Porsha Olayiwola facts for kids

Porsha Olayiwola (/ˈpɔɹʃəː ˈəʊl ˌji.wɔ ː lɑː/ por-shuh o-la-yi-war-la; born June 11, 1988) is a Black American poet based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Early life

Of Nigerian descent (her father being a Yoruba man from Lagos), Olayiwola was born in Chicago. When Olayiwola was a child, her father was abruptly deported to Nigeria, forcing her mother to struggle alone to raise and support Olayiwola and her siblings. Olayiwola occasionally writes about the pain of growing up without her father physically present.

When speaking to Boston Hassle about how she discovered performance poetry, Olayiwola stated, “I used to write all kinds of things when I was in middle school. I was running for electoral office in eighth grade, and my speech was a poem. But it was a high school teacher who suggested Louder Than a Bomb, which is the largest youth spoken-word festival in the world that happens in Chicago. It was the first time I heard other young people writing well-crafted poems, and also the first time I was able to come up with what I thought at the time was a very cohesive piece. And I haven’t stopped writing since that moment.”

As an undergraduate, she performed poetry non-competitively on campus at the University of Illinois.

In 2010, after finishing her degree, Olayiwola moved to Boston to serve as an AmeriCorps*VISTA for the National Coalition for the Homeless. She worked as the dean of enrichment at Codman Academy for five years and volunteered at Pine Street Inn, a homeless shelter in Boston.

Career

Olayiwola holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in African American Studies and Gender and Women Studies from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and an MFA from Emerson College.

In 2019, she was appointed the Poet laureate of Boston.

Her first poetry collection, i shimmer sometimes, too was released in 2019 by Button Poetry.

In 2020 her work was included in the exhibition Women Take the Floor at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Olayiwola is the Artistic Director at Massachusetts Literary Education and Performance (MassLEAP), an artistic nonprofit that empowers Massachusetts youth through writing, social justice, and community.

Olayiwola founded and led the first Roxbury Poetry Festival hosted at Blair Lot in Nubian Square on June 5, 2021. The festival included a keynote address from 2020 Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Jericho Brown and a live poetry slam, which awarded two local poets with Button Poetry book deals.

In September 2022, MFA and ICA-featured multimedia artist Stephen Hamilton unveiled a piece he created in Olayiwola's likeness titled, “Iya Ogun” Acrylic, enamel, and natural dyes and pigments on wood and Hand-woven and hand-dyed fabric.

In October 2022, she performed her poem, "SESTINA", at a Celtics pre-game ceremony for the opening game of the 2022-23 NBA season at T.D. Garden in honor of Bill Russell.

In November 2022, The Boston Globe announced that Olayiwola and Bing Broderick would create a bookstore in Fields Corner that would be “culturally curated, radically influenced, and locally inspired.” They plan to open the store by the fall of 2023.

Personal life

In 2016, Olayiwola began a relationship with New York City's former Poet Laureate, Crystal Valentine. In 2017, they collaborated on poetry show, LEVITATE, focused on Black queer womanhood. In 2023, Olayiwola and Valentine became engaged.

Poetry Competitions

Women of the World Poetry Slam

Olayiwola placed 2nd out of 72 poets at the Women of the World Poetry Slam Denver in 2012. She competed again, in 2013, at WoWPS Minneapolis and placed 4th out of 72.

Individual World Poetry Slam

In 2014, Olayiwola won the Individual World Poetry Slam in Phoenix. In 2015, she tied for 7th place with Javon Johnson at the competition in D.C.

National Poetry Slam

In an effort to create a free poetry slam space that centered the voices of Black poets, Olayiwola and Janae Johnson co-founded The House Slam in October 2014 at the Haley House Bakery Café in Roxbury.

In August 2015, Olayiwola coached and competed with House Slam at the National Poetry Slam Oakland where they beat 71 other teams to become champions in their first year. House Slam was the first Boston poetry slam team to compete at NPS, and thus, was the first Boston poetry slam team to win nationals. In its founding year, House Slam also became “the first venue in history to simultaneously hold the country’s three major slam titles,” according to the event's host, Poetry Slam Inc.

In 2016 in Decatur, and again, in 2017 in Denver, House Slam, coached by Olayiwola, won their way back to the NPS Final Stage and ranked third both years.

Brave New Voices

In August 2016, Olayiwola coached Mass LEAP's first team at Brave New Voices D.C. where they placed in the semi-finals. In 2017, she coached Mass LEAP's team at BNV Bay Area, which placed 2nd overall, and earned a spot performing on final stage for 3,200 people at the San Francisco Opera House. Again, in 2018, Olayiwola coached Mass LEAP's team at Brave New Voices Houston, where they took 4th place overall.

College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational

In April 2017, Olayiwola coached the Wellesley Out Loud team and the Fundamental Lyricists of Wheelock team, both in their first year of existence, at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational University of Illinois Chicago. Team Wellesley placed 35th and Wheelock placed 18th, out of 72 teams. In April 2018, Olayiwola coached Wellesley Out Loud's team at CUPSI Temple University, where they ranked 4th out of 66 teams.

Awards

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where Olayiwola was the artist in residence in 2021.

Championships

• 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Phoenix
• 2015 National Poetry Slam Champion, Oakland

Residencies

• The Boston Foundation Brother Thomas Fellow, 2019
• Live Arts Boston Grantee, Afrofuturistic Storytelling, 2019
• Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture Boston Poet Laureate, Jan 2019 - Dec 2022
• Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, 2020
• Brown University Heimark Artist-in-Residence, 2020
• Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Artist-in-Residence, 2021
• Just Buffalo Literary Center Fellow, 2021
• Brandeis University Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence, 2022
• Studios at MASS MoCA Massachusetts Artist Fellow, 2022
• UW–Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives Interdisciplinary Artist-in-Residence, 2023