In this episode of Odejuma, Harry speaks with Rian-Louis, host of the RIANOUTLOUD! Podcast. In this conversation, he delves into how he started the podcast in 2020 to spotlight independent Black LGBTQ+ artists and what he has learned over six years and more than a hundred conversations. He talks about the voice note that told him it mattered, the friend who talked him out of quitting, the cost of keeping a creative life running alongside a nine-to-five, and curating a new black space in Pittsburgh called Good Company. It is a conversation about how much it takes to keep showing up and the importance of archiving and documenting black queer art.

Connect with Rian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ratedrian/

Follow the RIANOUTLOUD! Podcast : https://www.instagram.com/rianoutloudpodcast/

Listen to the RIANOUTLOUD! Podcast: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/rianoutloud/

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Get Odejuma delivered straight to your inbox, alongside personal reflections on the episode, by subscribing to the Substack here: https://odejuma.substack.com/

Support my work: https://buymeacoffee.com/harryitie

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry chats with Will Rhem Jr., a dancer, choreographer, poet, and teacher raised in the Gullah Geechee culture of South Carolina. Will has danced on Broadway and taught at Columbia, but this conversation lives somewhere quieter. He talks about tending the self like a garden, the parts of him left untended that kept growing anyway, and the childhood he had to walk back through to write his poetry collection, ‘Abandoned Gardens Still Grow.’ He reflects on Gullah Geechee identity, truth-telling as his first calling, and turning healing into a short film called ‘Bloom.’ It is an unhurried conversation about resilience, self-love, and what it means to grow in the dark. He closes the episode with a reading of one of his poems, and it is worth hearing in his own voice and will definitely leave you with something to sit with.

Connect with Will on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willrhemjr/

Buy his book here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abandoned-gardens-still-grow-will-rhem-jr/1147522239

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Get Odejuma delivered straight to your inbox, alongside personal reflections on the episode, by subscribing to the Substack here: https://odejuma.substack.com/

Support my work: https://buymeacoffee.com/harryitie

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry sits down with Ozoz Sokoh, the culinary anthropologist and food explorer known to many as Kitchen Butterfly. Her debut cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria, is the first Nigerian cookbook to win a James Beard Award. Ozoz talks about being a geologist in the Netherlands and how food not only became the thing that held her far from home but also started a decades-long career archiving Nigerian food as a heritage worth keeping. It is a conversation about documenting history in real time and the power of food to bridge cultures.

Connect with Ozoz on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kitchenbutterfly/

Buy Chop Chop here: https://ozozsokoh.com/book

Watch the Zamari interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgr_iA9HAVE

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Get Odejuma delivered straight to your inbox, alongside personal reflections on the episode by subscribing to the Substack here: https://odejuma.substack.com/

Support my work: https://buymeacoffee.com/harryitie