Adesayo Talabi
For Black History Month, Future Figures recognises those members who are giving back to the Black community, and a spotlight on amazing individuals making Black history now.
As Part of Black History Month 1Xtra once again celebrates its Future Figures. Future Figures is a way to recognise those members who are giving back to the Black community, and a time to celebrate the countless acts that are taking place up and down the country today by those who are helping to create the black history of tomorrow.
Adesayo writes:
I am Adesayo Talabi, and I am a spoken word artist, satirist and creative whose work is heavily influenced by culture. Namely my culture as a Nigerian (Yoruba), Carribean culture and meme culture, as a way to make social commentary on news events, cultural phenomena, personal experiences and more. I have experience as a Content Lead for a start-up Tech company, an Event Marketing Associate, Freelance Journalist and as an Associate Editor. But I am Simply Sayo, the Kpoet.
I wrote my first poem in year 4, and have been writing poetry since. I created kpoetry as an ode to my Nigerian background and as a way to challenge the perception of poetry as pretentious, rigid, and one-dimensional, and have grown a well engaged audience of almost 1 milllion followers across my platforms. In the 3 years that I have been doing this, I鈥檝e developed kpoetry has become more intentional in moulding what I want my art to represent. I want to continue encouraging people to see the possibilities of poetry and realise that the renaissance of literature is in our hands, and that it can sound and look like whatever we want it to.
As a story teller, I love a good story. After studying Journalism at an undergraduate level, during which I became the inaugural winner of the George Orwell Outstanding Student Journalist Award for my hard-hitting stories and writing (making me an award winning journalist); I decided to further my studies with a Masters degree in Global media and Communications. Kpoetry developed in the purgatory of lockdown during the Covid19 pandemic, and my once-a-week in-person lectures. Being in an academic space in which I could study my craft more intently, and so an appreciation for education is one of the influences I have on my community as they celebrated my graduation as intensely as I did. I have learned to leverage my different perspectives to in order to connect with people, allowing me to satirise even the more serious and touchy subjects affecting society and the communities with which I identify.
As a spoken word artist who weaves satire, social commentary and my sense of humour into my work; I have a lot of fun with my art but it鈥檚 also very personal. I鈥檝e created my own style of poetry (kpoetry) which marries my love of sarcasm; my Yoruba heritage; and my ability to speak on a range of topics- from light hearted to difficult- in a way that does not intimidate my audience and instead compels them to want to engage more with the topic.
I owe my identity and personality to my communities. It is from them, and the culture they instil in us, that we form our identities and vocabulary- as colourful as it is. Amongst the other hats that I wear, I also embrace being called an influencer because the biggest influence I have had on my community, has been in encouraging them to donate blood- a subject very close to my heart due to personal loss, and that I鈥檝e been an active advocate for- even before I had the platform that I have now. This year, I became an NHS Blood and Transplant Ambassador and work closely with the NHS to set up blood drives and help advocate for the importance of blood donation from people of Black heritage backgrounds. In my ambassadorship, my poetry allows me to show up as an entertainer when needed; my grief allows me to show up as an empathetic story teller; but my passion allows me to show up as myself and I love that this is one of my biggest contributions and commitments to my community.
My work is bigger than my personal aspirations to be a titan of industry, it is about community and sharing contemporary stories of our times. The inspiration for kpoetry are many; besides culture, I find inspiration in the mundane everyday life events and the nuanced experiences of being human. And i think that is beautiful.
