Story Story Time Time: Listening and Conversation with Funto Omojola and YATTA

Join us on Thursday, December 5 for the joint launch of If I Gather Here and Shout by Funto Omojola and PALM WINE by YATTA. This evening will include an improvisational performance by both artists, followed by a conversation with writer and radio host Riel Bellow.

In the words of Dawn Lundy Martin, “Omojola’s If I Gather Here and Shout is a fierce debut that worms its way right under the skin.” If I Gather Here and Shout summons Yoruba divinatory rituals into a hospital room. Incantatory verses accumulate alongside personal and historical “figures” of illness and death to illuminate the tensions between legibility and meaning-making that emerge when an ill Black body is processed through a Western medical context. With intimate knowledge of how ancestral memory aches and sings in the body, Funto Omojola invokes a lamenting chorus in the ceremony of survival.

YATTA’s PALM WINE is the product of years of travel, reckoning, and solitude alchemized into a joyful return to home, God, and clarity of mind. The record follows YATTA’s critically-acclaimed poetry album, WAHALA. PALM WINE, the album’s title, is at once a play on the traditional West African drink, the musical genre of the same name, and the folk music project, Iron & Wine. Through their research, YATTA learned that S.E. Rogie, a pioneer of the genre, was their granduncle. While PALM WINE is not a palm wine album in the conventional sense, it takes inspiration from the genre’s storytelling, lilting vocals, and slant towards levity, ease, and play. A departure from the poetic noise of YATTA’s previous releases, PALM WINE sustains an experimental spirit while delivering something new and expansive.

About the Artists:

Funto Omojola is a Nigerian-American poet, performer, and visual artist. They have received fellowships from MacDowell, Cave Canem Foundation, Millay Arts, the Poetry Project, and have done projects with Gladstone Gallery, A.I.R. Gallery, Silver Eye Center for Photography, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, among others. In addition, Omojola is the founder of PrayerRoom, a virtual asynchronous prayer circle and participatory art project.

YATTA (aka. ricky sallay zoker), is a Sierra Leonean-American vocalist, producer, and composer. Their playful approach to sound and performance is characterized by textural electronic sounds and rooted in improvisation, humor, and surprise. Over the years they’ve shared stages with a range of artists, like Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Cardi B, Laaraji, L’Rain, and The Sun Ra Arkestra. YATTA has performed in and presented installations at MOMA PS1, MOMA, MOCA, Issue Project Room, Roulette, Sonic Acts Festival, and The Kitchen. Their music has been reviewed in magazines like The Quietus, Pitchfork, and The Wire. YATTA is a former artist-in-residence of Pioneer Works and The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation.

Riel Bellow is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and radio host. She was raised between Santa Fe, New Mexico, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas MX, and Edmonton, Alberta. They have published work in Canada Art, ẹwà journal, Gender Fail, Vera List Center for Art and Politics, and elsewhere. Riel holds a BA from Pitzer College, an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School, and is currently a Guest Lecturer in English at Pomona College. Their radio show, HALT broadcasts weekly on KSPC 88.7fm/kspc.org.

Image: it's an honor to be here, here i am an honor, Funto Omojola, 2024