In this episode of Odejuma, Harry chats with Tolu Ekisola, a Nigerian-American artist and community organizer based in Minneapolis. In this conversation, she talks about growing up as a Nigerian kid in suburban Minnesota, navigating predominantly white spaces while carrying a whole world inside her, and what it took to move from that tension into purpose, from founding CAARE Production Company, building Yoruba language programs, and organizing community at the intersection of art and public health for the Black and Indigenous diaspora.

She reflects on why culture is worth preserving, what storytelling has healed in her personally, and what she means when she says she wants people to feel seen and cared for. "Our culture is truly unique and special," she says, and the way she says it makes you feel the weight of everything she's built to protect it. Because that's what love for your people looks like when it becomes action.

Connect with Tolu via the links below:

www.toluekisola.com

www.caareproductions.org

www.royalcoilsblog.wordpress.com

www.mixedblood.com/engagement

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Hi, my name is Hari Tye and welcome to Odejuma.

Odejuma is an ishakiri farewell that loosely translates to till tomorrow.

But for me, I look at it as a promise that there is so much more in life to look forward to.

And this interview driven storytelling podcast is rooted in that promise.

So as you take the time to listen, I want you to feel that as we go deeper with folks from across the Black diaspora, exploring the adventures, resilience, joy and the ordinary moments that change their lives to that you would have a good hearty laugh or you find something to sit with.

Because there is power in the stories of everyday people and these stories are worth telling.

Hi, welcome to another episode of Odie Jimmy.

My name is Harry.

I'm super excited that you're back and joining us.

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I'm super excited.

I'm on my guest today.

I have Tolu Ekishola, who's like a very brilliant artist.

Hi, Tolu, how are you?

Welcome to Odejuma.

Hi.

Hi everybody.

Hello.

This is so cool.

I'm, I'm excited to be here.

I'm excited to have you and I, you know, I, I've been following for a bit.

I think you're very, your work speaks for itself and I'm just really ready to dive in to get to know you a little bit better and to get our listeners to also know you some more.

So before we even start, how about you introduce yourself to the people?

Who are you?

What do you do?

Everything you're willing to share.

I'm loving it.

I'm loving it.

My name is Tolu Ekishola.

I am a Nigerian American artist.

I dapple in many things, but my heart is in organizing.

And I use my art as a tool to organize community members from the black indigenous African diaspora to move forward in democratic unity and find joy and peace and care in their daily lives and to build empathy for one another.

Awesome.

I love that.

I feel like I'm going to steal that at some point.

Take it, it's yours.

But yeah, you say you're a Nigerian American, right?

So there's The Nigerian experience.

You've been in Nigeria, grew up in Minneapolis.

What was that experience like for you?

Just from a.

Because I know that you might.

It had to be very interesting to say.

Yeah, to say the least.

I mean, I was.

I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and I grew up in a very privileged society.

I think, growing up.

Sometimes I look at my cousins back home, I'm like, wow, I wish I had the, like, toughness, like, the grit that they have me.

I'm soft.

Like, in fact, you asked me how I introduced myself.

I'm a softie.

I always introduce myself as a softie because I just grew up lush.

Like, I grew up in New Hope, Minnesota, which at the time was like, suburbia, and then moved into deeper suburbia, moved into Rogers.

And for those of you who don't know, Rogers is a very conservative area, and then went to undergraduates in Duluth, Minnesota, which is like, the very nice, liberal white people who are.

Who have never interacted with black people before.

And then.

And then, you know, going down to Irvine, California, which is another very conservative area in a very liberal state with a lot of wealth, with a lot of money.

I mean, just like, the story I always tell people is that the moment I realized I was in, like, I was in Utopia was this, like, day I drove from Target back to class, and I.

And I overheard a sound and looked up, and it was a flock of parrots.

Like, a flock of wild parrots.

Like, this is Utopia.

This is where people want to buy land and live.

Like, and you have to have the money to afford to live there.

I think growing up, I didn't really realize the extent in which, like, racism is ingrained into every single aspect of American society.

And that was just because, like, growing up and my Nigerian peers are not going to like this.

But growing up, you know, you're told as a Nigerian person, like, you're not.

You know, you're not one of them.

You're different.

And I really took that to heart.

Like, yeah, I'm special.

And I still believe that to this day that, like, the culture, our culture, our heritage is truly unique, is truly special.

You know, they're gonna.

They see me as black.

And I had to really kind of integrate my American identity into who I.

What.

How I see myself as just like a niger Bush girl.

Like, I.

In my opinion, it's.

You know, there's always a level of what we call diaspora war.

Sometimes.

Sometimes it is in good fun, but sometimes it unearths biases on all sides that people may have had of each other.

When, like you said, in general, we are all navigating the society as black people.

Nobody's going to know maybe when they hear you speak, but when they see you, they see a black person.

So how do you.

How.

How has your new found.

Because also you're sharing how you've grown up predominantly in white spaces all this time.

How has this shift changed how you interact and how you.

I mean, it's so interesting.

I have to, like, humble myself because I am a suburban girl.

Like, at the end of the day, I grew up in suburbia.

You know, I. I think it's, you know, we'll talk about this maybe a little bit later, but I think that's why I'm so passionate now about bringing Yoruba culture into language, specifically back into our.

Into our community, and really highlighting the importance of it, because I didn't, you know, the Minnesota Nigerian community is very vast.

Like, we are connected, and there's a lot of us here, and our parents did their best to raise us in the culture, and I really, really value that.

But one thing that wasn't as valued was our language.

And unfortunately, a lot of us can't speak Yoruba now.

And I think that's really disappointing.

I think that's.

That we.

That's something that needs to be remedied.

And so I think about myself as this Nigerian woman, and it shows up in the way I come into spaces.

I come in with that, like, culture and the pride that my parents taught me to have in myself and the rootedness that I have in myself.

And I have to acknowledge that, you know, I'm not fully one, I'm not fully the other.

I'm a little bit of both.

Okay.

I like that.

Holding both identities simultaneously.

You know what I'm saying?

That is pretty cool.

We know you a lot from your arc for the artistic practice.

Right?

Theater is your main medium.

Where did you discover that theater was way.

We're going to use to start to engage with.

With the arts in general.

Yeah, I grew up dancing, and it was like a lot.

You know, one thing I'm realizing now is that I kind of went through life just like, one thing into another, kind of bouncing into one thing into another.

And I was encouraged a lot by my mentors and theater professors and teachers and pulled into spaces like, you need to be here.

You need to be here by people who had come before me.

And so I just kind of like, went with the flow until I realized that actually I really enjoy the storytelling, the aspects of figuring out how to integrate the story into the experiences that we're having right now.

So that's when I started writing and wrote my first play in grad school and, you know, was given the opportunity to produce it on the main stage, and the complexity came in.

At that point, if I'm just going to be very honest, it was like, I don't want these white people to own my work.

So I was just like, I. I think I'm going to self produce.

And so as I'm kind of entering into this new phase of my life, I'm realizing that I see a lot of value in ownership and in having full control of my own work.

And there's some pros and cons to that.

If I were to tell somebody that I'm mentoring, I would say, you know, you have to find a balance and, you know, take away your ego a little bit.

But I really think that, again, these stories that we have in our.

In our culture, like Borla di Mari, like, there's just, you know.

Well, they should, like all of the stories that we have from our.

Our roots, from our culture, even, like, the aspect of, like, Nigerian movies, like, we all grew up watching Nigerian movies and the drama.

But, you know, what was.

The story was always lit.

Like, this story was always on point.

The production value.

Okay, well, they didn't have the resources.

Yeah.

But their stories.

Yeah.

So I just.

I love that.

I love.

I love idea.

You know, my dad was a radio host in Nigeria.

He was the founder of.

I don't even remember the.

The name now, to be honest.

Radio.

Excuse me.

So he was.

He founded OG Radio.

So he's always been like, you know, I can think about when I was 4, and he was like, okay, you're going to record the voice message, you know, the home message for everybody.

So he's always been encouraging of, like, the artistic work that I've been doing.

And, you know, my mom is very big into traditional weddings here in Minnesota.

She's like the main Alaga in the.

In the state.

And so.

Shout out to your mom.

Shout out to my mom.

I love my mother.

She's the best.

And so I think the arts were always encouraged.

My.

My brothers, you know, are into music.

My.

My eldest brother is an amazing writer, an amazing lyricist, poet.

Just everybody in our family is very creative.

So I think on one end, they were like, you know, lawyer, doctor, engineer.

But I think really they were, like, encouraging the arts.

So the arts basically is like.

It's like in your blood, basically.

Yeah.

Okay.

Shout out.

For sure.

For sure.

Yeah.

Well, you talked about, you know, you got formal trading for, you know, University of Minnesota Duluth, and, you know, you design for your MFA as well.

What has those experiences to get, like, formal trading in your artistic practice?

How has that influenced you and your work moving forward and how you, like, own your voice through that process?

Yeah, I think I would have been less radical, like, if I had not gone to.

If I had.

I was already working as an actor before I got into school.

But, you know, you're Nigerian.

Like, your parents are not going to let you just go off and do any kind of thing.

So.

So.

So they were like, you have to go to school.

I took a year off after school.

I was like, no, I'm just going to be an artist.

And they're like, so they made me go to.

If it was up to me, I would have never gone to.

I would have never gotten a higher education.

I would have just gone up and done theater.

And if I'd taken that path, I think I would be a completely different person.

I would just.

I would be an artist and just, like, very unaware, I think, very privileged in the fact that, like, my connections have built something for me.

And maybe I'd be in New York and, you know, I would have had an entirely different kind of artistic life.

But because I went through the education path, I saw a lot of inequities, and I had to also stand up for myself in a way that I think had I gone the other path, I would have had, like, those mentors and people.

Like, that path was the path of people just kind of stood up for me and, like, made way for me.

And in this path, I really had to make way for myself and what I truly believed in and one of an amazing writer, Bianca.

I'm not gonna say her last name right, Noah.

I don't remember how you say her last name, but she kind of said that, like, in her writing, she noticed that there is a structured kind of way that the Western world sees writing and that outside of that structure, it's almost as if it's invalid.

And so a lot of the ways in which I saw the world and some of the things that I was passionate about in terms of, like, just equality and just, you know, how do we identify ourselves as human beings?

How do we care for one another?

How do we see kind of the hardships that we've gone through and integrate psychology into the arts, into, you know, just figuring out how humans work?

It was like, no, we want you to be a commercial product, and that's great.

But I realized it wasn't really what I was into.

And it almost felt at that point like my work wasn't valid.

And that was hurtful, and it was a little confusing.

And I, I, I wasn't expecting that.

I definitely thought I'd go into an educational environment and have the room to explore and try different things.

And it really, I think theater education was, like, kind of pumping out, pumping out a specific kind of artist that I just wasn't.

Oh, wow, that is so.

That is so interesting to learn.

You know, also, the first time I'm having that perspective, looking back at that journey, you know, it feel, it feels.

It sounds very bittersweet for you, or am I reaching in that, in that regard?

I mean, it was fine.

It was fun.

I learned and I grew, and I went a different direction.

I think I still use all the tools that I gained.

I just use them in a different way.

So I still, you know, I'm still a musical theater nerd.

You know, I still love the crap, But I.

But it just made me realize, I think as a whole, outside of education, even as a whole, any industry, I always try, I always try to give the caveat that this is in any industry, But I can only speak from my experience.

But in the theater industry, I mean, theater is based off of vaudeville.

Vaudeville was based off of minstrelsy.

Like, we can't not acknowledge the root of the industry that we're in.

And because of that, I often felt like a, I mean, clowning.

I love, I love a good clown, but I didn't feel, I didn't feel that there was enough of a holistic picture of black people.

Like, a lot of the shows that I was part of or saw were all these, like, enslaved kind of, like stories.

And again, I'm in Orange County, California, right?

And this is like the privileged of the privileged.

Some of the most expensive real estate, you know.

You know, Real Housewives, Orange County, y'.

All.

Never seen that.

That was the og like, yeah, yeah.

Like, the privilege of the privileged.

And I'm on stage trying to, you know, as an artist, bare my soul, tell them a story, tell them what's really going on, how we feel.

And at the end, I could just, like, the glaze in the eye, like, you can't.

You don't see me at all.

What did I just do that for?

I just exposed myself, and it felt gross.

It felt like I was being used.

And so I think, as I look again at the larger industry, I think, how can I create space for us?

Like, how do I create that space?

How do I share our stories in a way that, like, even.

What's the movie that just came out?

The Somali movie that's at MSPP right now, the film festival?

I don't even know.

Npr.

Yeah.

You know what I'm talking about.

I know.

Yeah.

Like, they were just like, why are we seeing all the movies?

All the Somali movies are just like, you know, these war stories.

Like, we just want to be.

Like, we fall in love and we have a good summer, and, like, we just want to be people and be seen as normal people.

And those are the stories that I felt more interested in telling.

And I realized that I had.

I felt like I had to make them myself and write them myself and produce them myself.

And so that's kind of where I'm at.

Okay.

Okay.

So I'm guessing that led you to CARE Productions.

Can you talk a little bit about CARE Productions for us?

Absolutely.

CARE has three core goals.

We want to clarify the intention behind criminalization.

Why do people go to jail?

What is a criminal?

We want to improve the education system as a whole is entitled to a decent education and why.

And we want to clarify the benefit of environmental well being, that there's a connection between people, the water, the earth, and that we are being helpful and conditional stewards of those resources that we've been given.

And so we do that through the arts and through the humanities, and we do that through community building.

And so Eko Yoruba, this Yoruba language class is my way of, like, starting where my roots are.

We know how to move forward if we don't know where we're from.

And it's another form of community building.

I've been gone from Minnesota for how long?

Duluth, in fact.

Most of my peers, most of my Nigerian peers, they grew up in Brooklyn park, in Minneapolis.

Me that I was in Rogers.

When was the last time they saw me?

So it's like 10 years, 10, 15 years that I've seen.

Some of my people I grew up with, we went to, you know, Nigerian parties together.

We went to birthdays, anniversaries, graduations.

Like, we saw each other all the time.

You know, I haven't been around, so this is my way of like, hey, guys, I'm back.

I want to reconnect.

I love you guys.

I'm here for you guys.

I want to be around.

I want to be somebody that you can depend on.

And so this is my way of proving that.

Awesome.

Are your folks still in Rogers?

That's a little bit of a sidebar.

I'm just out of curiosity.

Or is everybody now?

Yeah, my mom.

Like the Twin Cities?

Yeah.

Yeah, my mom is still in Rogers.

My dad lives in Nigeria full time, so that's nice because I get to go over and hang out whenever I want.

Okay.

Okay, cool.

I know part of, like, you mentioned Eco Ede Yoruba as one of the things that you're trying to do for community building, to, you know, talk about, you know, Yoruba culture a little bit more right now in.

In the Twin Cities.

How would you say your relationship with your black culture has evolved as someone who, you know, it's a very different experience.

Right.

If you're not living in Nigeria or not living in a place where your culture is the main culture.

Right.

In this.

So you.

But you.

I know you grew up around the culture right here, but also, it was also a very different type of engagement.

Right?

Yeah.

As an adult, how has your relationship with that culture evolved?

And how is that influencing the work that you're going to be doing with Ecowede?

You're back.

I mean, I think so.

I think one misconception.

I, like, I've never been to Nigeria.

I go to Nigeria every two, two years.

Like, every two, three years, I go to Nigeria.

Like, I'm back home all the time.

And the thing is, like, my family, we don't come from my mom, you know, my mom's dad was like, a teacher.

My dad's dad was a.

What's it called?

A business owner.

Like, he owned a small shop.

Like, we go to the bush.

Like, we're in Ekiti.

We're in Lagos.

Like, we're not in Victoria Island.

You know, we have family there.

But really, when I go home, I go and I. I'm in the bush.

Like, I'm in.

I'm at home.

And so one part of that is, like, I still look American.

I still look American.

So my, you know, they're like, if you're going outside.

Make sure you walk around with your cousins.

Slowly, over time, I've started to be comfortable walking around.

But I'll tell you a story.

One time I was in at my dad's house, and I went to go and get like a Coca Cola, and this guy was like, wow, where are you from?

And I was like, oh, I'm.

I'm from up north.

I'm from north.

I don't know anything about how Zealand at all.

I was like, yeah, I'm from north.

He's like, wow, where North?

I was like, oh, you know, you.

You will know it.

He was like, oh, where'd you go to school?

Did you go to school?

I was like, yeah, I went to the school.

He's like, what school do you go to?

I said, oh, you know, it.

I just lied.

Just lie.

Because, you know, for me, as I would say for me as growing up here and not, you know, go and visiting, still, you know, it's still.

It's still touch and go.

Yeah, yeah.

But I will say that overall, the older I get, the more pride I have in my Yoruba language and culture and the more I want to connect with it.

Because I think.

I think growing up here in the US is like, I have.

That I have a grasp of, and it's difficult sometimes.

I'll even say it's hard sometimes to navigate spaces that are not fully Yoruba.

Like, I do feel more comfortable in spaces that are full Yoruba because I know I can be my free self because we're loud, we're expressive, we're, you know, all of these things.

And I have to kind of pull back in.

In other spaces.

But then that's different from being in black American spaces.

I mean, it gets very complex.

It's different from being in black American spaces, different from being in completely white spaces, et cetera, et cetera.

But I will say that I think a lot about.

I was having a conversation yesterday with the person that I'm with right now, and I was saying, like, what do you think about, you know, what would having kids look like?

And why.

Why do you want to have kids?

Like, I've been thinking a lot about that lately.

Why do you even want to have kids?

Because it just seems like the thing that you want to let you do, you know, just like the correct next step.

But, like, why?

Thinking really about, like, is it just because it's what I'm supposed to do?

When I think about that, I also think about, like, how I think it has to be More than just passing on material things, like, you don't just have kids so you can pass your junk on to the next generation.

But what I do think about the next generation, I think about how embarrassing.

Honestly, this is what I think, to be honest.

I say I think it's embarrassing if our kids have no tie to their language, because we don't have a direct tie to our language.

Like, how embarrassing for us as people who came here.

For me and my story, like, we came as, you know, political refugees, because, like I said, my dad was a radio host, and he was.

During the time of Obasanjo, he was saying things about, you know, telling the truth about the political atmosphere, and he was targeted, so he had to leave.

And, you know, my parents made a huge sacrifice to come to the United States.

And so in honoring the sacrifice that they made, I didn't have a choice.

I was four years old.

I didn't have a choice about whether or not I moved to the United States.

But that doesn't mean.

That doesn't mean that I can just let slip by this, like, hearty part of who I am and where I'm from and what I'm rooted to.

And so I think as I get older, the more passionate I feel about the fact that we have to be stewards, and we can't just, without thinking, let go of this important part of who we are.

And I think.

I think we're all feeling that way, especially since, like, Afrobeats is becoming cool.

I think Afrobeats really did that for us.

Like.

Like, you have to learn the lyrics.

Otherwise, like, yeah, yeah, you can't claim it, you know, and it feels cool to know the lyrics at the club.

So, like, they did that for us in a way, too.

Whiz kid, even Debanj back in the day, like, they all did that for us for.

For a while.

But now it's on us.

Like, nobody else is going to.

Nobody's gonna come in.

Nobody's coming to save you.

Nobody else can make you put that investment into yourself and into your community in that way that's on you to do.

And I don't say that in, like, a judgmental way, like, at all.

It's really more like a how are you going to steward this gift that you've been given?

And I think about it that way.

In a gift that's pretty interesting.

I. I look at it very from a very interesting perspective also because of.

I feel like a lot of the many cultures in Nigeria, whether it's Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, or I like me, Uruboi, Shakiri, the smaller ones, the bigger ones.

Through colonialism, everything kind of shifted.

Right.

And so the parts of who we are have merged into, whether it is Judeo, Christianity, or through Islam or through just globalization.

And our.

Our cultures keep changing and keep shifting and talking about how we got to be steroid.

There are little pieces that we still got to hold on to.

Right.

Of our culture.

Language is very important.

I mean, pidgin is not the default.

Everybody just defaults to pigeon, which I kind of like.

Low key.

I like it too.

Yeah.

But I think that there is, like you said, there needs to be a little bit of intention behind holding on to those pieces of your culture so that it doesn't really shift.

And even.

Just even being in.

Being living in the US and seeing.

I think I learned it from African Americans a lot.

You know, African Americans holding on to black American culture because it's been so commodified, it's been so appropriated by everybody, and everybody's profiting, profiting off this culture, you know, and so I see how you go to New Orleans or you go down south, and you see folks holding onto elements of their culture regardless of, you know, what society thinks.

And I know it's just really nice to see the black.

Everybody in the black diaspora is doing their best.

Right.

To hold on to the thing.

So being stewards, really, I really connect with that piece of what you said.

And I'll even say that, you know, cultures shift, and that's okay.

The issue becomes when they shift without intention, they just shift thoughtlessly.

I was listening to a TikTok the other day about.

This guy was talking about how, you know, how religion was, how the colonization of Yoruba religion and Yoruba, like, deities made.

Kind.

Made the Yoruba deities, like, demonic and.

Yes.

And so we then grow up Christian and say, oh, that's just demonic.

And we don't actually interrogate.

Like, why would they say that?

What.

What are these deities?

And even if we don't, like, why do we learn about the Greek gods?

Why are the Greek gods cool?

But then, you know, it's seen as demonic and witchy and whatever.

It's.

It's just something that has to be interrogated.

Yes.

Because I feel like even learning about issue and how ISU is not the devil, you know, so that is something, you know, that is something that, you know.

It was a trickster.

Yeah.

Yes, it was a trickster God.

So it's like all these things that you Think, you know, but because of, you know, like I said, everything.

Ball.

You know, it's just very interesting how colonization, white supremacy, it's just something that is just very.

The effects are everywhere.

You can't just take it out of history.

How we move.

It's just so deep.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

The air we breathe, the water we swim in, like, it is everywhere.

It's everything.

It's just so much.

You have to.

I feel like we have to be very intentional in how we are.

I don't want to say maybe decolonizing is the word.

Right.

But we have to be intentional in just how we just interrogate.

Like, why do we do things that we do?

You know, Because a lot of that is rooted in some of these systems.

And this, that.

That.

That is said to erase our contributions, who we are, our history, our culture, which is why your work is important in being, like, stewards of that, you know?

Yeah.

I appreciate you saying that as well.

Yeah.

And even.

I mean, a little larger than that even is like.

It's a system of, like, manipulation and control.

Like, everybody is.

It's not just black people that are affected by white supremacy.

White people are affected by white supremacy.

Everybody is affected.

As long as you are being kind of like, I'm beat.

Like, where's my tinfoil hat?

Because I'm a complete conspiracy theorist.

Like, as long as you are just, like, accepting everything as truth.

I think that's why I also had a hard time in college and didn't want to go to college, because I know I have issues with authority.

Is like, you can't just tell me something and expect me to believe it.

Like, I have to go and look at for it myself.

But anyway.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right now you're also the manager of community organizing at Mixed Blood.

Yeah.

And the work that Mixed Blood is doing, how.

How is that going for you?

But also, how are you managing that with your own personal work and your own personal artistic practice?

Yeah, it seems like a lot to kind of, like, balance out sometimes.

It's a lot.

It's a lot.

And I'm sure you know, too, Harry, like, you're doing a lot, a lot of.

A lot of good things.

But we're all doing.

You know, we're all trying to balance everything.

I love mixed blood, honestly.

Like I said, I'm a huge softie.

And mixed blood just has a.

The space that we're in this building, the people, they just have a way of, like, really letting you be seen.

For example, my boss the other day was Just like, totally, you're a black woman.

Like, people are gonna try to run over you and talk over you, and you have to stand your ground.

That was the first time a person in authority has ever, like, validated that I am a black.

Like, that life is different for me in business as a black woman, and encouraged me in that way.

And so I was just like, let that be the audience's experience of mixed blood.

You're seen here, you're valued here.

They don't take anything lightly when it comes to treating their artists well.

And the work that I do is like, super integrated into what I do.

In fact, I think I got this job because of care, because I was already doing the stuff with care and they're like, well, you're already like building community, so come and do it here.

The work that I do is really just like, connecting.

We have four pillars here.

So similar to care, Mixedblood has like, affordable housing, racial equity, healthcare.

You know, they have these specific pillars.

Climate, resilience.

And so I connect partners in the community, businesses, organizations, individuals with mixed bloods, work.

One thing that we're doing that's really cool right now is we have a play coming up called the Pasture.

There's so many cool things, but I'll talk about the Pasture.

So the Pasture is a play on affordable housing, and it's set in a church, and there's a bunch of different people there who are experiencing housing insecurity for several reasons.

And the pastor there is having a hard time of letting go of the church.

Meanwhile, a bunch of developers are coming in, trying to convert the church to shared workspaces, to housing, to an independent, to just like one person's house.

Like, a mix of developers are coming in hoping to take that space and reuse it.

And it's a conversation about, like, how is affordable housing actually accomplished?

Like, literally, like, what are the statutes?

How much financing does it take?

What are the complexities in terms of zoning?

So Mixblood is using this play with partnerships with organizations like Clare Housing, MSP or MPS to give the public actual information that is going to be useful and clarifying for why we don't have affordable housing.

Because it's actually so expensive to convert a house, convert a space, than to just like build new and so, and then engaging those partners in conversation to then move policy forward.

And so that's what I get to do all day.

And I really like it.

Shout out to that.

That's pretty cool.

Shout out to me.

Shout out to mixed blood.

I know you mentioned that this is You're.

You're soft.

You're a softie.

But I also want to add, what does joy look like for you in this season that we're in right now?

Oh, my goodness.

Peace.

Lord Jesus.

I have had a very tumultuous life from moving to minutes soda.

I haven't stayed in one place for more than five years.

In my whole life.

In my whole life, no more than five years.

So how long.

How long have you been in the Twin Cities for now?

And I've.

Since, I mean, like, I haven't lived in one place still.

Like, I moved from, you know, my apartment in south Minneapolis to I bought a house in north Minneapolis, and now, you know, I'm living with my man.

Man, man, man, man.

And renting out that house.

And so, like, but.

But I'm like, finally figuring out how to slow down and settle.

Because me, I'm just like, very adhd.

Like, have to do something.

Have to do something.

And learning to just, like, peace.

To just, like, do less.

Yeah.

Except, you know, a large part of that too is, like, wanting to prove myself.

Like, the arts don't get enough love.

They don't get enough respect.

And so part of that is just like, you guys, I'm doing good work and like, being very like this.

And I.

And I. I think just like, you know what, the work I'm doing is great.

I'm enough.

Life is good.

I love the people around me.

I love my people, and my people love me, and that's enough.

And so I'm very glad to be in that state of life.

I think I really respect and admire, and I know this, this term is, like, very controversial nowadays because of TikTok.

But sometimes I'm jealous of people who are just, like, loved and just like, feel very comfortable in their own skin and are just very, like, easygoing and it feels like things are very easy for them.

And I'm realizing, I think in therapy, shout out to therapy, everybody should go.

I think I'm realizing that just like I need to.

And I think we all are right in the public kind of zeitgeist, realizing that we need to do more introspection and figure out, interrogate why.

Why we're jealous of people, why we have these, you know, like, negative feelings and why we don't just create the world that we want for ourselves.

And I think a part of that is just like the pressures that we feel to impress and the pressures that, you know, social media Creates in terms of, like, everybody's living the perfect life, or so it seems.

And really just, like, cultivating what your life looks like for you without having to prove or show it.

And sometimes that's hard.

The quiet life in this day and age feels hard.

It is.

Yeah.

I think.

Yeah.

That's the struggle that I go through personally, but I get it.

I get it.

Yeah.

Thank you for sharing that.

I appreciate that, actually.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

So before our final question, we have some rapid fire questions we want to hear from you.

The first one is, what are three songs that are on your playlist right now that you really, really love?

Well, obviously, I'm in this place.

I'm listening to Tercha all the time and Heather Robinson.

I'm not gonna remember that lady's last name, but the music is so dope.

Come see it.

Regina Spector's on that list.

And of course, Ashake.

Okay, okay.

Everybody loves Ashake.

He does, like, really, really great stuff.

What is your favorite theatrical production ever?

Okay.

It needs to be retired, but it's rent.

Like, we can't do rent anymore.

The time has passed.

The kids don't get it, like, but I do love the music.

I mean, it's so the.

The song that always gets me is the.

How does it go?

It goes this nightmare.

It's just such a bop.

I. I am sure that Rich is gonna be around for a while.

No, no.

Because I think that everybody wants to be retired, but a lot of people seem to love the love, Red.

It is.

It is discovering it.

So, you know.

Yeah, it's true.

It's true.

Yeah.

What is it you're about?

Word or phase that you wish more people knew?

I feel like this is very common, but I wish more people used it.

And it's mabinu.

I love mabinu.

Like, on one hand, mabinu means, like, don't be angry, or, like, I'm sorry, or, like, my bad.

But I also love of the Yoruba culture that, like, a simple accent could change the meanings.

My binu is, like, fine, be mad, or you, like, might be new, which is like, I'm sorry.

So I love the duality of purpose.

Okay.

Okay, cool.

What is your guilty pleasure right now?

Going to Burlington.

I can't go to Target anymore.

We're boycotting Target.

And so I feel like Burlington has the same vibe.

Like, it has little cute trinkets.

It's kind of.

I mean, you would think for a consignment store would be cheaper, but it is not cheap over There.

But they have cute stuff.

Stores don't be consignment.

They don't be consignment.

Everything is even vintage.

It's not vintage anymore.

Nothing.

Listen.

But that's my.

That's my guilty pleasure.

What a tie.

But.

Shout out to Burlington.

Shout out to Burlington.

I know.

What is one word for where you are right now in your life?

Rooted.

I would say rooted.

Yeah, I love that.

I love that.

Now, for.

For folks who are going to be experiencing you for the.

Your work for the first time, the work that you're doing in community, whether that is through equity you're about, or through your theatrical work, just organizing in general, what do you want them to feel and experience when they encounter.

Encounter your work?

I want them to feel seen and cared for.

I think, again, we don't.

So right now, I think one big push that I would ask for community members is to learn about story circles and go and do a story circle in your community.

The reason I say that is because we are not used to just being seen, like giving space and time without comment, without opinion, just like five minutes to share what's on your mind and nobody gets to comment on it.

I think the idea of being seen as vulnerable and that sometimes the idea of vulnerability is associated with weakness, but there's so much strength and power in vulnerability.

And I want people to feel okay being their fullest and truest selves with me and in the work that I do.

So valued, cared, and seen would be the things that I. I try to give into the community.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Well, thank you, Tolu.

This has been such great conversation.

Yeah, thank you.

This has been awesome.

I learned a lot.

It's been very rooted for me.

If I could take.

If I could borrow your words, I really enjoy getting to.

Getting to know you, and I hope our listeners have enjoyed getting to know you as well.

What projects do you have?

What can.

Where can folks find you and check you out?

Yeah, I mean, the best place is probably to.

I don't be posting much anymore about what's going on in my life, but I would say I'll try to do better at posting what's going on on my Instagram.

You can follow me.

You know, I pop up on TikTok here and there, same username.

And then, you know, look, check out some of Mixedblood's engagement work and you can follow them at Mixbud Theater and look at their website as well.

Oh, and then I will say, I probably the best way right now to keep up with me is through my blog and that's Royal Coilsbyte and the website is very complicated, but I'm gonna say the whole thing anyway.

It's www.royalcoilsblog.WordPress.com and I just be posting everything, everything that's going on.

I do a vlog every couple of months, share a little bit about my perspective on the industry, a little bit of my work and, and just kind of vibe and keep up.

It's something I'm doing kind of as a passion project, as a hobby.

But I love writing, so you can keep up with me there.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much, Tolu.

We very, we're very much appreciated.

We appreciate you and your work and community and for folks who listen to us, we really appreciate you for checking out this episode.

I will leave out all the links to Tolu's work in the description so you can check it out.

Don't forget to follow wherever you listen to your podcast and also on YouTube if you're watching us live right now.

Thank you so much for watching and listening.