trio and as a member of the acclaimed Bull Horn Collective and Blackout Arts Collective.

A gifted performer, Iyeoka's acting prowess has been featured as the title character in a PBS documentary on Harriet Tubman, as well as an off-Broadway play
produced by Thema Bryant Davis. Her poem on Rwanda will also be featured in a new documentary film "Rwanda Rising" that is being Executive Produced by Andrew Young the former ambassador to the United Nations.

In 2004 Iyeoka released her second album LP "Black and Blues" through Phanai Records.Black & Blues is the solo debut album from nationally award winning slam poet Iyeoka (sounds like- tapioca), formerly one of the leaders for one of Boston poetry’s most artistically proactive groups, BlackoutBoston. The record is full of groove-laden, contemporary R&B singalongs, most recorded with a full band -- heavy on the bass, keys, and poetry-- and no reliance on sampling.Much of Black & Blues focuses on the songwriting and delivery with just enough attention paid to the groove.