#1
The first.
Why?
It’s mine, no algorithm. Somewhere to fit together things that don’t always fit. OK! is my initials, Oluwaseun Kayodè, and it’s an affirmation. Why? Because I’m balancing art and survival. I know I’m not the only one.
Who?
For the multi-hyphenates and shapeshifters and dreamers. For those who feel caught between brilliance and burnout. For anyone navigating a creative life with purpose and doubt and joy and rage.
What?
When I have something to say— strategically once or twice a month. Maybe:
Updates on what I’m working on.
Personal notes or public notes.
Rants, reflections, recommendations, and the random.
Things that keep me going (music, TV, books, etc.)
Prayers, poems or politics.
NEWS & UPDATES:
A Case for the Existence of God
I’ll be returning to Chester Theatre Company in Chester, Massachusetts to play the role of Keith in Samuel D. Hunter’s A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
Somewhere in the middle of America, Keith, a mortgage broker, and Ryan, a yogurt plant worker, unexpectedly let each other into their own fragile worlds. Negotiations of bank loans transform into talk of financial insecurity and the precariousness of parenthood, as the two realize they share a “specific kind of sadness.” Winner of the 2022 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play, A Case for the Existence of God is a transcendent work from the screenwriter of the Oscar-nominated film The Whale. With humor, honesty and time-bending theatricality, Hunter intertwines the lives of two ordinary men, both outsiders to the forces that govern their lives.
Levi & Toonk
Big love to the National Arts and Letters Commission of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. for selecting Levi & Toonk for Delta Films in DC, premiering at the 57th National Convention this July. Some of you know I had the pleasure of producing and directing this piece. I’m so glad it’s being seen by a wonderful community of Black women, creatives, and cultural leaders.
🗓 FRIDAY, July 11
🕣 8:20 PM
📍 Artist Pavilion, Washington, DC
🎧 Silent disco-style screening
Don’t Hate Me But…
This how ya’ll be when the margaritas come out:
Maybe get that next one with NO ICE…
Now Playing:
June is African American Music Appreciation Month, or Black Music Month. Black musicians and their contributions to music and culture continues to make an impact, all over the world. A month-long observance doesn’t do it justice. Let’s celebrate the diversity of Black people’s contributions to music— from spirituals to gospel to blues to jazz to rock and roll, to R&B to hip-hop and to and to and to and to….
Black Thunder
Brittany Davis, Evan Flory-Barnes, and D’vonne Lewis
10
Sault (Cleo Soul & Inflo)
Black on Both Sides
Mos Def (Yasiin Bey)
PRIDE!
June is also Pride month. I know the image isn’t in America. But two Nigerian women. In lace and gele. Kissing at their wedding. It could be staged. It could be artificially imagined. Regardless, it feels true.
Love, in all its forms, belongs everywhere.
Happy Pride.
Now Reading:
In this brutally honest and humorous debut, musician and artist George Watsky chronicles the small triumphs over humiliation that make life bearable and how he has come to accept defeat as necessary to personal progress. The essays in How to Ruin Everything range from the absurd (how he became an international ivory smuggler) to the comical (his middle-school rap battle dominance) to the revelatory (his experiences with epilepsy), yet all are delivered with the type of linguistic dexterity and self-awareness that has won Watsky devoted fans across the globe. Alternately ribald and emotionally resonant, How to Ruin Everything announces a versatile writer with a promising career ahead.”
Now Watching:
Prayer:
Thank you for the courage to begin.
Lord, thank you.
Thank you for a space wide enough to contain our multitudes.
Thank you for making us honest enough to stretch, to bend, and to break.
Thank you for your presence in all things.
Thank you for providing ways to feel less alone.
Thank you for reminding us why we matter.
Thank you for grace and the awareness that it’s OK not to be ready and still begin.
Amen.
Ashé.