About Damilola Ojikutu
OJIKUTU OLUWADAMILOLA is currently a 400 level student of English, Unilag. She is a Content creator and an Editor; and has interned at Youkreate as a writer, Certified by SBMEN as an Editor and as a content Writer by Redx, she is also a freelance blogger. Attached is a link to her blog page; @dammyojikutu_. She is the managing Editor and Poet Laureate Editor for TVOTRIBE.
Poet Laureate Interview with Damilola Ojikutu
Aanutomiwa: Hello! We’re glad to have you here. Can you please introduce yourself?
TVOTRIBE: I am Oluwadamilola Ojikutu, a final year student of English, University of Lagos. I am an author, content writer and editor. I am a managing editor and the editor for Poet Laureate at TVOTRIBE.
Aanutomiwa: Wonderful! You’re well aware that this conversation is about TVOTRIBE and the upcoming poet laureate?
TVOTRIBE: Certainly. I cannot wait for us to dive in.
Aanutomiwa: That makes two of us. So tell me, what does TVOTRIBE do?
TVOTRIBE: I’ll begin by answering this question with my experience with TVOTRIBE as a member. TVOTRIBE is a community for every creative. I’m certain that sounds cliché.
Aanutomiwa: It sure does.
TVOTRIBE: I said that because TVOTRIBE is a place where like-minded individuals can meet up to network, learn, and share opportunities. Now, working with TVOTRIBE, I see how we constantly strive to do a whole lot for every creative.
Simply put, TVOTRIBE is an afro-centric community aimed at providing a guide for every creative. If you are a writer, poet, photographer, any form of creative, we have built a community of people who do similar things and are ready to help you grow. Join us.
Aanutomiwa: Wow! That sums up a whole lot. A lot of individuals need to get someone willing to point out the way to growth to them.
TVOTRIBE: Yes, it will help speed up their growth and also help them avoid certain mistakes.
Aanutomiwa: What about the poet laureate? It was hosted last year, wasn’t it? How did it come about?
TVOTRIBE: Yes, we had one last year. We have another one coming up this year. You should watch out and probably register as a spoken word artist.
Aanutomiwa: I definitely will.
TVOTRIBE: The poet laureate is easily one of our biggest events as a community. Just as the Nobel Prize is bestowed on an individual who has done exceptionally well in a particular field, with the poet laureate, we seek to honour and crown an outstanding creative every year.
Aanutomiwa: Why the name poet laureate?
TVOTRIBE: Let’s simply say as poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by an institution or government, the person also bears the flag of the tribe for that year.
Aanutomiwa: As an individual, why should I register for poet laureate and not other competitions?
TVOTRIBE: The poet laureate compels you to put yourself out there as a creative. We encourage you to toot your horn, because why not? Our tagline is crowning the peoples’ most preferred poet. We post the works on our social media pages and also compile them into an anthology. We also mildly edit most of the entries with the writer’s permission of course.
Aanutomiwa: That is amazing!
TVOTRIBE: We have even more in stock for our winner like a feature on a radio station, cash rewards, awards, you name it!
Aanutomiwa: Any challenges so far?
TVOTRIBE: Goodness! The major challenge is funding because we want to be able to do more for our winner. We are open to partnerships this year and also moving to get grants.
Aanutomiwa: Hopefully, this works out. Are there age restrictions?
TVOTRIBE: Fingers crossed. No, there is no age restriction. Everyone is welcome to participate as far as you have a message.
Aanutomiwa: How then does the poet laureate advance the African narrative?
TVOTRIBE: Our themes. You should see our themes. We make sure that our themes border on heavy African narratives. For last year, we had “sankofa yenkyi”, a Ghanaian word from the Akan tribe that means “it is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.”
Aanutomiwa: Sounds intriguing! What about this year?
TVOTRIBE: We’ll unveil in due course. You have to join the waiting train.
Aanutomiwa: Oh cool! How about a brief overview of the last poet laureate?
TVOTRIBE: The last one was beautiful for me because I served as the lead editor. We had entries ranging from poetry to fiction to spoken word. It was very great and exciting. Most importantly, we were able to expand our reach. Three secondary school students sent in their entries for the competition. It was a large milestone for us most especially as one of the entries came with ‘we just want to try.’
Aanutomiwa: Beautiful! What should we expect this year?
TVOTRIBE: We aim to outdo ourselves. We will be going a hunch higher than last year.
Aanutomiwa: I can imagine.
TVOTRIBE: You actually cannot (laughs)
Aanutomiwa: I can wait then (smiles). Any final words?
TVOTRIBE: Thank you very much for having me and for keying into the vision of the tribe.
Aanutomiwa: Thank you for gracing us with your presence.