FEATURE SPOTLIGHT: AN INTERVIEW WITH Oronike Odeleye

We are proud to be partnering with NBAF on their Black Music Month Event Rappers Delight. We had the opportunity to sit down

with Oronike Odeleye, Artistic Director at NBAF. Oronike Odeleye is a skilled Arts & Entertainment

Project Manager with over 20 years’ experience in Business Administration, Account Management, and

Event Planning and Logistics in service of artists, organizations, and projects aimed at creating meaningful

public engagement with Art & Culture of Africa and the Black Diaspora.

SFI: So first I wanted to ask what the inspiration was behind the black music month event rapper's delight. 

Oronike: Well, the inspiration really came from wanting to, you know, always kind of highlight the contribution of African Americans in music. So, every year NBAF is doing a Black History Month program which deals with, you know, any kind of art discipline and a black music month program. And you know, I think it’s pretty well-known black people have contributed so much to music. With this being the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop something that you know, when it first started, was very kind of demonized, looked upon very negatively, and has become one of the world's most influential black, cultural arts, movements, and so really wanting to look at it from a multidisciplinary lens. Not just looking at the music, but looking at the art, the fashion, the culture, the politics. It has spawned so much it's so ubiquitous in our overall culture now. I mean so really wanting to give it its moment and to celebrate it, to have a party, but also to kind of celebrate all that it's done for our culture.

SFI: Absolutely , from Hip-Hop a lot of different sub genres have been created and so if it wasn’t for those pioneers we probably wouldn’t be able to have a lot of music that we have now. As an arts and entertainment consultant, what do you think is the most exciting or most rewarding part of the work that you do?

O: I think the most exciting part is the ability to be creative in the ways that we share art with our community. Art is so integral to so many parts of our lives, and being able to highlight different artists, art disciplines, art forms get people excited about them, and experiencing them in ways that they haven't before is always really exciting to me. I think that people learn so much about themselves through the arts and that they find their own creativity. You know we look at paintings, and we go: Oh, I'm not a painter! But then you might get inspired in the way you paint your house and the way you paint your nails, and the way you paint your face, you know, so I think that we carry art into all aspects of our lives. Being able to share that with our community is really exciting and rewarding. 

SFI: It’s an outlet for sure! And I think as far as African American culture, dating back hundreds of years that art has always been an outlet for us. How we have processed pain and struggle. The culture of being celebratory, I do think those celebrations come from our ancestors and what they used to do 

O: Absolutely, and I think we're not necessarily unique in this way. But we're definitely some of the forerunners in the way that we just incorporate creativity and art in all aspects of our lives. It's not something we just go to a gallery to do. It's not something we go to a theater to look at; it’s in our everyday lives, in the ways that we incorporate art. So just being able to kind of, you know, continue to share that and preserve traditions, and also teach people about these different things is really important.

SFI: What are some of the barriers or challenges in the line of work that you do and if you can think of any barriers, How do you tackle them, or how do you try to overcome those challenges?

O: Well, funding is always the biggest barrier, you know.It takes money to put on these kinds of programs, and oftentimes organizations don't see the value of supporting black arts and black arts organizations, which is why we were so excited to be able to partner with South Fulton Institute on this. Every bit helps, you know us to be able to do this work, and I mean, we can bring out all the studies about how exposing people to art does so many wonderful things for every aspect of their life, their physical health, their mental health. Their, you know, education and cognitive learning. It helps in all ways, but it's still a fight always to get organizations to fund this work. So that's always the biggest one, you know. So we just have to always kind of be out there beating that drum, reinforcing the importance of it so that we can get the funding that we need to do the work that we're doing. That's always the biggest one and figuring out creative ways to make these things accessible. Rapper's Delight, and all of our public programming are free and open to the public. You know, we wanna make these things accessible to all of our people, and the only way to do that is through funding. After you get past funding, sharing art with people is not a hard thing to do, but it just really is, how do we raise the money to be able to do it? Being exposed to creativity is so important, not just in your ability to be artistically creative, but in the ways that you solve problems in your life in the ways that you know meet challenges and obstacles.

SFI: Yeah, a lot of municipalities or people who have the money are focused on other things. Sometimes I don't know if they realize how integral art can be, because we always say like, we're a luxury, we're considered a luxury item. But maybe if we change the way that people looked at art and maybe if it was seen as more of a integral part of development of, you know, mental health and things like that which again like you said, there are studies that prove this but for a lot of people, some people, I think are, what in survival mode or at least wanting to give money to people who support social services. But even within that a lot of people who need, you know, food, shelter, and water, a lot of them. Also, if you provide arts to them, it could be a way for them to heal and to get through some of those things, because when you're basic needs aren't being met, there are some challenges that come with that that sometimes you need an outlet for and that's the reason why I definitely feel art is integral to a person's development, even if you don't become a grammy-winning artist, or even noticed for the art that you do. It’s something personal. 

O: Being exposed to creativity is so important, not just in your ability to be artistically creative, but in the ways that you solve problems in your life in the ways that you meet challenges and obstacles. So, in thinking about someone experiencing homelessness and their ability to figure out their life can also be tied to arts and things in that nature. So, it's making some of those connections. Dance is healing, and theater gives us a voice to talk about our lives and the challenges that we're having in our lives, and to look into other people's lives and learn empathy and problem-solving skills. Art is more than just this luxury that the Eurocentric culture has put it up as. For people of African descent, it's the way we figure out our world. And so, I think that that's really important to keep reiterating as we're out here looking for funding, and also, getting people to attend our events. It's really helping them understand that art affects every aspect of your life, and it can be another tool that you have to figure out your life.

SFI: Absolutely and because of organizations like yours and other organizations doing the work, I do feel like at some point we will reach a point where these municipalities and these organizations will see the importance. But I think it just takes, you know, doing it over and over and over again, and creating that culture. I'm sure in, you know, 10 - 15 years from now it'll look completely different to where now the arts is gonna be funded just as much as the sports teams just as much Stem

SFI: How does activism and arts intertwine in your world?

O: In lots of different kinds of ways. Artists are often the truth tellers in our culture. They're saying things through lots of different genres that people are afraid to say or can't say, for whatever reason. Art is at its finest when it's pushing boundaries, and it's making people think about things in new ways. So I think that it's kind of intrinsically tied into activism. It is projecting world view, and that worldview can be political if it's in opposition to the way the world is now or if it's imagining the way a world can be. For me, personally, I think that we can't really, or black people in this country are not having the luxury to be able to disentwine activism from anything that it is that we do. I think many people that find themselves in a position of being oppressed in some way or the other have to incorporate activism and an element of that in everything we do, whether it's overt or not. I think that it is an activist decision and approach for NBAF that needs money to say; we want our programs to be free. That is its own form of activism. Being able to say that we're giving grants to artists to do projects that allow them to do their full authentic self, that they don't have to do code switching. That this is not about selling your ideas to people who might not understand what it is that you're talking about. We're allowing you to do these projects and to say the thing you want to say. We're not censoring it in any way. So, there's a lot of activism, in this position and in arts organizations, and in supporting artists. 

SFI: Yeah, that's very true. And part of that activism is being brave enough to create those spaces. Because now there are certain divisive laws,  like this new Florida bill where they were trying to take out all the multiculturalism and things of that nature, so I think with that we see that there's an attack on People’s right to have spaces to be artistic and to be in their own groups. So I do think you're right. I feel like all artists, in a way, are activists in their own way.

O: Yeah, absolutely. When you look at what they're attacking, they're attacking a lot of education, but a lot of what they are attacking is art. It’s throwing out books, it’s banning certain movies that have quote unquote woke elements to them. So a lot of what they were coming after at first was art, because it has the power to teach in ways that are more powerful than what you might learn in a school. It gives you empathy to another person's life, and their struggles, and that is the opposite of what they want. They don't want their kids to have Empathy for repressed groups or groups who are other in certain kinds of ways.

SFI: Absolutely! Sometimes I do think in their own way that there are certain creators that put things like subliminal messages in their art, and they know the people who will get it will get it.  That is one thing I do love about it, because you can do it in such a way where the powers that be that don't want it to happen won't even know that you're actually educating the masses.

SFI:  Why is celebrating black music month important to you?

O: I think that celebrating black culture and all its forms is just important to me, that we have a whole month where we're able to celebrate black music, and its history in this country and its power and its impacts is a wonderful thing. And we should celebrate any time, especially coming off what we just discussed about the ways  a lot of black history is being erased. We have to hold on to these opportunities that we have to fully kind of celebrate and teach about who we are and what it is that we've done. Coming out of the history that we come out of,  our ability to create things that now are the signature for America. They are the soundtracks of this country. It is the biggest art form that's being not just celebrated here, but explored around the world. Black music has had huge global impacts. And so I think that anytime we get an opportunity to celebrate ourselves, and what we've done; I'm gonna take it. Anytime we get an opportunity to share our art with each other and foremost, to celebrate what we've done in our culture, but also to share that with the rest of the world. I think that's a wonderful thing. And so that's why I think black music has been really important and continues to be important.