Last night at Uhuru Afrika, I felt like I was in an underground club in Lagos with all of my friends who happened to be visiting me in Nigeria from the US. Yup, i felt like I was home.  I met some incredible women in the bathroom. Everyone was making eye contact and sometimes we hugged and sometimes we danced chanting “just because we’re in the bathroom and need to pee doesn’t mean that we GOTTA STOP DANCING!!!”.  This was a pretty awesome revelation–for all of us I think.

Girl with the beautiful auburn hair, girl with the fabulous pumps who admitted the fab was hurting her feet but SO WORTH IT–and of course I understood because they were indeed awesome, girl who’s gonna be traveling to Nigeria around the same time I will be there, amazing girls who saw me as an artistic spiritual connection with their incredible sister they recently lost who no doubt was in the room with us that night, girl who helped me remember why she seemed so familiar to me–we talked about how horrible it would be to have Alzheimer’s and what a gift it is to remember anything–especially good memories and beautiful coincidences, girl who went after the boy and realized immediately that he wasn’t worth her time–BIG VICTORY, told her it’s better to know now so you don’t waste your time daydreaming about someone not ready or worthy of the full potential of the manifest, girl who smiled when she saw me, guy who took a picture of me when i was having my moment then showed me my moment, guy who remembered me from back in the day at the Lizard and invited me to have coffee at his coffee shop he now runs in town, seeing dope dj guy who i’ve always seen spinning, out with the people enjoying the moment too–he even said he’d try and make my rescheduled video shoot, girl who dances, girl who I’ve know for years who I haven’t seen in years, even strange man with the strange energy who walked around firmly bumping into people in attempts to project his power—he failed miserably in my opinion—. Watching people be good to each other was really refreshing. Usually, I am surrounded by that–but usually I put alot of effort in making that kind of environment happen. This night was different—this night it would have been there whether I was there or not and that made me happy.

I have no clear ranking of all of these moments I had but here are some really great ones…

I heard my name in a song. LITERALLY. I hear the voice in the music chant—EEEYOOO–KA–eeeVeeA–Ooh-KWA-WOOh—-over and over again. Now that’s my FULL name Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo phonetically And I was looking around like—what the F! is this a joke or am I hallucinating for no reason. In fact I hadn’t even had 2 sips of my Magners–and I ask Jill and she seemed to kinda hear it too therefore confirming it. So I think I’m pretty sure I heard what I think I heard and THAT WAS AMAZING. Talk about the Universe telling you that you are supposed to be somewhere.

Last honorable mention was a healer I met readjusting her beautiful head-wrap named Christy who ended up busting out two poems for me in the bathroom after telling me she is a closet slam poet. I Never even thought that combination still truly existed—so I was intrigued. In fact, in hindsight, I doubt that she really sees herself that way.

I’d imagine she was simply looking for the right moment to shine. And last night she did. IN THE BATHROOM!!! This girl busted a poem in the bathroom. That’s the kind of magic that happens at National Poetry Slam competitions. I NEVER really expected to experience that kind of uplift of the spontaneous moment for poetry from a stranger outside of my extraordinary experiences at NPS—honestly 10 years competing at NPS gives me the vision to recognize what I am in when I am in it regarding the spirit and faith to POET freely to a stranger—and we were in it. Needless to say—i spent alot of time in the bathroom. About the same amount of the time dancing and walking through the energy in the crowd. After a number of other really incredible experiences with a number of different people at this club night I remember thinking to myself–wow–outside of when I am performing or out exploring a new city–i REALLY don’t get out that much anymore since I’ve been performing full time and touring. It felt good to be in that spirit, in that experience, in this skin, right at home here in Boston.

Listen to The Yellow Brick Road song by Iyeoka
IYEOKA MUSIC ON JANGO

PRESS RELEASE OF “HOW TO MAKE IT” & IYEOKA
PRESS RELEASE