Local Knowledge: Unleashed in Art

It all started in Nigeria… I was born in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. I lived in Nigeria for twenty-seven years before I moved to Canada for my master’s program that turned into a PhD program. I am a theatre practitioner-researcher, an actor cum director/ facilitator. I am also a theatre manager who started his own theatre company in Nigeria, Theatre Emissary International. I am a community organizer who is interested in using the power of the arts to engender education, development and social transformation. I left my parents’ house very early in life – at age sixteen – because I have always loved adventure. The journey of self-discovery took me to study in Jos, the northcentral part of Nigeria where I spent six years. During those years, I experienced displacement of all sorts due to the Jos crises that lasted over eight years and still counting. We encountered physical, emotional and psychological displacements at different point in time during the crisis. As an artist and a theatre practitioner, I have developed, managed and led projects through my theatre organization. The community projects, engagements and research I have been involved in locally, nationally and internationally have been collaborative. I ensured that communities were invested in the issues, from the planning to the execution phase. I facilitated collaborations, partnered with communities, agencies and other stakeholders. Participation was important and through diverse cultural art forms – dance, drama, script, art-making, et cetera. I designed my research, collected people’s stories (data) and developed them into stage performances or any other art forms as the case may be.