Celebrating Black Voices through the Arts

Introducing Oluwatobi "TOBI" Adewumi

OLUWATOBI ADEWUMI is a contemporary artist who focuses on the sociocultural aspect of the subject through his multimedia drawings. He was born in Ibadan, capital city of Oyo State, Nigeria where he also earned a degree in computer science. His love of art and self-training began in childhood with comics and paper crafts. He works in a variety of traditional art media and contemporary mixed media. Adewumi's art explores his personal journey as a native Nigerian acclimating to American culture in conservative Arkansas. He has participated in numerous exhibitions and competitions including Drawing Exhibition: Dialogue with the Faces, at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, Arkansas, and at the 33 Chelsea Fine Art Competition/Exhibition, Agora Gallery, in New York.

ARTIST STATEMENT
With every piece of art I produce comes a story, an opportunity to provide history, a new voice, narrative, and perspective for my audience. I believe in using my artistic gift as conduit to share the stories of people and places living in different societies and cultures with a new context. My creative process and work always leads to providing platform and information for movement to discuss value and cultural shifts in the new world. Every face has a story to tell, history behind it, questions, and beauty. The use of materials in my work is calculated. I am often looking for avenues of the unexpected. An ironic twist to images or things you might expect or their combinations provoke a participant to new and perhaps unexplored territories.

My work for the past 10 years has used revealing aspects of history, which have a profound impact on our contemporary culture today. In the current climate where many believe history has no relevance, I find myself continually returning to those aspects that are often hidden or misrepresented in the “original” recordings for posterity. In my varied and diverse approaches to making art, the purpose is for the context to impact the viewer. Art remains as a strong contender of how we share our thoughts and ideas. Throughout history, art has survived the tidal wave of information and remains an unpredictable source of imagination. It has the possibilities of changing one’s thoughts, opening new ideas, and borrowing through received ideas so common to our educational system. I have no grand illusions that art will create a revolution in the traditional sense, but I have witnessed the powerful changes it can make in an individual. Just one new idea can change a person’s perception. The world may not change in an instant by art, but its slow and insipid spread into the active part of our brain lives to tell the tale. It may leave the studio and make its way around the world and yet come back to the studio where anything can happen.

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Send your email to [email protected] and a youtube link will be emailed to you. Let us know which night you will be watching.


​Cast and Crew below

Poetry is Back!!!
Starting Thursday February 4, 2021- March 4, 2021, the Poets are back for poetry workshops for Magnolia Public Schools 8th graders. This year they are coming to them virtually.

​Amin "Drew" Law is a nationally touring Palestinian-American performer, Emcee, host and activist living in Washington D.C. Amin 2-time DC poetry slam champion and winner of the 2014 Southern Fried Poetry tournament. His work has been showcased on Button Poetry, Lexus' Verses & Flow, All Def Poetry and Slam Find.
As an avid advocate for Palestinian affairs Amin has performed and spoke at several Palestinian liberation events and protests including co-founding the "Poetry for Gaza" annual event. Amin has spoke at over 50 colleges and Universities including at the University of Maryland as a part of their Tedx talk on fearless ideas. Amin helped found The Drawbridge Collective with other artists Elizabeth Acevedo, Pages Matam, Terisa Siagatonu and Clint Smith. He has presented at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs and Split This Rock festivals respectively. He has shared stages with artists Method Man, Redman, Pitbull, Biz Markie, Slick Rick, Sunni Patterson, Blaq Ice and Andrea Gibson

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Talia is a Spoken Word Poet, Author, Teaching Artist, Photographer, and Journalist. She has been published by Thought Catalog, Yahoo, The Mighty, Your Tango, SelfLoveBeauty, and Unwritten. Her book Breadcrumbs came out in September 2019. As a Spoken Word Poet, she performed at the 2018 National Poetry Slam in Chicago, the 2018 Philadelphia March To End Rape Culture, The Wilma Theatre, SoFar Sounds, and many more. She was a 2020 Top 5 Finalist for The Philly Pigeon’s Slam Season and currently teaches with Enriched Schools in Philadelphia.

SHA'CONDRIA “iCon” SIBLEY is an Alexandria, Louisiana native/New Orleans-based poet, writer, performing artist, visual artist, teaching artist, and originator of the viral “little Black girls with big names” movement. A multiple-time national poetry slam champion, Sha’Condria travels the country speaking at universities and has made many television and stage appearances, including TV One’s Verses and Flow and at mainstage at the Essence Music Festival. Her work has been featured on many outlets such as Huffington Post, For Harriet, Teen Vogue, BET, BBC World Radio, as well as in documentaries and anthologies. She has also featured on musical projects with multiple national recording artists and co-wrote two short films. Sha’Condria is the author of a poetry collection, My Name Is Pronounced Holy, and uses her work largely to speak on her existence as a Blk woman as it relates to her deep Southern American roots, reclaiming identity, spirituality, and healing. ​

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Amoja Sumler is a nationally celebrated poet, essayist and one of the preeminent emerging voices of leftist intersectional social advocacy. From his essay’s discussing the role of law enforcement to the value of capitalism he is best known for fusing the art of the intellectual into the familiar. Amoja has headlined poetry festivals such as the Austin International Poetry Festival, the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival, Write NOLA in New Orleans and Rock the Republic in Texas. As a resident artist of several southern Arts in Education rosters, Amoja lectures at schools and literacy nonprofits, while teaching creative pedagogy and keynoting at social advocacy conferences like Long Beach Indie Film Pedagogy Conference and Furious Flower, throughout the nation.