If you don't know...Gboyega Odubanjo
…Let me introduce you!
Gboyega Odubanjo is a poet and Creative Writing PhD student at the University of Hertfordshire, now based in Dagenham in London, UK.
I asked him some questions!
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HALEY: How do you describe your work?
GBOYEGA: Basically, I write poems that are reflective of the fact that I am a British-Nigerian born and raised in East London. What that means for me is that I am interested in writing about London, my Nigerian culture, family, music, religion, parties, pubs, and whatever themes or feelings that intersect with those aspects of my life. During this global Paco Rabanne I spend the vast majority of my days in my room working on my laptop, listening to music and staying hydrated. At night I watch romcoms.
HALEY: Who is your work dedicated to?
GBOYEGA: I think that my work, first and foremost, is dedicated to me. In my poetry I’m trying to imagine/reimagine/manufacture/etc a way of living in the world I am in or a way of constructing different, more suitable worlds. Also my work is dedicated to the people whose own worlds or stories I find myself a part of.
HALEY: What are some favourite projects you’ve worked on so far?
GBOYEGA: My first pamphlet, ‘While I Yet Live’, which was published by Bad Betty Press in 2019. My second pamphlet, ‘Aunty Uncle Poems’, which will be published by The Poetry Business later this year. And the work I do as an editor for the online poetry magazine bath magg.
HALEY: Where did you study or train? Or did you have any great mentors?
GBOYEGA: I did my BA and MA at the University of East Anglia, where I first studied English Literature and Philosophy and then Creative Writing. I am now doing a Creative Writing Phd at the University of Hertfordshire.
HALEY: What are you working on these days?
GBOYEGA: I am working on my first full-length poetry collection, ‘Adam’. In it I will be trying to write/present/create a world in which Blackness is the default, as opposed to something othered by, or subordinate to, whiteness.
HALEY: What artists do you look up to?
GBOYEGA: Fela Kuti, Drake, J Hus, Lex Amor, Kano, Omah Lay, SZA, Denzel Washington in Training Day, Thierry Henry, and Hector Bellerin.
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You can find his first pamphlet at Bad Betty Press & his second will be out in June with The Poetry Business. More can be found in various journals and magazines online.
You can also follow him on Twitter.