affirmations in the key of transformation
(song)
Way Up in the air
Is Where I go.
WILL I come down?
Nobody Knows.
Like a wave to a sandcastle
Moving me to break and follow
How far will i come down
(poem)
I seek to maintain the grace of my transformation-
On the harvest moon of a positive nature
For within my deepest core there is a little girl
Devoted to gravity that floats with hope
Invested in everything beautiful
She is fine tune sensitive to the arc of a rainbow
A delirious vision in her sequence of blue skies
Spinning green from lavender to opium
Her shine -bling-blings- on the wings of paper airplanes
Her skin catches resurrected raindrops
Falling to reach the full effect of her illumination
She collapses illusions
Becoming one with the movement of life and breath
Through her eyes and heartbeats
I have already experienced an impossible transition
Emerging from a simple implant
That she can suddenly animate the horizon
Lifting the breaks of the indigo line
I am spending time guiding this light
Crossing the maze to shape shift into another perfect sunrise
………..-Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
DREAM BIG
ASSEMBLE tools to support your writing.
Start a blog. Be deliberate about what you wish to share with the world. Allow your heart to be readily available from the inside to the word that spills out of your access to personal truth.
Be a maker.
Mark your uniqueness through your level of understanding the advantages of having an intentional perspective to guide you.
When you post a video of a poem or when you make available a glimpse of your art, consider a ritual of including a personal excerpt- a poetically crafted summary of your content. When you begin creating poet statements about your concepts, even if you choose not to post it, you will begin to form a deeper understanding of the importance of your intentions to spread your words.
This process will encourage a complete expression of you as you dream in the midst of your current.
It will make it easier for you to promote your work and will in turn encourage others to understand and support your work with minimal discrepancies of your intention to grow and share with your living community.
A “Spirit Nest“
My imagination has a spirit of her own…
My personal recognition of happiness becomes connected to the actions of my imaginative spirit. She seems to have the ability to ponder future. She feels the presence of a road that can take me to doubt and a road that can turn me directly into excitement. She is aware of the rivers that could lead me to disappointment and unhappiness. She finds me an ocean that can export me back to the source of all that I consider to be joy and freedom.
Affirmation:
Today I promise to exist peacefully and welcome no overflow of immediate disturbances.
I will create a peaceful space for my mind to remain open and calm to the experiences around me.
Poetic Offering:
The power of my imagination tornadoes me into
Believing
I can build kingdoms and tribes with you.
Every vision displays a beautiful landscape
With impossible dimensions and
heaven’s fruit.
I will happily assume this view to be true
Until a new glimpse of our kingdom I am issued.
2010 Summer Spirt Garden Artist-in-Residence
The 2010 Summer Spirt Garden Artist-in-Residence, Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo is an internationally acclaimed performance poet, a frequent visiting teacher at the Esalen Institute and a 2010 TED Global Fellow. Iyeoka’s residency will include an evening performance of her poems and songs from her upcoming album “Say Yes” for “An Evening with Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo” on Saturday, August 21st at 8pm at the Big Sur Spirit Garden.
The Big Sur Spirit Garden Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program brings innovative, world-class artists to Big Sur for a month long residency sponsored by supporters of the Spirit Garden. While in residence, artists teach an interdisciplinary workshops, present a public event, and participate in community outreach. The program gives exposure to working touring artists, provides opportunities for collaboration with the local community of artists and teachers, and strengthens programmatic ties among poets, musicians, visual artists, dancers and other community arts entities. Past Artist in Residence include actress and educator Akuyoe Graham, Felix “Pupy” Insua Obbalubbe of Havana Cuba, and renowned American jazz trumpeter and composer, Hannibal Lokumbe.
The Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program is made possible by Jayson Fann, Founder and Director of the Big Sur Spirit Garden and the Esalen International Arts Festival.
General Introductions to Magic and the Art of Choice
If You Make Magic LONG Enough,
It WILL Find A Way To Swallow YOU Whole.
I Would LIKE To Know what IT Feels Like…
To Be Swallowed Whole By MAGIC.
-Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
Shaping The Pulse Of A Moment
If she looks like she’s searching for magic, she probably is. Part of the MAGIC in my journey comes when I am able to recognize the bluest of blues and identify which moment is the GIFT in a given circumstance. More gift can be your next breath. More gift can be the feeling of being understood right down to the grooves and the splinters embedded in the driftwood. The PULSE moves on as a day to day journey of learning, remembering and connecting the dots to heighten the signs you believe in that show you just how clearly you have found the right one.
The Art of Choosing My Current
My current has taken me to Big Sur where I am completing an Artist-In-Residence at the Big Sur Spirit Garden in California. Here I am processing my 18 months of touring and transition, of testifying and transformation. I am updating my poems. I am documenting the new songs that are still producing music inside of me. I am reflecting on my extraordinary experiences at TED and the 2 weeks spent in Venice CA to complete work on my album after returning from my Fellowship and the conferences in Oxford, England. I am working on my STAY POET book. I am gathering a collection of my finest spoken and page poems for my very first book of poetry. All this, while my heart still travels with my TriBe of family and friends in Boston, my family in Nigeria, my global TED Fellows fam, my Boston Poetry SlamTeams and all the rest of my fambots attending the 21st National Poetry Slam competition taking place this week in Saint Paul MN full of poets making choices of which poem to share for 3 minutes and 10 seconds of a magic moment.
At some point, you may wonder how I got here…wherever “here” becomes. I am simply following the current. From here, when I am at peace with my choices, it is a lovely ocean that stretches from the tornado to the rainbow.
To my Word Speaking Tribe I recommend a further depth of reflections regarding the art of choices and I guide you to TED presenter Sheena Iyengar. She is one of the women I enjoyed listening to at TED Global in Oxford and one that I was grateful to reference once I settled back into my residency in Big Sur CA. I enjoyed her mention of Robert Frost in the end and her shout out to POETRY. In my opinion, Sheena offered an interesting group of different thought processes under simple names and references we could understand. As a poet, I appreciated her offering.
Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo is an internationally acclaimed performance poet, a guest Visiting Teacher at the Esalen Institute and the current Big Sur Spirit Garden Artist in Residence. Her month-long residency will conclude in a theatrical performance of her poems and songs from her upcoming Album on Saturday, August 21st at 8pm.
| Aug 21, 2010 | 8:00 PM | Big Sur Spirit Garden | Big Sur, CA |
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| Big Sur Spirit Garden Artist in Residence, 2010 TED Global Fellow and Recording artist IYEOKA presents a collection of songs, poems and LIVE music with special guest musicians. Tickets $15 All Ages | |||||
THIS IS MY MEDICINE
Prescription: Think of a time when your heart hurts
WARNINGS: Fill this with love ONLY
IMPORTANT: Imagine a beautiful person singing this to you…
Do not use if the seal is punctured or broken and the heart does not belong to you rendering the said heart no longer visible.
TO OPEN (verse):
Pretty, pretty please
When you are ready for me
I will send you a song
So you know that I’m here
Believe that all of my focus
Keeps pulling for you
I’ll sing you these words
To lullaby your moves
USUAL DOSAGE (chorus):
I can love you…
I can love you
Oh..Oh..Oooooh-Oh..Oh..Oooooh
Oh..Oh..Oooooh-Oh..Oh..Oooooh
I can love you…
I can love you
verse:
When your moon hits my light
Like a river in the sky
And a GREEN full of
blossoming seasons
You will feel me
You will feel me
You will feel how our world
Is changing….
chorus:
OH! -I can love you…
I can love you
Oh..Oh..Oooooh-Oh..Oh..Oooooh
Oh..Oh..Oooooh-Oh..Oh..Oooooh
I can love you…
I can love you
I can feel when the world is spinning around
And all of our dreams lead to making more
brilliant musical interlude
created by him
chorus:
OH! -I can love you…
I can love you
Oh..Oh..Oooooh-Oh..Oh..Oooooh
Oh..Oh..Oooooh-Oh..Oh..Oooooh
I can love you…
I can love you
lyrics by
Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
future music with
Underground Sun
WHEN THE “SIDE PROJECT” BECOMES THE BIG DEAL
I believe we have the ability to shift our minds to intersect with the most relevant voice inside of us. That voice may have more relevance than you could have ever imagined.
I decided to choose Evan Williams’s 2009 Longbeach TED talk to profile because of the first 2 minutes. Evan describes an experience of being in the process of deciding which way to go with his company ODEO, when he and Jack Dorsey initiated a side project called Twitter.
My intention is to encourage us to creatively multitask whenever possible. Think of what you are capable of and invest a little time each day to watching that plan come closer to the next brick and even closer to your next step. Not only will manifesting your side project ideas bring you closer to a fulfilled spirit, it can also make a big difference to someone collaborating with you or experiencing the benefits of your project.
My side project back in 1997 was creating and performing my poetry with a live improv Jazz band every Sunday night at an open mic while I was still studying pharmacy and attending Northeastern University, Bouve College of Health Sciences. Performing poetry with the Jeff Robinson Trio fulfilled me spiritually at the time. My brother Oz and I used to call our Sunday experience of writing a new poem to perform with the band every week at the Lizard Lounge “church“. Then we would giggle like little school girls. Mostly Oz would actually.
At the time, we followed a path subconscious to the position it would later hold on our individual roads towards growth. There were moments when we fully recognized the presence of the poet inside of us. These were the moments “lifestyle” engaged in the process of becoming stitched and embedded into the fabric of our every day “projects” transforming the words we create into a big deal.
IYEOKA’S CURRENT ‘SIDE PROJECT’: The TWEET POEMS network. The NEW haiku.
THE ROLE OF TWEET POEMS: The focus of this network is to empower POETS to join a supportive initiative to create new POEMS under 140 characters multiple times a day.
TO JOIN: Click here. TWEET POEMS will be accepting only 150 members.
ACTION OF THE DAY: Name your next “SIDE PROJECT”. Forget about time when you make your choice. Imagine the possibility of whatever you imagine becoming a really big deal.
REFLECTIONS OF a TED FELLOW (word 001)
As Fellows, we have seemed to have all naturally and rapidly evolved into these passionate global Ambassadors of the fellowship that selected us from all around the globe.
not my words but so Wiki-TRuE and mostly used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who work together as peers in the pursuit of knowledge or practice.
yes i looked it up. I had to. I appear to be actively living several definitions and variations of my current existence and i want to know what it all means. I am looking at my hands and my pen, my voice and my microphone, inquisitive with visions of what I have been selected to become.
I have witnessed an incredible thing, my friends.
The incredible things also happen to be information that I am really excited to share. First of all, thank you for all the emails and phone calls asking me about my experience at a TED conference as a “TED Fellow”–kind of a new-ish term at TED. This is only the 2nd class of TED Global Fellows- a new initiative.
My confession is that I was gifted with silence for 4 days after my experience in Oxford last week. Yup. I lost my voice. I saw it coming of course. It began on tuesday night at the Late Night event honoring the Fellows hosted by Johnnie Walker at the Freud Bar where I was the featured presenting artist. I was so excited about singing and playing my tambourine drum. It may have been a combination of drinking lots of exquisite top shelf whiskey with all my TED Fellows in the room as well as Imogen Heap and I LOVE Imogen Heap and I was having SO much fun singing and dancing that I pushed my voice a little too far forgetting all my important breath work that I intentionally teach to help me remember to do it. I talked so much the days between the 11th and the 16th my voice began it’s process of retreat and forced me to rejuvenate.
Rejuvenation is the reflection I am connected to at this moment. In my work as an educator in the midst of completing my first major album release, my spirit was aging so quickly with all the new and incredible moments I was moving. I needed an opportunity to allow my spirit to absorb a source of a different color. The color included red spelling the name TED.
TED is owned by a non-profit foundation and devoted to “ideas worth spreading”. This is the platform that brought us all together.
The tag was a simple promise, one that we have been more than willing to participate in exploring.
I experienced this particular Talk in Oxford on Wednesday morning of the 2010 TED Global Conference. It was the day after a VERY late night the previous night at the Late Night hosted by Johnnie Walker. I was so proud of myself for making it on time to the 8:30 am morning Session 3 live from the Simulcast Lounge, a colorful comfy chair, bean-bagged room that slingshot the sweet aroma of coffee, tea and honey. This was a great place to view the talks if you were unable to make it to the Main stage theater before it reached capacity. So there I was, watching Elif Shafak pull words and meaning into focus in her talk that included mention of spiritual companions, parallel conversations, and gaps that effect stories. So much happened between us in those 18 minutes. The effect resembled rejuvenation and a determination for my spirit to explore the joys of creating more moments to writing. I am so ripe now remembering how fully I surrendered to applying what she spoke with the life as a writer that I am currently living. When you have time to watch this talk, give thanks to the soon becomING your current.
Let me know what speaks to you and I will continue to give you glimpses of what spoke to me.
Elif Shafak explicitly defies definition — her writing blends East and West, feminism and tradition, the local and the global, Sufism and rationalism, creating one of today’s most unique voices in literature.
BRAVE NEW VOICES in LA………YAaaaAAAAaaAA!!!!
HERE is the arc of our influences…
Oh yes…it’s back!!! The international poetry youth slam event of the year. It is the event that showed me how imperative it is for me to empower MORE youth to pick up this incredible art form that is steadily shifting and inspiring us into limitless directions. Since my invitation last year to host, perform and present my STAY POET professional development workshop at Brave New Voices in Chicago in 2009, I went on to winning a title at the Individual World Poetry Slam competition and spending my year implementing this passion to focus on the youth as often as I am able. I have such an incredible personal story to spread and I have seen countless youth who have picked up a pen to explore and implement the strategic retelling of just as many incredible stories.
On the record
We speak for more than just ourselves with our poems.
TIPS TO SLAM:
-Create a voice that has an intention
-The subject can be a struggle. Pick one that allows you to offer your unique voice or a new perspective.
-It’s ok if poetry begins as just a hobby for you. The more you write, the better you will become at your hobby. Your interest will go on and on until the break of dawn. The break of dawn for me was the moment I implemented a plan to leave my full time, well paying pharmacy job to write and perform my poems full time.
-There is a part of life not being documented. Find it. Write about it. Slam it. Then stay a poet.
At the Brave New Voices festival there is an event featuring the finalists of the Global Climate Change poetry contest, this event takes place on Wednesday, July 21st at Club Nokia. Winners gain a free trip to The Sundance Film Festival in January 2011.
BRAVE NEW VOICES SPEAK GREEN
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE FESTIVAL THIS WEEK VISIT: http://www.bravenewvoices.org/
Iyeoka, who was recently selected as a 2010 Global TED Fellow
attended the TED Global Conference last week in Oxford, England. She had been invited to present songs off her latest EP “Yellow Brick Road”.
Iyeoka is currently back in LA filming her “behind the music” video journey leading to the completion of her debut album with Underground Sun based in Venice CA. The record will be released as a new full length album in the fall of 2010.
LYRICS to 2 songs from Iyeoka (requested by lovers of lyrics–so here it is)
this time around
VERSE 1:
If the only sun shining for me now
Was over a mountain or around a hill
If all i ever needed in this life time of unfamiliar
Was freedom from a wishing well
If we could ride a storm for a thousand years
hands picking cotton till we all remembered how to heal
No matter what the song says/ No matter what the soul says
This time around were gonna know exactly why we came here
CHORUS:
This Time around
The days are changing
Like Never before
This time around
This time around
All the world may never know
What happens if we stop dreaming
VERSE 2:
He remembers stepping out the front door into a storm of rain
she remembers chasing empty with old memories of better days
As simple as the air we breathe coming in a little cleaner
Take a moment to sing for love to bring on a new season for this change
Chorus
This Time around
The days are changing
Like Never before
This time around
This time around
All the world may never know
What happens if we stop dreaming
BRIDGE***
This Time around
We’re gonna watch the sunrise
These days are changing
Like never before
What happens if we stop dreaming
This time around
Chorus
This Time around
The days are changing
Like Never before
This time around
This time around
All the world may never know
What happens if we stop dreaming
Move your soul to let more love in
Find the door is finally open
See the clouds of pollution breaking…
this time around
Take a moment to sing for love
Take a moment to sing for love
Take a moment to sing for love…
this time around
Was over a mountain or around a hill
If all i ever needed in this life time of unfamiliar
Was freedom from a wishing well
hands picking cotton till we all remembered how to heal
No matter what the song says/ No matter what the soul says
This time around were gonna know exactly why we came here
This Time around
The days are changing
Like Never before
This time around
All the world may never know
What happens if we stop dreaming
He remembers stepping out the front door into a storm of rain
she remembers chasing empty with old memories of better days
Take a moment to sing for love to bring on a new season for this change
This Time around
The days are changing
Like Never before
This time around
All the world may never know
What happens if we stop dreaming
This Time around
We’re gonna watch the sunrise
These days are changing
Like never before
What happens if we stop dreaming
This time around
This Time around
The days are changing
Like Never before
This time around
All the world may never know
What happens if we stop dreaming
Find the door is finally open
See the clouds of pollution breaking…
this time around
Take a moment to sing for love
Take a moment to sing for love…
this time around
the Yellow Brick Road song
| Written by: |
| Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo ©
Verse 1- I see this fantasy taking me from Kansas to serenity chorus- I know how possible we are Verse 2- Pressing on in the eyes of a wise man’s conspiracy chorus- I know how possible Bridge- bum bah dum bum bah dum bum bah There’s no tornado Verse 3- Pressing on in the eyes of the child that’s inside of me Yeah! chorus- I know how possible Outro- I know just how possible bum bah dum bum bah dum bum bah So possible/This is where we belong |
| Written by: IYEOKA IVIE OKOAWO |
So THAT’S what they mean by “Your Brain On TED”
I’m sure a TED Conference is a perfect fit for plenty of people, but I’m just soaking in all the benefits this type of conference serves to feed a poet like me. These days, my poems are my work and my work are my poems. I am like soil on fertilizer. Every talk spins me into a testimony of thought. Due to excessive nutrients of my ripe creative canvas and constant opportunities to have a couple of dozen friends discuss how we could blissfully and diligently implement Ruth Ann Harnisch‘s talk and how to find time to experience a few lessons suggested from “Six Things I Learned During Six Months of Doing Nothing”, I am anticipating a high return on my goal to experience long term sustainability of my nurtured spirit. Here is a short list of the gems I received from Ruth. They were thoughts I never knew I needed to hear until the messages resonated enough for me to share them with my pen and paper.
I narrowed it down to a top 3 tailor made message just for me that appeared to synthesize loud and clear.
1) I can do nothing whenever I want. Is your time constantly being hijacked by other people?
2) All I want to do is breath and eat. Imagine giving yourself a permission slip to experience this sometime in the near future.
3) Try not to live your life like it’s a habit. You deserve so much better than these common features of an automatic behavior: lack of awareness, unintentionality, uncontrollability.
An independent thought:
IF SOMETHING IS NOT WORKING, CHANGE SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT YOU aRe DOING.
And Now the Good News…
I’m off to Oxford today as a 2010 TED Global Fellow! To be far away from home is not always easy for me. Oxford was an easy destination to say YES to. What helps me in the abundance of necessary travel is the understanding that what we were meant to experience is not always going to be available to us at home.
The gift about the TED process is this…
I was required to dig deep and answer many questions regarding what I am doing with my lifeforce, my work, my art, my music and why I have chosen this particular path. It has been a fascinating experience to discover those who find my path relevant to showcase to a larger community outside of the tribes already exposed and supportive of my work and journey.
I decided to answer the call to present as a TED Fellow because it was the right time. The right time presented itself the moment I recieved a twitter message from a friend who recognized the direction of my journey. Sometimes I find it necessary to slow down and respond to the unscripted opportunities drifting around me. This is when the road to a TED Global Conference became my current destination.
There are a series of questions I have been asking myself regarding what I would like to accomplish with my movement of my new music and poetry. What part of me that is changing and growing can be a good idea worth spreading with a community encouraged to listen?
I have a very good sense of what the answer is and part of the bigger gift to myself is to allow these ideas of changing and growing to stay with me until the moment arrives for me to finally share the good news to all of global family.
How Season 7 of “So You Think You Can Dance” is Revolutionizing the Institution of Dance
A major theme for me has been centered around my very personal desire to change and grow.
When I think of the type of support I need to travel the extra distance of this existence, I think of my family, my friends, my colleagues and fans who have encouraged me for over a decade to continue to invest and pursue my art. I am grateful for a series of landmark experiences that has helped me believe that I could achieve more.
At the core of the series “So You Think You Can Dance”, I have recognized a similar level of support demonstrated in the producers and choreographers involved in the show. This year in particular, SYTYCD is becoming even more focused on their goals to, as Debbie Allen put it 2 seasons ago, “revolutionize the art of dance”.
This season, only 10 finalists will be selected from intensive auditions and then paired with an “all-star” competitor from a previous season. Not only do I think this to be a brilliant marketing plan for the show, especially from a fan’s perspective, but I think the mentorship potential of having a mixed competitors union can further the spirit that SYTYCD is capable of igniting in the audience and the growing genre the show is hoping to directly inspire.
Before I head off to the west coast to finally complete my album and consequently loose access to my beloved DVR, I decided to watch a marathon of 6 episodes of the series. In one of the episodes, a judge travels to the home of a contestant where the dancer and the family await the word on whether they have been selected for the final cast. The compassion and love exhibited by Nigel Lythgoe, who is also the show’s executive producer, Mary Murphy, Mia Michaels, and the other judges truly demonstrated to me what I believe pulls a priceless human element to the experience and the harsh reality of rejection and success in the world of competitive arts.
I LOVE this show. I love seeing the support exhibited by these families for their children who are so passionately pursuing their dream. Unlike the typical American Idol contestant, all of the dancers who make it to Vegas seem to have a deeper connection to their dream and a raw drive to excel in the diversity of dance. With attitudes of “whatever may come”, and “their is no other option for me but this movement”, I am humbled watching their level of commitment.
And they come.
Year after year you see these young dancers return a little bit stronger with hopes that this year might be the year the world will recognize why they keep coming back to dance and be challenged. SYTYCD has seemed to tap into the natural FACT that there is more to it then just a dance and a dancer. There is truly something special about the experience of watching passionate people grow and fully blossom in a summer, in a year, in a decade.
On another related note, it is MY DREAM to create a composition that will one day be recognized and used for a choreographed moment at a rehearsal, an audition or at show time for SYTYCD. I often find motivation to write songs by imagining ways a dancer could connect to my lyrics and to the melody and the music. I like to think that there is a bigger purpose behind why I keep getting pulled season after season to witness these major transformations in these contestants. I feel myself breathing, dancing, laughing, crying, cheering and growing with them.
I am currently creating some extremely compelling songs with my producer Francis Phan and my producer, songwriting partner David Franz for this new album we will release in the Fall. Many of these songs I have been intentionally creating with the hopes to inspire an audience of dancers and choreographers to access the full potential of their art with help from the music.
-Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
Poet, Recording Artist
2010 TED Global Fellow
The heart truly blossoms through the human enchantment of being in love.
(TODAY. because the eclipse happened
and i missed it because i was busy
loving you.)
I may have missed the partial eclipse
that
passed
through us today, my love—
But I was THERE
For your voice that
Swept me spiral like fertile roots of earth
Floating
On
Thunder.
Your stream of light
Is dangerously gifted and
Glorius— in
a WAY that
Doesn’t want to hurt you
Because it traveled too far
To find you
and just turn
Away.
-iyeoka ivie okoawo
Regarding Iyeoka and pharmacy and her reaction to a desire to CHANGE & GROW…
I would find time to write when i was in my pharmacy classes.
When the teacher was lecturing, i would write in the margins of my notebook– poems…words.
It’s what would keep me awake during the class. That, and over sized thermoses of caffeine. While studying for any of my major pharmacy exams, I would block out half an hour segments to write poems. It was one of the most aggressive things I did to contribute to my sanity.
When I became a licenced pharmacist, I would prop up a piece of paper with a new hand written poem on the bottom of my computer screen and I would memorize my poems while I checked and inputted prescriptions. I had no scheduled lunch breaks working retail with CVS. So I would go to the bathroom periodically and write whenever I was hit with major inspiration. I was always building towards balance. After 5 years of working full time, anywhere between 60 and 42 hours a week I decided to cut my hours down from 42 hours a week to 30 hours a week to make more time for my writing and open the doors to performance opportunities. After 2 years of working in this way and after realizing 30 hours was still too much of my time to spend a week in the pharmacy, I took a 3 month leave of absence from a job and a company I had worked with for 10 years, first as a student, then as an intern, and finally as a licensed health care professional. After I left, I never came back as a full time pharmacist again. For a little while, it felt good to pop in and work a few shifts with CVS here and there. However, after a year or so of working one or 2 shifts a month, I would find myself dreading the thought of going back into the pharmacy. My heart was not into it anymore and I lost the deep connection I had with the community and my co-workers. At times I felt like an impostor. I knew I could do the job very well, but I did not feel like I belonged there. Sometimes you know, and I knew.
Fast forward…I am moving forward. I respect my past.
And I am so grateful to have found the courage to react to my desire to change and grow.
-Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
Iyeoka, who is scheduled to present and teach a workshop at the 2010 Esalen International Arts Festival in Big Sur CA, was recently selected as a 2010 Global TED Fellow and will be attending the TED Global Conference this July in Oxford, England. She has been invited to present two songs off her latest EP “Yellow Brick Road”, This Time Around and The Yellow Brick Road Song, which was also featured on an episode of HBO’s new hit series How To Make It In America. Iyeoka will be releasing a new full length album in the fall of 2010.
The TED Fellows program helps world-changing innovators from around the globe become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities. Fellows are drawn from many disciplines that reflect the diversity of TED’s members: technology, entertainment, design, the sciences, the humanities, the arts, NGOs, business and more.
Super Eagles- Shine Like the Light
Location: EDO STATE, NIGERIA
In this Video: IYEOKA & the Nigerian National Football team the Super Eagles.
Why: Because african football is more than just a sport. It unifies nations. Nigeria is proud to be a part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. “Shine Like The Light” represents the pride and light and the spirit of people who dance in unity from Nigeria to the rest of Africa and the world.
SONG ROLL CALL: “RAISE YOUR FLAG IN THE AIR WITH THE GREEN WHITE GREEN…”
Taylor Mali and me
I’m glad i made it out to Taylor Mali‘s feature last night at the Cantab. I learn a little bit more every time I watch him present. He has become one of those natural mentors who has managed to magically settle into an uplifting rhythm to inspire my artistic development. After asking me if there was any ‘funny’ in my new short EP YELLOW BRICK ROAD, which i gifted him after his feature, he writes on the inside cover of his new book the LAST TIME as WE ARE: For Iyeoka, I will point out the humor in your life if you point out the music in mine. -Taylor Mali
The LEADERS of the WORD speaking TriBe (are)
=an ENSEMBLE of Poets and Writers who choose to speak, whisper, or slam the words hand written on the page.
=a group a poets who have known each other for 10+ years predominantly through the poetry slam circuit.
Spotlight:
These days, Iyeoka spends just as much time in a Venice CA vocal booth recording songs to appear on her new record than on the main stage rocking and weaving her poems like it’s a free-styling lifestyle. She is one of the best slam poets in the nation as a two-time National Poetry Slam Individual Finalist and with a 2nd place title at the 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam competition. Iyeoka spends much of her time in communities around the country inspiring new writers to start speaking the word and seasoned poets to continue to spread the word.
In her words:
Pluses to being a part of the slam family
“Everyone pushes each other…”
Best part of being a poet
“…traveling the country and the world, most of the times with your friends, writing poems daily…word.”
Why is now the time to bring together leaders of this Word speaking triBe
“We have to get together to make our verbal sport better.
The art of Speaking a poem involves the process of taking a survival grip on freedom. It’s a blessing to travel and share that revelation.”
Between You and Kim Howard
A Love Poem
And now the thunder and the beautiful sound of lightening coupled with raindrops. This music Is my favorite.
If We could write another love song
Together
that would
trigger the memory
of my body
moving
beside,
beneath, and on top of your gift–
This song would be
Recognized
By a thousand lovers
Of all
Seasons &
Colors
Separated
By distance
Working to the bone
For a chance to be
Reunited under the
Stars. Full moon. Fire and night dancing on tempo bridging ritual & rain–passion follows us always. Kiss me. Your touch is beautiful–tender
feather soft,
Like Truth
–I know LOVE, and we are so much closer to YES
Than almost–
I know tonight I am far away from you. Perhaps too far for u to complete the taste of my lips full and catch
My heart ready
My fire lifted by
moonlight–
just know that I know you lover. For now, More in spirit than the details.
Temporary distance will not cause me to forget how to come back to
The melody of our new
Song.
Nneka performs “Heartbeat” LIVE @ the Wiltern in LA May 29th 2010
Nneka and I are reppin’ Nigeria hard. This woman is a beautiful spirit on an incredible path to changing something of great significance for our country. As we embark on a journey towards national healing and 50 years of our country’s independence from hundreds of years of colonization– our music will keep us from falling apart. I’m looking forward to watching Nneka settle into her role as a leader of our new soul-songwriter triBe. She is inspiring many woman to invest in their power and natural effortless beauty. I’m looking forward to working on a song together with sister Nneka. I’ll manifest the seed on my June trip to Nigeria next week. Ill start something for us.
I’ll be shooting the video for SUPER EAGLES Shine Like the Lights! My promo team reports we have song placement circulating in Abuja of Shine Like the Lights playing in the background when news anchors report on our National Soccer Team and their road to success at the FIFA 2010 World Cup.
Check out this video. My favorite song of the entire evening. Fyi- It was REALLY difficult to stand still and capture this video. I really wanted to dance. Listen for my warrior songstress battle cry when Nneka transitions from her pre-tribute into Heartbeat.
when Nneka came to Boston 
CONGRATULATIONS TO IYEOKA IVIE OKOAWO 2010 TEDGlobal FELLOW
AND NOW THE GOOD NEWS…
The 2010 TEDGlobal Fellows will join the TED community in Oxford for a Fellows pre-conference and for TEDGlobal 2010: “And Now the Good News.”
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where three exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action, and TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world. Follow TED on Twitter, twitter.com/tedtalks, or on Facebook, www.facebook.com/TED
TEDGlobal 2010, “And Now the Good News,” will be held July 13-16, 2010, in Oxford, UK. TED2011, “The Rediscovery of Wonder,” will be held Feb. 28 – March 4, 2011, in Long Beach, California, along with TEDActive, a simulcast conference of TED2011, in Palm Springs, California.
FULL PRESS RELEASE of TED announcement click here.
Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo is currently traveling between Boston MA, Venice CA, and Big Sur CA leading poetry and voice expression workshops while working on her highly anticipated, fan-supported self-titled album project due out in September with producers David Franz and Francis Phan.
Iyeoka will be performing w/ the Rock by Funk Tribe at the
2010 Esalen International Music & Arts Festival on July 3rd in Big Sur CA
The World Music, Dance and Arts Festival 2010 features six weekend workshops, a group of visual exhibitions, and a special music and dance celebration on the afternoon of July 3. Buy tickets online at www.esalen.org or by calling 831-667-3000. Workshop participants receive free admission to the arts and music festival. Registration for Iyeoka’s workshop in NOW OPEN.
space is limited. Click here for more into and to register.
69 BACKERS $7,970 PLEDGED OF $10,000 GOAL 34 HOURS TO GO…
THIS PROJECT WILL ONLY BE FUNDED IF AT LEAST $10,000 IS PLEDGED BY THURSDAY MAY 27, 11:59PM EDT.
TO PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT—–> click here now: http://kck.st/aZkG2O
