Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been engaged in the work of preserving history, culture and tradition. My mother started a dance troupe, the Center for African Fashion and Cultural Awareness (CAFCA), in the basement of our home when I was just 10 years old.
Through CAFCA, she fulfilled her vision of sharing her Nigerian culture and tradition throughout Upstate New York, one of the first Africans in the area to do so. We took several trips to Mbak Etoi to learn cultural dances, and practiced several hours a week in order to perform at school assemblies and local events. I spent much of my youth until college performing African dance, drumming, storytelling, and fashion shows—and at Stanford, where I went to college, I continued this work as the Director of Kuumba Dance Ensemble.
Sadly, my mother was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer—though she had never smoked a cigarette—and later died at the beginning of my senior year. The impact was devastating, but I graduated on time and went on to get a job as a global health communications professional before earning my MFA in film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
My films have screened in 14 countries worldwide, including at the Panafrican Film & Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), the Durban International Film Festival, New York African Film Festival, and Zanzibar International Film Festival. My short film, Aissa's Story, was a semifinalist in the 2013 Student Academy Awards, won Best Student Short at the 2014 Africa International Film Festival, and was a Best Short Film nominee at the 2015 Africa Movie Academy Awards.
I received a Hedgebrook Writer's Residency for my memoir, through which I laid the foundation for Elizabeth's Daughter. In my personal work, I use memoir, photos, audio, and video to explore my family’s archives as historical record. Oftentimes my vision requires I create something unlike anything I've ever seen before; that is certainly the case here. But I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to rise to the occasion, and to make real this notion I have that the work of preserving heritage, stories, language, and cultural artifacts will become one of the most essential needs for humanity in a post-COVID world. I thank you for your support.
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