Ahanavimoniker: “Navi”

My primary medium is poetry. I like to say my poetry examines the emotions that lie under the murky waters of falling in love, growing up Nigerian and my experience as an immigrant in their 20s here in Canada. For me, the goal is attaining a deeper understanding of myself and the people and environments that raised me and are still heavily influencing me today. My poems are often structured like rants and/or prayers speaking to the uncertainties within me and the parts of my society that I do not understand. I use refrains and call/responses in my poetry to get the audience to engage with the art as I wrote it. I am heavily influenced by Nigerian authors like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Chinua Achebe and also by Black artists and poets like Maya Angelou, Kendrick Lamar, Michael Bonema (MIKE), and Arlo Parks. These artists are all deeply introspective voices that tell stories about what it means to be black, to love black and to be ambitious black. Over the past five years, I have picked up photography and videography as I developed a desire to tell stories visually. I am motivated by the sheer volume of African stories and experiences that are being told today by black filmmakers from youtube to the big screen. I want to share the beauty of my culture and identity with the world.