Conversations with Toluwanimi Obiwole

Today we’d like to introduce you to Toluwanimi Obiwole.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I immigrated to the US from Nigeria with my family when I was very young and grew up in Denver. I’ve always been an artist in many ways but the Denver poetry scene raised me and set me off. Exploring poetry allowed me to explore and expand. I became Colorado’s first Youth Poet Laureate in 2017 and since then have been published by Penmanship Books, Haymarket Books and others. As a storyteller, my center of gravity has always been my indigenous identity and connecting with the idea of home on many levels. Through a collective I started, Palm Wine Collective, I was able to begin exploring the stories and poems of artists in the Afro-diasporas and collaborated with the African arts collective, Paza Sauti Kenya on a virtual and eventually printed anthology series on African poetry. I started taking my other art forms such as visual and textile art more seriously around the start of the pandemic when I couldn’t perform poetry as much. Since then I’ve been a resident artist in Atlanta GA, and have lived in Costa Rica practicing cultural research and textile design. I spent the summer of 2024 back in my homeland of Nigeria, reconnecting with my indigenous tribe’s (Yoruba) methods of textile design and storytelling. This helped me birth my new business, Hecho IFE (hecho meaning made in Spanish and Ìfé meaning love in Yoruba) which features clothing, jewelry and textiles all hand dyed and made using my indigenous dye and crafting methods. This first ready to wear collection was designed and sewn in Nigeria during my time there.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been anything but smooth! As an eldest Nigerian daughter, my parents would have preferred that I chose any other career path than artist. At first, they supported my art so long as it was something I did on the side of my “real” career. Traveling the world and trying new things was seen as reckless and risky. My main obstacle has really been my own self-doubt. I love my parents and understand that immigrant life is not easy. Following “the rules” and not ruffling any feathers is seen as safe so I’ve seen most of my first generation Nigerian-American peers choose safe, traditional paths of success. They are celebrated and while I too have been celebrated in community, I am very much so the odd one out and have had to fortify myself so I don’t feel crazy. I am paving my own path and thus making my own rules for success. My confidence in myself is key and my biggest battle.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a multidisciplinary artist, storyteller and consultant. I craft stories and performances with cultural data and use my creativity combined with my ancestral knowledge to make dye works, tapestries, jewelry and more. While I am very multifaceted, I am most known for my poetry performances, mural art works and community organizing. There’s a mural on Park Ave. and Champa, on the side of the Akente Express Boutique that I painted with other beloved members of the Innervisions art collective in 2019. I’m proud it’s still there, representing a motherboard of many indigenous identities telling a beautiful collective story. Of course I’m also proud of starting my new business, Hecho ÌFÉ, a textile, design and clothing company that creates small batches of hand dyed goods and adornments made by me and and my team with some items curated from artisans in Nigeria. I know Denver is often looking for it’s cultural identity and truly it can be found in the people who have shaped this place into their home. I am bringing one African indigenous perspective into the mix that is truly unique but still part of the whole story of Denver.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is to never doubt my intuition. Everything we experience is the result of someone else’s dream. Why shouldn’t the world experience mine as well?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hechoife.com
• Instagram: @toluwaob

Image Credits
Images of me in white are attributed to Yemiblaq Photography